Effect of Preventive Maintenance on Machine Reliability in a Beverage Packaging Plant

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of preventive maintenance on the reliabilities of devices in a bottling plant. Six months of real-time maintenance data were analyzed quantitatively. Based on the breakdown events obtained for each machine, mean time between failure (MTBF), mean time to repair (MTTR), and failure rate (λ) values for individual equipment are calculated. The bottle packer, empty bottle inspector (EBI), and palletizer are identified as the plant's critical machines. A breakdown analysis (BDA) is then performed on the bottle packer and from the failure mode of all the reoccurring problems affecting this machine as a result of ineffective PM. An autonomous maintenance (AM) team is set up as part of establishing an effective PM program to improve the reliabilities of the critical machines that were continually falling. A significant reduction in machine breakdowns is observed after two months of rolling out the AM program. As a result, the reliability of bottle packer increased from 55.30% to 70.80%, while EBI and palletizer increased from 89.20% and 87.20% to 92% and 90.50%, respectively.