Availability losses make up the first two of the Six Big Losses. They’re characterised as breakdowns and setup and adjustments. Breakdowns are probably the most straightforward and easy to comprehend. If a machine is broken down, it’s not going to be producing a product, and it’s going to be holding up a manufacturing process. It’s going to take time, energy, and resources to get back online and could result in waste, for example ingredients needing to be replaced. With cutting edge shop floor connectivity systems, breakdowns can be understood, predicted and dealt with much more efficiently. At a base level, breakdowns can be communicated immediately by sensors on the machines alerting a system that can alert maintenance engineers and provide information on the breakdown. But this is reactive. A more advanced solution would be to track maintenance alerts and understand the circumstances which cause breakdowns. In this way, predictive maintenance can be achieved and downtime can be planned, with maintenance happening before it’s needed and as part of an efficient process. Setup & adjustment can both be improved by shop floor connectivity systems as well. By understanding how various equipment in your enterprise has operated over its lifetime, expanding your operations can become smoother. New locations with new equipment can be set up and calibrated in such a way that the initial setup achieves the efficiency that previous equipment has, straight out of the box. Sustainability How availability losses can be minimised using shop floor connectivity solutions SHOP FLOOR CONNECTIVITY ACROSS YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN