Three key factors required of lifting equipment in production and manufacturing facilities are reliability, safety and reduced downtime. The days of fixing a crane component after it breaks are long gone. It is simply an unaffordable and impractical way to maintain critical and hard-working equipment. Preventive maintenance is not a new concept, but the cost and safety savings that it offers are immeasurable.
Konecranes and Demag, global leaders in the supply and maintenance of lifting equipment offer Preventive Maintenance Programmes that will keep a customer’s equipment on track, safe and with minimal downtime thereby increasing uptime. These programmes are not just for Konecranes and Demag equipment, they offer the same standard of preventive maintenance inspections to crane and lifting equipment of any brand.
“Those with critical or process cranes, standard cranes and light lifting equipment used in production who want to benefit from safe and reliable production processes will see the benefits and advantages of our preventive and predictive maintenance options no matter the brand of equipment” commented Ian Grobler, Sales Manager for Konecranes and Demag South Africa.
“Konecranes and Demag believe that prevention is better than cure, and while regulations state six-monthly crane inspections suffice, our three-monthly Preventative Maintenance Programmes ensure that all the lifting components are analysed for general wearing, component condition and performance. This eliminates risk of a potential component failure or breakdown that can occur within the six-month regulatory inspection period. This reduces equipment downtime not only in the short term, but also in the medium to long term, which minimises operational costs” said Grobler.
What is the Preventive/Predictive Maintenance Program
The Preventive/Predictive Maintenance Program has been designed to improve equipment safety, productivity and sustainability through systematic applications of preventive maintenance inspections, compliance inspections where applicable and routine maintenance. The benefits are numerous and include:
• reduction of downtime and increase reliability
• safety and production risks are documented and recommendations for corrective actions are provided
• recommendations for improving the safety, productivity, application or useful life of the asset are provided
• includes frequent and periodic inspections to satisfy regulatory requirements thereby keeping your lifting equipment fully compliant
• contributes to maintenance planning and decision making with inspection and maintenance information available on yourKONECRANES.com customer portal, at any time on any device
• operating data from TRUCONNECT provides insights into crane usage
Grobler said “Our Preventive Maintenance Programme also embraces smart, data driven maintenance via our MAINMAN Planned Maintenance option which utilises visual inspections and maintenance work to help satisfy manufacturers’ maintenance recommendations. This type of maintenance is based on time and usage and helps maintain equipment performance and availability”.
Online, App and Remote Connectivity
Konecranes and Demag offer a suite of online, App and remote connectivity services for equipment information data in real time to their customers.
- yourKONECRANES online portal gives you quick and easy access to your crane maintenance information. Usage, maintenance data and asset details are linked, giving a transparent view of events and activities over any selected time interval. Aggregated data can be viewed, analysed and shared quickly, for a single asset or an entire fleet. It can be accessed at any time from any place.
- TRUCONNECT is a suite of remote service products and applications to support maintenance operations and drive improvements in safety and productivity. It is an important building block in delivering Lifecycle Services in Real Time and the foundation for our Predictive Maintenance Programmes and is linked to the yourKONECRANES customer portal.
TRUCONNECT additions include brake and wire rope monitoring as well as oil analysis, critical component and design life analysis.
- Konecranes CheckApp for daily inspections has been designed to help crane users quickly and easily record their findings when performing pre-shift and/or pre-lift inspections. It gives you a digitalised and cost-effective way for recording and retrieving daily inspection data that can be used for internal auditing and compliance.
“Our sole objective through our Preventive Maintenance Programme is to ensure that crane and lifting equipment components are optimally maintained, no matter the make. That they perform reliably, safely and compliantly. The cost of a component break and the resulting disruption to plant and personnel safety as well as to the manufacturing or production process is enormous compared to the small investment into a Preventive Maintenance Programme that we confidently offer – no matter the brand” concluded Grobler.
