How to Reduce the Cost of Broken Measurement Equipment

Hello folks,

Recently we have a lot of measurement equipment broken in the workshop,it's a lot of cost,but there is not existed any indicator or procedure to reduce it, can anybody talk about how do you do on this subject?

Thanks in advance.

Re: How to reduce cost of broken measurement equipment

slack157 said:

Hello folks,

Recently we have a lot of measurement equipment broken in the workshop,it's a lot of cost,but there is not existed any indicator or procedure to reduce it, can anybody talk about how do you do on this subject?

Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

Can you be more specific?

• Type of measuring equipment?
• Application-what is it used for?
• Kind of damage?

Then, I am sure our members can respond and come up with possible remedies.

Stijloor.

Re: How to reduce cost of broken measurement equipment

Stijloor, those are excellent clarifying questions.

In general, it sounds like some reliability management may be helpful to you. Whatever cycle you currently have for preventive maintenance on the equipment (it may be maintenance or calibration) may not be adequate, and needs to be shortened.

Also, (trying not to read too much into this) it seems like a bit of a concern that you have a "number" of broken instruments. Why are they broken? Is it operator problems, or are they being used for the wrong application?

So in general, here are my three recommendations:

1. Assure the equipment is proper for the use
2. Verify that the users are properly trained for the equipment
3. Assess the mainentance cycle, and see if it needs to be shortened

Hope that helps.

Re: How to reduce cost of broken measurement equipment

Basically,most of them are broken by operator error,especially there are a lot of expensive and precision equipment,Hardness tester, roughness tester, and so on.

I can't do anything except exchanging new ones,i just want to have some rules or discipline to reduce the cost.
look forward to further comments.

Re: How to reduce cost of broken measurement equipment

slack157 said:

Basically,most of them are broken by operator error,especially there are a lot of expensive and precision equipment,Hardness tester, roughness tester, and so on.

I can't do anything except exchanging new ones,i just want to have some rules or discipline to reduce the cost.
look forward to further comments.

Click to expand...

How competent are these folks in setting up and operating this type of equipment? Have there been operator competency and evaluation criteria established? Perhaps a good training program including lots of hands-on followed by an evaluation-test by demonstrating competency?

Organizations spend lots of dollars on equipment and virtually nothing on training.

If you can not do anything directly, it becomes a top management issue.

Just some thoughts.

Stijloor.

Re: How to reduce cost of broken measurement equipment

If i understand, exclude the training concern, what i can do is to demonstrate the numbers of cost with root cause to top management to drive this issue up.

Re: How to reduce cost of broken measurement equipment

slack157 said:

If i understand, exclude the training concern, what i can do is to demonstrate the numbers of cost with root cause to top management to drive this issue up.

Click to expand...

Yep! Not only the cost of additional calibration/repair/replacement, but also costs associated with possible incorrect measurement results, delays in inspection, shipping product, etc.

Stijloor.

Re: How to reduce cost of broken measurement equipment

Stijloor said:

Yep! Not only the cost of additional calibration/repair/replacement, but also costs associated with possible incorrect measurement results, delays in inspection, shipping product, etc.

Stijloor.

Click to expand...

Thank you, we don't even start on that, is there some example of good practice on that? i don't know how to calculate yet.

Re: How to reduce cost of broken measurement equipment

slack157 said:

Thank you, we don't even start on that, is there some example of good practice on that? i don't know how to calculate yet.

Click to expand...

Some information on the Cost of Quality (COQ) can be found here. Look at the various posts and attachments.

Some "self-help" work on your part is required...

Stijloor.