Up-Time Series Part 2: Parts, Consumables, and Training

“For want of a nail, the shoe was lost.” The old proverb reminds us that overlooking a small maintenance need today can have far greater consequences down the road. That principle applies directly to the parts, consumables, and training that help keep a water jet running.

You Win the Up-Time Battle by Beating Failure to the Punch 

Often, a serious threat to water jet uptime isn’t some catastrophic failure. It comes from issues like:

• Waiting on replacement parts not kept in stock
• Using worn or out-of-spec consumables
• Failing to train staff in routine maintenance
• Relying on reactive rather than proactive maintenance

Implement the following formula, and you’ll reduce unplanned downtime:

Part Wear in Water Jets 

Water jet cutting systems are engineered and manufactured to support continuous operation, which is one of the many reasons companies rely heavily on them. But as robust as these systems are, water jets do experience wear that, if left unaddressed, can cause unplanned outages or other production and quality issues.

Consumables and other wear components are expected to require periodic replacement over the life of the system. Consumables include things like orifices, mixing tubes, high-pressure seals, check valves, and filters.

In general, these consumables are subject to wear from moving water, abrasives, and system pressures. As these parts wear beyond their useful life, they will begin to have in influence on system performance. This may mean limited capability or possibly affecting something like cut edge quality or requiring slower feed rates to process a job.

Consider seals as an example - in an ultra-high-pressure water jet system, seal integrity is crucial for proper operation. Given the extreme pressures of water jet cutting systems, your maintenance and operator teams need to check for seal wear and replace them as needed. Considering the typical failure mode for seals begins as a slow leak, as long as these are being regularly monitored, there is generally some time to plan when to replace these before they completely fail and shut down the water jet.

The bottom line for optimizing uptime is simple: replace parts before they wear out to the point where they begin to diminish output capability or fail altogether, causing an unplanned outage.

Parts Availability and Inventory Management 

To proactively replace worn parts, you need to have them in inventory or immediately available from a third party. And, to do that, you need a well-run inventory management system. You want a system that prioritizes parts to stock based on failure consequences, replenishes based on lead time, and is refined by your maintenance and operating data. The objective is to have the right parts in the right quantities to avoid not having what you need and experiencing unnecessary, unplanned downtime.

Here are the seven practices you should implement if they aren’t already in place:

1. Identify the parts that can stop production. These critical parts may include seal kits, orifices, mixing tubes, filters, and various other components.
2. Create and maintain an accurate, machine-specific parts list.
3. Stock routine wear items and the most critical parts that meet the system manufacturer’s specifications. Don’t skimp on spares! We recommend using OEM parts that meet the manufacturer’s specs to help ensure system reliability and consistent performance.
4. Store the parts so they are protected from damage caused by environmental factors (light, heat, cold, dust, humidity, water) and physical contact.
5. Establish minimum quantities and reorder points considering the time it takes for internal order processing, shipping transit time and internal receiving.
6. Confirm the availability of parts in inventory and from suppliers before planned maintenance and consider building a kit containing all the parts you’ll need before work begins.
7. Adapt inventory and maintenance practices using lessons learned from shortages, failures, and emergency purchases.

Taking advantage of subscription-based consumables and preventive maintenance programs can be an excellent extension of your inventory management and proactive maintenance efforts, reducing emergency ordering and inventory guesswork. In these situations, you focus on the critical parts and use a subscription to manage consumables.

• NOTE: At Jet Edge – our passion is Enabling Customer Success.  This includes helping guide customers considering their specific situations to ensure you have the best approach toward the components you are stocking, etc.  If you want some guidance to confirm you are taking the right approach – please reach out to our technical support team 

The Case for OEM Parts

Perhaps some will remember the Fram Oil Filter ads with the tagline, “You can pay me now or pay me later.”

The message was that using lesser quality parts can cause larger problems later. OEM parts are engineered to deliver the full performance, accuracy, and longevity needed to keep your water jet system as productive as you need it to be.

You may save a small amount on the cost of parts that results in paying a lot more in the long run due to more frequent replacements, reduced system performance, and possible premature failure and damage to the water jet itself.

The bottom line for uptime is that OEM parts make a significant contribution.

Training, the Human Side of Up-Time

The best inventory practices will not reach their full potential unless operators and maintenance personnel are trained to recognize wear, follow recommended maintenance schedules, diagnose emerging problems, and apply lessons learned from the system’s operating history

In practice, a well-designed and implemented training program will result in:

• Early recognition of wear
• Standardized maintenance practices
• Better diagnostics
• Accurate inventory records
• Enhancing the program with data from maintenance events

As a practical example, a sound maintenance training program will enable an operator to recognize changes in sound, leakage, cut quality, or operating behavior, report the deterioration, and understand how and when to take action before it results in scrap, quality issues, or an unplanned outage.

When it comes to building and implementing your training program, you don’t have to go it alone. Jet Edge has spent significant effort to build up an extensive library of Maintenance Training Videos – these are useful both as a training tool as well as a step-by-step video guide to walk through common maintenance procedures.

Additionally, we are proud to offer in-person Maintenance and Operation training classes at our site that are free for the life of your Jet Edge equipment. These classes are very helpful whether you want to periodically brush up on your familiarity with certain items or have a new staff member you are working to on board. Our approach combines both classroom and hands-on learning in an environment with other customers from a wide range of industries, and taught by the very Technical Support and Field Service team members who are supporting Jet Edge equipment every day.

Consumables Management as an Integral Part of Production Strategy

Given that low-cost consumables can bring the water jet to a halt or worn consumables can affect cut quality, it makes sense to incorporate consumable parts management into your production and quality management strategies.

Quality programs such as ISO 9001 do not specify how many consumables or replacement parts a manufacturer must keep on the shelf. They do, however, require organizations to provide and control the resources needed to maintain process capability and consistently produce conforming work for equipment-dependent operations, which can make the quality, availability, and management of critical consumables and spare parts an important part of the overall quality system.

Reliability- and safety-focused programs can go further, with some clearly treating consumables and spare parts management as part of maintenance quality, equipment availability, and uninterrupted operations. (See the table at the end of the article for more details.)

Take a look at the industries and customers you serve and calculate what effect an unplanned outage will have on costs, profits, and your reputation. Having a sound consumables management program can be a serious competitive differentiator.

Up-Time Depends on Operational Discipline and Preparation

Leading companies don’t leave uptime to luck. They implement practices to ensure the right parts, in the right quantities, are available when needed and that well-trained maintenance staff can replace them in the shortest possible time.

Don’t let worn consumables negatively impact cut quality, increase scrap loss, or require expensive secondary processing steps. We’d be happy to discuss the specifics of improving uptime with you in more detail:

• Reviewing critical parts needs
• Establishing a consumables plan
• Scheduling operator or maintenance training
• Discussing preventive-maintenance support
• Evaluating subscription options for consumables

You can contact us online or give us a call toll-free in the US at 1-800-JET-EDGE (538-3343), or internationally at +1-763-497-8700. 

Quality and Safety Organization Reference

How Standards Organizations Treat Consumables and Spare Parts

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