Today we're going to start another five part series based on a White Paper entitled "Four keys to keeping your plant runnin". This topic is of great interest to plant managers in all industries. I hope you find this interesting.
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Plant managers, faced with ever-smaller budgets and ever-increasing competitive pressures, may fail to put a thorough maintenance plan or process in place. What they may not realize is that, for process automation as well as production equipment, a well-planned and executed maintenance program will produce a measurable return by ensuring maximum uptime, reducing overall costs and, most importantly, contribute to the safety of the people, plant and processes.
Especially today, as manufacturing processes are increasingly integrated with, and managed by, process automation, a key part of maintenance is directed towards automation systems. What is required is a consistent focus on activities designed to keep their plant running reliably through appropriate attention to their process automation.
Specifically, this entails focus on four key areas of activity:
- Identify appropriate demand services
- Ensure parts availability
- Provide necessary training
- Conduct ongoing preventive maintenance
Check back next week for more in this series on keeping your plant running through a dedicated focus on automation system maintenance. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on this topic.