How Warehouse and Distribution Systems (Conveyor systems) are being designed for Maintenance Presented by: Matt Brayman Dematic Corp. Global Product Manager Conveyor & Sortation Sponsored by: Nathan Slider - Schneider Electric Software Solutions Specialist 2014 MHI Copyright claimed as to audiovisual works of seminar sessions and sound recordings of seminar sessions. All rights reserved.
About CSS Conveyor & Sortation Systems is one of MHI s 18 product specific industry groups. CSS members represent the industry s leading providers of conveyor and sortation systems. Our goals: Work closely with end users to communicate needs, benefits and applications of conveyor and sortation systems. Act as a catalyst and liaison between related MHI product groups and associations. Maintain a membership representative of the industry. Promote the general welfare of the industry. Provide a market driven forum for material flow solutions. Collect, compile, disseminate and exchange information and statistics which may be helpful to the membership. Prepare and distribute educational materials for the academic community.
Matt Brayman Dematic Corp. Global Product Manager Conveyor & Sortation
Who is the customer when the equipment needs work.. Education: Typically an Associate s degree or 1-2 years of vocational technical training preferred. HS diploma or equivalent required. Specialized skill training/certification typically required. Key Responsibilities: Performs semi-complex work within technical or paraprofessional area. Effectively identifies problems as they occur and takes appropriate steps to solve them in situations for the following types of equipment: Convey/Sort and IS technologies up to 50 models of equipment in a typical system Lift Truck Maintenance Overhead crane maintenance Work station repair LPA s System communication network Equipment electrical infrastructure Fabrication capabilities
Currently a shortage of skilled maintenance techs as a result of a number of factors..
The Result.. Design For Maintenance Shortage of highly trained techs in rapidly growing networks. Inexperienced tech s are expected to be Jack of all trades and be able to address repairs on many different types of equipment. Equipment knowledge is leaving DC s due to the competitive market for this skill set. Automation is a growing trend in NA DC networks. Tribal Knowledge is no longer an acceptable method of communication on best practices. The risk of downtime continues to increase as equipment technology gets more complex.
What can we do as equipment and solution providers to mitigate this risk. Products and solutions have a number of different DFM attributes that define its reliability and customer satisfaction. Today, DFM stands for Design for Maintenance! Lets talk about 7 DFM principles that positively affect product attributes: 1. Intuitive design KISS its great to have a very thorough service manual it s even better when the equipment is so simply that it isn t required 2. Accessibility 3. Predictability 4. Redundancy 5. Tools 6. Elimination of maintenance 7. Input from the experts
Intuitive Design.. Design For Maintenance Some of the best questions we can ask ourselves in every design review: What does the tech need to know for them to fix this potential failure mode? The first goal should always be that an auxiliary manual is not required. Are wear components fast and easy to replace? Where possible design for standard tool clearances around all attachment points. Minimize the number of components for each function and the number of fasteners required to achieve the repair/replace function.
Intuitive Design cnt d.. Design For Maintenance Is tribal knowledge required to efficiently repair equipment, is there a trick to this? Design and apply service labels that include critical instructions in close proximity to the items requiring attention. Quick reference guides in installation/service manuals to minimize research phase of repair. Leverage technology provide mobile apps and devices to provide service instructions/videos to the tech. How many of us here use youtube videos to help us perform daily maintenance tasks. Validate! Perform repair/replace time studies in controlled environments during design phase to leverage constructive feedback from in-house maintenance individuals design improvements accordingly.
Accessibility.. Design For Maintenance Typically individuals that use their hands on the job, have big hands! Is there enough room in the space we are providing for someone to manipulate tools and components during the repair Be mindful of trying to optimize equipment footprints that there is room in the control panel to work! Is access to critical wear items efficient? Design efficient access: leverage ¼ turn fasteners, spring loaded mechanisms or easy to manipulate features to decrease MTTR. If this function is critical to the DC operation, can we modularize the function and offer a quick replacement module for repair on the bench? When possible design divert functions so that a spare can be swapped out and PM/repair work can be completed without a critical timeline.
An example of applying DFM principles accessibility Pop-up wheel divert bucket in a strip belt sorter design goal is to allow tech s to change a divert out for PM s on the bench without breaking the strip belts.
This design is over constrained and does not provide good accessibility. First the top plate must be removed (4 bolts), then 16 fasteners which secure the module to the side channel need to be removed to drop out the divert.
By making a very simple change, the top plate is now secured to the side channel and keyed to the lower divert bucket. Now only 4 bolts bold the divert bucket to the channels.
The divert bucket can now be removed quickly without breaking the strip belts.
Redundancy.. Design For Maintenance One angle Leveraging distributed drive technologies in products such as cross belt sorters and linear sorters. This mitigates the risk of having the unit stop functioning because of a drive failure. Typically these sorters can run through normal operation hours and be repaired off production shift.
