Cleaning revealed as main cause of production downtime

Time taken to clean machinery has been revealed as the main cause of downtime within UK production, with over half (52 percent) of companies polled citing this as their main frustration, according to a poll by peristaltic pump manufacturer Watson-Marlow Bredel.  With machinery downtime representing one of the greatest losses in production and revenue, it’s important for manufacturers to be able to look for ways to minimize the time that equipment is out of use.

Along with cleaning, 24 percent of companies cited faulty machinery as a main cause of production downtime and 13 percent claimed human error. Encouragingly, only 7 percent claimed to have issues with contamination and 4 percent with labor shortages.

Ashley Shepherd, UK sales manager at Watson-Marlow Bredel, said: ‘Minimizing downtime is massively important to production companies, because ultimately it results in lost revenue. While cleaning equipment appears to be a major frustration in reducing downtime, there are solutions available to help minimize the need to shut down production in order to clean some equipment.

‘For example, using a peristaltic pump for fluid transfer or dosing means that product is contained within a tube and never comes into contact with the pump. Neither do the pumps require additional seals and check valves for their operation. At the end of a shift or when a different duty fluid is used, the tube can be removed and replaced within minutes – a new tube creates a new pump. Some pumps are CIP/SIP capable, further reducing the need for downtime.’