For manufacturing facilities, the conveyor belt is the circulatory system of the entire operation. Carrying the products you make from raw material to end result, the conveyor system plays a vital part of the manufacturing process, but maintenance budgets often go towards larger, more prominent, or more expensive pieces of equipment.
Of course, there is a reason for this, conveyor systems are typically reliable and have a long useful life; a properly maintained system can give you years or even decades of service. Knowing this, if your conveyor system goes down, your entire manufacturing process comes to a screeching halt. Downtime on a conveyor system could result in thousands of dollars lost per minute. Even worse, an extended downtime could end in your ability to fulfill orders, damaging your relationship with customers.
Over time, many things could happen that bring about a change in conveyor system. Here are some reasons that you may need to make a change.
Preparing for Increased Demand
While you may be entering your busy season right now, planning for next year is around the corner. If you expect that you will be growing in the near future, changing the mix of products you produce in your facility, or reconfiguring your floor layout, it’s likely you will need to retailor your conveyor system to fit your facility.
It’s likely that you’ve planned for these changes and are taking steps to make a move. As a leading provider of production machinery and a wide range of services for manufacturers (site engineering, consulting, fabrication, and more), we work with companies just like yours to plan, design, and implement solutions that help your business to do more and do it faster.
Replacing Aging Machinery
While initial conveyor system costs may be high, proper maintenance will allow you to extend the life of your product. As you continue to use the product, it begins to pay for itself and the longer it lasts, the less it costs over time.
Normal Wear and Tear Adds Up
Increased potential for failure is one of the many reasons that it may be time to make a change. Just as it’s rare to see a car with 300,000 miles on the road, it’s rare to see production machinery push past 20 years. Even with pristine maintenance, motors can only turn so often, belts get worn down, and each rotation pushes the entire system closer to failure.
It Becomes Harder to Find Replacement Parts
Technology changes, and while you may think that not much has changed in the materials handling world since the last time you installed a conveyor system, it has. As with the car example above, it becomes harder and harder to find parts at an affordable price. With aging machinery, the same holds true—parts become harder to find for a decades old piece of equipment. The combination of two factors—higher likelihood of breakdown and lower availability of parts—results in higher costs for your facility. Of course it’s likely that you have stock on hand of critical replacement parts, but this depletes as time passes.
Efficiency Becomes a Concern
With advances in technology, companies are finding that they can move materials more affordable than ever. Continued improvements in technology allow manufacturers to reduce operating costs by selecting more efficient conveyor systems. This should factor into your decision as you look to upgrade, as certain applications could see massive energy savings—offsetting the high capital costs of making a switch.
The Case for New Machinery: Easier Maintenance, More Reliability
There is nothing easy about a capital equipment purchase, especially one that will require not only money but downtime during installation. However, as time passes, the costs of keeping your production machinery running begin to add up.
New production machinery is more efficient, reliable, and flexible, providing technological advances that help with maintenance and save money. At The CMM Group, we provide our clients with a wide range of custom equipment that works for your unique needs. By combining our extensive field knowledge and experience with our industrial engineering services and product development skills, The CMM Group can provide custom Production Machinery to meet a variety of industry specific needs including food grade machinery, roll handling equipment, conveyor drives & end stands, web coating & winding machinery.
We invite you to learn more about what to expect during the custom equipment consultation process, understand why a custom solution will save you money in the long run, and contact us for a free consultation.
