Here are dozens of ideas to help you boost productivity at your in-plant without straining your budget.

By Raymond J. Prince

Increasing Productivity of Older Equipment

Can it be done? Sure it can. There are some easy ways to accomplish this.

The first thing I would to is light up the piece. Putting in additional lighting has many advantages. Now we all can see the dirt. Likewise we can see where the problems are. Getting the foot candles above 125 on the equipment and over 180 in the areas where you are inspecting the work has some real advantages.

Next clean and paint the equipment and the area around the piece of equipment. After that, have the manufacturer of the equipment visit and inspect it for parts replacement and a tune-up. While the manufacturer is there ask for a little training of employees. Finally you should then begin slowly increasing production speeds.

In one plant I took this approach with an older piece of equipment. It caused a problem for the rest of the plant. The other employees wondered why they were being left out of the cleanup effort and equipment improvement effort. What a wonderful problem to have—employees asking to have a cleaner and more efficient place to work.

THE MOST productive plants I have seen have not accomplished high productivity by paying high wages. They have accomplished it by eliminating every cause of low productivity. Here are some of my observations and suggestions.

Look first at the storage of raw materials and incoming work. Are they stored in a controlled area that is properly heated, air conditioned, clean and free from damage from lift trucks?

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Raymond J. Prince

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Raymond J. Prince has served the industry for 60 years as a printer, student, association executive, and now as an industry advisor and consultant. Ray can be reached at: raymondjprince@aol.com

Improve Productivity Without Spending Money