After spending years addressing hydraulic components in Minnesota for area businesses, M & M Hydraulic Company still discovers that contamination is the primary culprit for problems with these devices. Sometimes it is a matter of workplaces being organized enough to address equipment maintenance, and other times, it is a lack of awareness of how contamination is affecting tools and equipment. If you do not have a contamination control policy, now is the time to design one. Here are seven advantages you will enjoy from this effort:
- Better productivity: Controlling contamination in hydraulic equipment maintains their efficiency and reliability. It is also vital for assuring these machines run at all. System failures result in downtime, which means no production and earning. That is why performing this vital maintenance improves your bottom line.
- Fewer repair bills: Approximately 80 percent of system failures happen due to contamination and poor filtration, which shows the seriousness of this problem. If you can control contamination, it will affect the frequency of repairs. Since travel, labor and parts all add up for each call, avoiding them automatically saves you money.
- Equipment lasts long term: Capital investment becomes expensive, and this is especially true with manufacturing. The best way to preserve heavy equipment and avoid replacement costs is to maintain it. With hydraulic items, this includes controlling contamination. That is the issue most likely to bring down your valuable capital, so make addressing it a priority.
- Increase revenue: Less downtime means completing more projects. That increases revenue to your business. Also, missing deadlines due to breakdowns will turn customers away from you, which similarly does few favors for your profit margins. Taking time to monitor contamination is an investment, but it is one that will pay for itself. Being able to keep your promises goes far in this world, so take steps to assure that happens with each customer.
- Better employee morale: You have earnings goals, and employees want to earn wages. Equipment failure makes both needs impossible. Even if employees are paid as they wait for vital equipment to work again, the big rush to finish projects and meet deadlines after repairs is not fun for anyone. No one wants a work environment where they have no time to complete their jobs and the pressure is immense. By maintaining your equipment, you help employees finish work on time and feel better about coming to the shop every day.
- Improved efficiency: When you become familiar with the best settings for controlling contamination, you will operate your equipment more efficiently. This enhances work speed and helps manage hydraulic fluid better for improved performance.
- Discover shortcomings before they become failures: The best aspect of a contamination control policy is awareness. You will usually detect problems before they cause a failure, and that allows you to take a problem solving approach rather than a reactive one rooted in fear, stress and hoping repairs are completed on time. If you notice patterns where there is more contamination than usual or find that filters consistently fail, you can address those problems and assure continued operation.
For help with hydraulic components in Minnesota, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, contact M & M Hydraulic Company.