Redundancy.. Design For Maintenance Another angle. If you have redundancy of failure points in critical areas, design functional components as modules that are quick to replace. Ex Gapping unit removable belted zone.
Predictability.define the risks, address through PM Identify through design FEMA s the potential failure modes of components. Accurately define the expected life of wear components Test wear components to failure: In-house component life testing. Customer Beta testing. Use RELIX software to calculate equipment life. Develop preventative maintenance guides with recommended replacement according to data.
Predictability.accurately control the risk by leveraging knowledge Software Visualization and Monitoring
Tools, Tools, Tools! make sure that the tech never has to go back to the crib to get another tool. Identify and leverage standardized fasteners used throughout technology suite to minimize the required standard tool set. Offer metric and Imperial options of product so that Imperial or Metric systems can be engineered and installed depending upon the region of operation. Design custom tooling that minimizes the repair time for unique designs and incorporate these tools into the orderable hardware assemblies. Mount custom tooling to the equipment (ex: spanner wrenches). Create orderable tool sets that have a storage location designed into the equipment (ex: SL2 sorter).
Ex: custom tool design that significantly reduces the time to get into a shoe sorter.
Eliminate lubrication significant reduction in PM time in a system. Eliminate chain drives leverage HTD technologies in drives and distributed drives in sorters. Implement sealed for life bearings
Engage the experts include maintenance techs in prototype builds and solicit feedback on design improvements
Nathan Slider - Schneider Electric Software Solutions Specialist
Maintenance Challenges for Material Handling Systems Desire to achieve maintenance & energy savings Reduce system downtime while increasing reliability Multiple equipment vendors with independent proprietary software No means of reporting on the total facility system performance No means of monitoring operations ability to maximize the output of the material handling solution
Principles of Maintenance & Operational Practices Detection: Using preventive and predictive technologies to inspect, detect and then correct small defects before they can become costly repairs Restoration: Restoring equipment to optimal conditions Prevention: Preventing small defects from becoming major problems by correcting them before they become repairs costly
Take a Strategic Approach to Operations and Maintenance Focus on minimizing your risk, and reducing downtime: identifying potential areas of risk and ensuring that you have the necessary skills and resources to quickly address any potential events as they occur includes developing a complete picture of all your installed automation equipment at the machine component level.
Visualization A complete Monitoring and Visualization Solution (MVS) provides distribution centers with real-time visibility to the plant floor. View systems realtime such as conveyor status, lane capacity, alarm faults, energy data etc.). You Can t Manage What You Don t Measure.
Maintenance Methodology Steps to optimum performance Visualization Reporting /Analyze data Provide real time alerts Energy Management Actions used by Maintenance Define Measure Analyze Improve Control
Visualization (Drill-Down) Maintenance & Operations have drill down data visibility with intuitive navigation
Reporting /Analyze data MVS also provides a very powerful set of reporting tools to help the maintenance staff analyze data Reports / Dashboard: Motor Status, Conveyor Availability, Energy, Recirculation Analysis, etc.
Reporting /Analyze data (Drill-Down) Total Downtime Total Number of Faults E-Stop Counter Jam Counter
Data Alerts & Alarms on the plant floor equipment (e.g. motor statuses, jams, missing pins, etc.). Provide Real-Time Alerts to Maintenance Staff Equipment Filter Alarms Correlated with Video Feed PTZ cameras to Pan Tilt Zoom to the exact location of the alarm fault (example: Fire door jammed with boxes, or jam due to a mechanical
Energy Management Visibility helps Maintenance Prioritize Visibility to the power quality and consumption of the incoming power. Motor Faults due to Power Quality Occurrence / Direction of Power Fault (Upstream / Downstream) Downtime Reporting resulting from PQ Issues.
All of this MHS Management Data is available at your fingertips with Mobility Solutions!
Summary Conveyor Equipment Intuitive design Accessibility Predictability Redundancy Tools Elimination of maintenance Input from the experts Control System Total view of your operations to provide optimal process performance Review Operational practices vs MHE capabilities Increase asset utilization Create baseline benchmarks for future improvement initiatives Maintenance Management optimization steps is key: By leveraging Central Data: Visualization Reporting /Analyze data Real time alerts Actionable Energy Management data
AGiLE Business Media, LLC Autoquip Corporation BEUMER Corporation Carter Control Systems, Inc. Cinetic Sorting Corp. Dematic Corp. Flexible Material Handling Hytrol Conveyor Company, In Intelligrated, Inc. Interroll Corporation Intralox, L.L.C.. Lenze Americas Pflow Industries Ralphs-Pugh Co., Inc. Rockwell Automation Control Systems Schneider Electric SICK, Inc.. Southworth International Group, Inc. SpanTech, LLC TGW Systems Wildeck, Inc..
For More Information: Carmen Murphy, MHI Managing Executive cmurphy@mhi.org www.mhi.org/conv