Abstract

DURANDT, C.; SMIT, E.v.d.M.  and  DU PREEZ, N.D.. Exploiting deterministic maintenance opportunity windows created by conservative engineering design rules that result in free time locked into large high-speed coupled production lines with finite buffers. S. Afr. J. Ind. Eng. [online]. 2016, vol.27, n.2, pp.132-146. ISSN 2224-7890.  http://dx.doi.org/10.7166/27-2-1370.

Conservative engineering design rules for large serial coupled production processes result in machines having locked-in free time (also called 'critical downtime' or 'maintenance opportunity windows'), which cause idle time if not used. Operators are not able to assess a large production process holistically, and so may not be aware that they form the current bottleneck - or that they have free time available due to interruptions elsewhere. A real-time method is developed to accurately calculate and display free time in location and magnitude, and efficiency improvements are demonstrated in large-scale production runs.

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