What does plant availability mean?
Plant availability is a key figure that provides information on what percentage of the planned production time an industrial plant has actually produced. It compares whether the actual condition corresponds to the target condition and whether, for example, there have been any unplanned shutdowns. Plant availability is equivalent to machine availability.
How to calculate the plant availability?
The availability of a plant is calculated by determining the actual running time of the plant. To do this, the unplanned downtimes are subtracted from the planned runtime. The actual runtime is then compared with the planned operating time.
Example:
Planned operating time: 120 hours
Unplanned downtime: 15 hours
Plant availability: 105 hours
105/120= 0.875 or 87.5 %.
The plant availability is 87.5%.
What factors influence plant availability?
Plant availability is significantly affected by all types of unplanned downtime.
Examples are:
Malfunctions
Repairs
Spare parts procurement
Waiting times (personnel)
Adjustment of the machine
How can you increase plant availability?
Plant availability can be increased by reducing unplanned downtime. This can be achieved by the following measures, among others:
Regular maintenance By maintaining equipment on a regular basis, wear and tear and equipment downtime can be reduced.
Better spare parts procurement Optimizing the spare parts procurement process enables faster repair of the plant.
Employee training Targeted employee training can reduce equipment failures due to human error.
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