What is a Downtime Reduction?
Downtime Reduction is the result of many years of diversified experience gained in designing automation equipment in many different industries in Canada, US and abroad. Downtime Reduction is a methodology of shortening troubleshooting time and creating a considerable savings. This process simplifies all supporting documents attached to any production machinery and its controls for the purpose of rapid troubleshooting.
Who is Downtime Reduction Group?
We are a group of Professional Engineers, electrical and mechanical technologists, process control engineers, systems integrators, PLC and HMI programmers, supervisory control and data acquisition specialists, network installers, and problem solvers. As a part of our regular project development we provide technical training and knowledge update for our customers.
How Downtime Reduction works?
There are four main components of the downtime reduction process. (1) Creating Unified Logic -- combine all electrical, process, HMI screen, and PLC logic into one drawing. (2) Create fault and alarm screens to display all I/O conditions of all software and hardware devices, their status online, offline and during fault states. (3) Use tablet-HMI and a smart phone for item (2). (4) Crew training.
What savings can we expect?
Based on our case studies you can expect approximately 50% savings upon implementing Downtime Reduction Methodology. As an example, for each $10M annual gross sale, the savings on reduction of downtime will be close to $50,000. It is an industry average to have 2% downtime losses every year, split equally between electrical and mechanical problems. In addition, we expect that it will take 1 to 2 min to find the root of the fault.
When can we see your presentation?
Use the quick and easy online booking page to contact us. Alternatively, phone (437) 889-3183 or complete the form under the contact page to contact us. Our presentation takes 30 to 45 min. During the presentation, you will get a good idea of our methodology. Also, you will observe the losses from downtime of the equipment you have selected for analysis. Those loses are huge! They can be reduced by 50%!
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Do you intend to modify our PLC?
No. We do not change any existing PLC program. We only need a copy of that program and HMI design. We will install an external WiFi and WEB server. The WEB server will allow us to create HTML fault and alarm screens on external Tablet-HMI. We will populate it with all inputs and outputs showing their normal, current, and previous state. Each I/O will be displayed in industry recommended colors and texts for easy view and analysis.
What is a PLC laptop?
When your production plant is of a medium size you might have several PLC technicians who are servicing your production machinery when it goes down. If they are new to that equipment, they need to connect there laptops and conduct troubleshooting with the use of a PLC software to observe it on the laptop's screen. Those laptops sometimes stop working and need to be fixed and/or replaced. We offer a new Maintenance Laptop and External Hard Drive with PLC software of your choice.
How useful is an external hard drive?
When your maintenance laptop is not working or it is used by other electrician, you can still do any troubleshooting by using an external hard drive. You will need to plug it into any other laptop or desktop and boot it up. It is also convenient when you have many PLCs of different makes. As a rule, we don't have more than one operating system, usually Windows 7 Pro. In this case our EHD (external hard drive) will help you to do your work in a fraction of the cost.
What is your average project length?
Our regular project consists of six very important parts; (1) System Selection For Analysis, (2) Identifying Production Problems, (3) System Design and Programming, (4) Reducing Fault Detection Time, (5) System Test and Acceptance, (6) Downtime Reduction Training Course. These parts have different duration, however, they do not reflect neither production, nor maintenance of the machinery. Generally, it will take roughly 3 to 4 week to complete, providing we will have everything we need.
When you become familiar with our approach in saving you money, you will ask us to apply it to each and every production machinery you have on the floor.
Our team has a diversified experience in almost all type of PLC, HMI and SCADA systems. We also provide technical assistance in procurement, installation, configuration, and programming of a variety of control systems, regardless where they are. Please visit our Services for what we offer.
Downtime Reduction Group employs registered professional engineer, masters degree in electrical engineers, certified WEB and graphic designers and networking specialists, radio engineers, process control specialists, instrumentation technicians, certified robotic technologies, certified CAD designers, registered electricians, and professors.
Our liability insurance is covering errors and omissions. We do not modify any proprietary PLC or HMI/SCADA programs. We are using only passive remote monitoring displays for fault detection.
When we give you a proposal for a scope of work we need to do on your production machinery and the cost of the project, you will see that ROI. Our experience shows ROI to be between 3 to 6 months on average. It means that when this period is over you will be able to enjoy full benefits of saving money. There are also hidden benefits from our solution. That is, no external PLC classes for your maintenance crew will be required. Your maintenance crew can be reduced in size. Additional benefit is a remote help desk.
Ask us a Question
Feel free to ask our Downtime Reduction Group administrator related questions over the phone, or send your question via this form below. Your message will be dispatched directly to our staff who will answer it.
