As with all types of industrial machinery, cranes require regular maintenance to ensure they operate safely and efficiently. Maintenance at specific intervals is also required to adhere to manufacturer warranties, and it can also be necessary to satisfy insurers.
While there is no doubt that crane maintenance is essential, there is a need to prepare for any tasks so that the impact of any downtime is minimised as much as possible.
Metreel supplies cranes to businesses across the UK and beyond.
In this post, our crane experts are here to share their top tips on how to plan crane maintenance tasks when there is also a need to consider the impact on your workforce and overall productivity.
Outline Shift Patterns & Crane Usage
Every good plan starts by outlining all of the details involved. With crane maintenance, the key things to look at are when shifts are taking place and also when each crane is in use.
From there, you can identify opportunities for maintenance to take place based on any idle hours or slower production periods.
In short, this exercise is about identifying all of the blocks of time throughout the year that would cause the minimal amount of disruption if machinery were taken out of use. It also provides opportunities to create alternative methods of getting any tasks or projects completed during the times when key pieces of machinery are unavailable.
Identify Maintenance Priorities & Align Them With The Most Suitable Timing
With any blocks of time that are going to be used for maintenance, it’s essential to use the time wisely based on what the priorities are.
Crane maintenance comes in three main forms including critical maintenance, planned preventative maintenance and on-shift tasks.
These can be summarised like so:
On-shift tasks:
- Visual inspections
- Lubrication
- Sensor checks
- Minor adjustments
- Housekeeping (rails, hooks & wire rope cleaning)
Best aligned with: During low-load periods or shift overlaps.
Planned preventive maintenance (PM):
- Brake inspections
- Gearbox oil changes
- Electrical cabinet inspections
- Load testing (if required by regulation)
Best aligned with: Slower periods, night shifts or planned outages.
Critical maintenance:
- Hoist motor replacement
- Structural repairs
- Control system upgrades
Best aligned with: Planned shutdowns, holiday periods and major project milestones.
To get an idea of when each of the above maintenance tasks needs to take place, refer to your crane warranty or liaise with your manufacturer. From there, you can structure each task as it needs to happen, including daily tasks through to the more intensive maintenance work, which will require lengthier shutdowns.
Build Redundancy Into Crane Coverage
Sometimes, it’s just not feasible to have a complete shutdown of your operations, especially over a longer duration.
The idea of redundancy is that another option always exists. This can involve rotating cranes so that one is always available, using secondary lifting equipment during maintenance or cross-training operators to shift cranes quickly.
At Metreel, ensuring your business has the required lifting solutions at all times is certainly something we can help you with. Please contact us today to find out more.
Co-Ordinate With Your Wider Team Well In Advance
Since this post is about factoring in shift patterns and downtime for crane maintenance, it pays to think beyond the crane to also consider the wider impact on your business.
Maintenance tasks should never come as a surprise to your wider team, which is why even minor maintenance projects require effective communication well in advance.
Every business has its own way of working and indeed communicating. But some helpful ideas to keep everyone in the loop about upcoming maintenance include publishing a maintenance calendar, locking maintenance windows into production plans and involving supervisors in any scheduling.
Track Downtime To Continuously Improve
Downtime isn’t something that can always be avoided entirely with crane maintenance, especially when safety needs to be prioritised.
That said, there may be learnings which can help reduce the impact for future maintenance tasks. For instance, looking at the planned vs actual downtime, the impact on production and any root causes of overruns.
Collect data and use this information to refine maintenance timing, adjust shift co-ordination and improve task sequencing.
Are Your Cranes In Need Of Replacement? Talk To The Experts At Metreel
During crane maintenance, it may become apparent that your existing crane is nearing the end of its lifespan. Additionally, crane maintenance in itself can highlight vulnerabilities in your operations, especially if productivity is negatively impacted due to a lack of material handling equipment.
Metreel specialises in various crane types including overhead cranes, bridge cranes and workstation cranes.
Our team can work with you to ensure your cranes offer the capacity needed for your business.
Give us a call on 0115 932 7010 or please send us a message to discuss your crane procurement needs with us.