As part of its operational support role, Croxley Stationery’s engineering department has created a card system at the company’s Avondale plant, which is lowering the amount of time lost through equipment failure.
Tom Connor, manufacturing manager at Croxley Stationery says, “The engineering group as part of their lean manufacturing development programme wanted a system that would give them early detection of equipment failures and equipment at risk of failure. We also wanted something that would give us historical trends of failures, allowing us to intervene early, kind of preventative maintenance. We also needed something simple to operate. The engineers developed a green and red card system.”
When something requires repair, or changing that would help the performance of the equipment or the surrounding process, machine operators raise a green card. The operator reaches agreement on the card with the area supervisor and it is given to the maintenance manager. The machine operators raise a red card when they experience equipment or process failure and they stop the equipment. The supervisor signs this and takes it to the maintenance manager immediately.
Connor says, “Given the size of the site it’s important that we have visibility across all areas and equipment in terms of breakdowns. This system gives us the opportunity real time to re-act in line with manufacturing priorities and the re-allocation of labour across the site. It gives the maintenance manager a clear assessment of workload, allowing them to react accordingly in consultation with the production group. That is, we agree on the priorities and we have no surprises.”
He concludes, “The logic is clear: the more green cards you raise, the less red cards end up being issued. You fix issues by early intervention and before they become a problem.”
