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Manufacturing plant: machines, compressed air and forklifts

Example: Northgate Precision Manufacturing, a machining plant in Cleveland with 14 CNC machines on two shifts. Rachel Foster is the plant manager, Tom Walsh the maintenance lead. The compressors are maintained by Brightline Facility Services. The companies and people are fictional.

Inventory: what stops the line​

  • One location, Northgate Plant 1 — Cleveland, with the systems CNC Machining Cell A, Compressed Air, Material Handling, Electrical — Plant and Fire Safety — Plant.
  • Equipment with brand, model and serial number: Haas vertical machining centers and a lathe (spindle, tool changer and chip conveyor as sub-equipment), two Atlas Copco screw compressors and a dryer, a Toyota forklift and a Demag 10-ton overhead crane.
  • Tags: Critical to production (a stop halts a line) and Lockout/tagout required (energy isolation before any work). Tags show in every list, so a technician sees the lockout requirement before opening the work order.

→ Equipment and sub-equipment, Tags and files

Weekly PM on the machines​

  1. Form CNC Machine Weekly PM: way lube level, coolant concentration (%), chip conveyor cleaned, spindle warm-up done, air pressure at the machine (psi), notes. The readings are number questions so they can be charted.
  2. Recurring work order CNC weekly PM: once a week, early morning before the first shift, assignee Tom, target +1 day.
  3. Tom fills it in at the machine. Over time, form statistics show the coolant concentration and the air pressure at each machine — a drifting value is visible before it becomes scrap.

Daily forklift pre-shift checks​

OSHA expects forklifts to be examined before each shift. Northgate put the check into kommuns:

  1. Form Forklift Daily Pre-Shift Check (an Inspection form): forks, chains and mast; brakes; horn, lights and backup alarm; leaks; hour meter reading.
  2. Rule: once a day, 5:45 AM, target +2 hours.
  3. A "No" answer is a finding: the operator writes it in the notes and the maintenance lead opens a repair work order.

→ Recurring work orders

Compressed air with a service contractor​

  1. Rachel invited Brightline and gave it Service Contractor — System Maintenance on the Compressed Air system only; Brightline sees no machines, no crane, no other system.
  2. AC-2 tripped twice this week on high temperature, AC-1 is carrying the load — Tom reported it as feedback on Air Compressor AC-2.
  3. Rachel turned it into the work order AC-2 high temperature trips (priority High, assignee Brightline). It arrives in Brightline's Incoming Work Orders next to its hotel customer's jobs, and James forwards it to a technician.

→ Working with an expert company as an owner

Planned shutdowns​

The summer shutdown week is a company calendar entry. The weekly PM rules exclude it; the big overhauls planned for that week use it as their selected dates.

The result​

  • Tom starts each day with My Work Orders — PM, pre-shift checks and repairs in one list, or in the calendar view.
  • Rachel sees what is overdue on the critical machines at a glance and has the history of every machine for audits and customer quality reviews.
  • The compressor contractor works in the same work orders — no separate reports, e-mails or phone calls.