Unscheduled downtime is a negative contributor to any company’s bottom line. It impacts production, sales, customer satisfaction, and of course company revenue. Senior management in most organisations would recognise it as an issue and yet it appears as though unscheduled downtime is simply thought of as a phenomenon that has to be accepted and happens in every industry across the entire world.
According to a recent report by Siemens in 2023, unscheduled downtime costs Fortune Global 500 companies a staggering 1.5 trillion dollars in lost revenues, or about 11% of their annual turnover.
Unplanned downtime occurs across every major industry. As one insightful commentator put it, ‘Unscheduled downtime is an equal opportunities problem’. It is estimated that over 80% of companies have experienced at least one unplanned downtime in the past 3 years. Of all the companies polled, 70% did not have a full knowledge of when important pieces of equipment were due for scheduled maintenance or replacement. Of course, the cost of an unscheduled breakdown varies according to the industry, the length of stoppage and the remedial costs. But one fact is certain; the cost of breakdown goes way beyond the cost of replacing the components. Some reports put the average cost of unplanned downtime at $250,000 per hour and $2 million per event. With so many companies operating on a basis of JIT, then damage to supply chains and reputation must be considered and can prove more costly than the simple loss of production. As a result of this, more companies than ever before have ‘zero unplanned downtime’ as a number one goal.
One of the key challenges to any maintenance manager is identifying potential breakdowns before they happen. In recent years many tools have become available to assist engineers to predict failure in key items of plant hence enabling preventative maintenance to be carried out before catastrophic failure takes place. Thermal imaging cameras are capable of detecting hot spots in gearboxes and bearings whilst more recently, through quantum leaps in technology, acoustic cameras have saved companies huge amounts of revenue by detecting faulty components and inefficient operating systems.
FLIR Teledyne, formed in 1978 is a world leader in the development and marketing of thermal and acoustic imaging cameras. Since then, they have supplied almost every industry around the world with market leading cameras and instruments representing the latest technology.
Building on the highly successful Si124 launched in 2021, FLIR are pleased to announce the launch of a new acoustic imaging camera, the Si2. With an improved frequency range of 2 – 130kHz the camera can detect minute leaks from air systems, ensuring maintenance can be carried out at an early stage before production is adversely affected. Those hard-to-reach areas of plant, such as elevated compressors or simple transfer lines are no problem for the FLIR Si2 with it’s built in lighting system and huge 100+ metre detection range.
Over the years, many production plants have simply accepted compressed air leaks as ‘the norm’ and at best, a minor irritation. But as any production director will know, with energy costs continuing to escalate, compressed air is expensive. A well known compressor manufacturer has estimated that the average leakage rate is about 25% with some plants losing about 80% of their compressed air through leaks. Any air or gas escaping through leaking joints is a false economy and directly impacts the bottom line.
To make life easier, the FLIR Teledyne Si2 camera not only detects leaks in air systems, but thanks to built-in advanced software actually calculates the financial implications of the identified leaks.
To find out more about the FLIR Teledyne Si2 acoustic camera and other products in the extensive FLIR Teledyne range of predictive monitoring tools please contact your local agent or distributor.
