J&L Fiber Services, Waukesha, Wisconsin, provides pulp, paper, and board process optimization solutions. Its core products include refiner fillings and screen cylinders for pulp, paper, MDF  and other board applications. However, it was experiencing high production costs due to lost productivity caused by excessive machine downtime. Some of the factors that contributed to the majority of difficulties were:
• Reactive maintenance accounted for nearly 100% of all maintenance activities being performed
• Lack of preventive and proactive maintenance
• Maintenance procedures were not tracked, providing no historical activities
• Repetitive machine failures were not addressed
• Maintenance was not a core competency

J&L approached Advanced Technology Services for help. ATS went to work to implement a sustainable solution to help J&L Fiber Services achieve their business goals of delivering reliable manufacturing solutions to their customers. To accomplish this, ATS applied several process improvement tools, including:
• Monitoring preventive and proactive procedures through work order management to reduce amount of reactive
job orders
• Performing root cause analysis on machines experiencing repetitive failures to reduce repair time and improve manufacturing costs
• Implementing and reviewing preventive maintenance procedures
• Providing continuous improvement solutions through a Six Sigma implementation, and
• Driving data- and fact-based maintenance solutions

The results of the project amazed J&L’s management team. Mike Hoffmann, J&L’s director of operations, credits the relationship with driving machine downtime to the lowest levels the company has ever recorded.

“ATS has improved key machine uptime at J&L and enabled us to focus on improving efficiency and throughput,” Hoffman says. “ATS has also been able to repair many hard-to-find components that would have had key equipment down for prolonged periods of time.”   Item 153

This article appeared in the October/November 2007 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright 2007.

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