Case study · Steel and casting
The maintenance queue was a record of what had not been done.
A steel meltshop and caster.
Results at a glance
350 to 178
Open work orders in the maintenance system, down in 2 weeks.
140 to 90
Minutes for a taphole change, 36% better.
42 to 37 hours
To realign the furnace, 12% better, worth about $279K a year in production value.
The situation
Work orders went in and stayed in, so the queue was not a plan for the week. The hours the caster spent down had never been priced.
What we did
We measured first: a backlog of 350 work orders, technician productivity at 44%, a taphole change at 140 minutes and a furnace realign at 42 hours. Then we priced the downtime, quantifying $230K of casting downtime so breakout prevention, keeping liquid steel from breaking out of the strand in the caster, could be argued in money instead of opinion. The maintenance system became where the backlog was measured and worked down, with tiered huddles and Leader Standard Work putting it in front of the plant’s own managers.
The result
Every figure, and how it was confirmed.
350 to 178
Open work orders in the maintenance system, down in 2 weeks.
140 to 90
Minutes for a taphole change, 36% better.
42 to 37 hours
To realign the furnace, 12% better, worth about $279K a year in production value.
$39K
grade loss prevented. Downtime in February was reported as a record at 4%.
As reported by the principal
How we report valueNext step
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