Thermal Imaging Automaker Avoids Damages and Saves Costs

The Cost of Contamination
September 3, 2018
The trouble with the varnish
September 4, 2018

Thermal Imaging Automaker Avoids Damages and Saves Costs

Challenge
One large automaker’s predictive maintenance program seeks to save money
by avoiding expensive damages in favor of otherwise routine maintenance
and repairs.

Corrective Measures
Regarding preventative maintenance, FLIR infrared cameras are very powerful
tools in a manufacturing environment where most electro-mechanical equipment
not working at an optimal level show inconsistent heat signatures than
equipment that does. This is especially true at the Powertrain Engine Facility,
where FLIR IR cameras have been utilized for this very purpose.

Cost Savings Description
Preventative maintenance is usually scheduled during convenient downtimes
and swiftly handled whereas equipment replacement after failure cuts into
business production and often lengthy in time due to safety issues and additional
damages to equipment after failure.

At a particular facility the maintenance team identified an unusually high temperature on a V8 engine track chain, commonly understood as a sign of friction. The team quickly found the source of the problem to be the automated grease system which had been empty. $65 dollars for labor and a refill on grease saved the plant an unimaginable amount had the problem been left undiscovered. The estimated costs including 136 hours of repair labor at $45 per hour, 1,072 hours of lost production labor at $39 per hour, part costs of $32,430 to replace 4600 links of chain, $750 for new drive chains and $20 for grease total to about $81,078. If, however, we add the cost of lost labor production for the two shifts (2,100 V8 engine units) total in the range of $1,000,000.

Dramatic savings are achievable from regular
preventive and predictive maintenance in large
manufacturing facilities.

Results

By eliminating large scale
maintenance overhead costs,
this automaker saved nearly $1
million dollars

Thanks to preventative maintenance aided by FLIR IR cameras, this automaker
sees more profit due to the near elimination of large scale maintenance
overhead costs.
In this one example alone, the program saved the company nearly one million
dollars.