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Technical cost-saving tips to improve profit

  • July 2003
  • Number of views: 2189
  • Article rating: No rating

Chuck Yung 
EASA Technical Support Specialist 

One of the many enjoyable parts of this job is that I get to see a number of service centers. Dur­ing the course of touring those facilities, I am continually impressed by the innovative ideas people use to improve some aspect of motor re­pair. Writing articles for CURRENTS gives me an opportunity to share your ideas with each other. 

When the economy is tight, as it is now, we can use all the belt-tightening tips we can find. If your profit margin is 5 percent, $10,000 worth of sav­ings has the same impact on the bottom line as $200,000 worth of new business. It is a lot easier to adopt a few money-saving ideas than to pick up an­other account. This article represents ideas gleaned from your EASA brethren. If you find one or two tips you can use to improve your bottom line, well, just thank your fellow EASAns at your next chap­ter or regional meeting. 

Avoid costly mistakes 
One of the first steps in the repair process, after the nameplate information has been taken on an in­coming motor, is to match-mark the parts. That as­sures that each piece of repaired equipment is re­turned to the customer without problems. It may be rebuilt in record time to better than new condition, but if the leads are on the wrong side of the motor the customer will be un­derstandably upset. Murphy’s Law also dic­tates that this only happens to “rush jobs.” 

To prevent that from happening, most techni­cians use either a center punch or number stamps to indelibly mark the end bracket-to-frame orien­tation. If a motor has been repaired multiple times, it may have several such marks. If your standard marking is #2 for the drive end (DE) and #1 for the opposite drive end (ODE), and a prior repairer used the reverse as their standard, the chances for error during the assembly process in­crease. To prevent this, some repairers use a pneumatic “body” sander to obliterate existing marks before match-marking and dismantling 
the motor. 

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We all have custom­ers who don’t like to see people standing around; they pass out painting assignments. The result is that some incoming motors have several heavy coats of paint. Use the body sander, or a few taps with a ballpeen hammer, to quickly remove the paint at likely spots for match marks. Failure to do that can result in a familiar scenario: You are ready to assemble a freshly rewound motor, only to discover several sets of contradictory match marks that had been hidden under layers of paint. 

That brings up another time-saving tip: End brackets with heavy layers of paint, or thick grease, etc. can be cycled through the burnout oven (if your environmental permitting allows) with the next load of stators. No need to labori­ously sandblast them. 

One service center solved the problem of contra­dictory number stamps by using letter stamps instead of numbers. Starting with “A” for the drive end (DE), they can continue through the al­phabet until they run out of things to mark. Even with auxiliary parts like brakes or tachometers, that is a good idea. 

Digital camera can help 
Use of a digital cam­era assures that the equipment will be as­sembled with the leads on the correct side—and 
with no missing parts—as long as someone checks that picture before the equipment is shipped. The photo can be saved in the camera and viewed (even without a computer), permanently saved in the computer, or printed out like a normal photograph. If you print out the photo, don’t try to save space on your computer by deleting the photo. Save the photo on the computer, it may be easier to find than the hard copy photo if the hard copy is misplaced. 

One solution is to make the delivery driver the final quality control checker. Smart repairers know that the delivery driver is also a de-facto salesperson, and should be genuinely concerned about taking care of the customer. 

When equipment is dismantled, mark the work order number directly on larger parts to ensure they don’t get misplaced. Time spent try­ing to find the correct rotor represents money wasted. Use lumber crayons, metal markers, aluminum tags on which part numbers can be written, or sequentially numbered embossed tags which can be attached to the eyebolt when the motor is written up, and then attached to indi­vidual parts during disassembly. 

Stamp the work order number into the frame near the nameplate to alert personnel when the motor comes in for later service. That way, bearings can be ordered before the first bolt is removed.

Some repairers stamp the work order number into the shaft end, or the aluminum endring. If you are reluctant to stamp num­bers into the diecast aluminum endring, several manufacturers do exactly that. Standardize: Stamp the work order number on the drive end, in line with the keyway, so ev­eryone knows exactly where to look for it. Place each rotor with the keyway up, each time it is handled, so the number is readily visible. 

Organization can pay off 
Have you ever spent 15 minutes looking for a “missing” part? Most repairers use parts bins, wire buckets or pallets to keep parts together. If the containers are clearly labeled, it helps each person who needs to find them. Carry that organization to the next level: Letter the shelves and number the sections of each shelf. Then write the parts storage location on the work order.

Everyone who needs access to the parts can go directly to the correct location, saving time. 

Some repairers have work-in-process areas for parts requiring specific repairs—such as dedicated shelves for the machine shop. Others use color-coded tags on parts that require work. For example, the inspector can use red tags to iden­tify parts requiring machine work. That alerts the parts-cleaning person where the flagged parts should be placed after cleaning. Once the job is approved, the machinist is given the paperwork and does not have to hunt for the parts. Every time a part is handled, it costs you money! 

A designated rotor storage area in close prox­imity to the balancing machine saves handling, too. After the rotor is cleaned and baked, the tech­nician removing it from the oven can move it right to the balancing area. Nail together lumber cribbing to support rotors, or use a sheet of plywood on which to place rotors and keep a supply of 2x4’s nearby to chock them so they can’t roll. 

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Use a stopwatch to see how much time is spent waiting on the crane (WOC). You will be amazed— or appalled. The more efficiently parts are stored, the 
fewer times the crane is needed, the less time is wasted “WOC.” Every minute of crane time avoided is another minute the crane is available for an­other technician. One service center saved over $19,000 per year just by moving the balanc­ing machine to a location that reduced rotor handling time. 

Streamline work areas 
It is the nature of our indus­try that we grow into the building, adding on when more room is desperately needed. When equipment is added, we tend to install it in the most convenient place; this “service center creep” makes most ser­vice center layouts gradually less efficient. That may be un­avoidable, but an occasional walk-through will uncover opportunities to streamline workflow. Even a half hour saved on each quoted job can improve profit in these lean times. Here’s an incentive: Multiply your service center hourly cost times the number of jobs done during an average year. If the total is attractive, walk through your service center looking for places to re­duce handling. 

Place racks for eyebolts and straps near high-use areas. Eyebolts should be near the oven and dip tank, straps and cables near the incoming and shipping area. Establish a staging area for ready-to-ship jobs, convenient to the truck door to streamline loading. 

Savvy service centers load the truck after hours or early before the beginning of the day shift. The start of the working day seems to be one time when everyone is vying for the crane, so this reduces competition for the crane. 

Ben Franklin said that “a penny saved is a penny earned.” While that’s true, there’s more to consider when you’re looking at profitability. A dollar saved is worth a lot more than a dollar earned. Every dollar saved is equivalent to a dollar of profit, so work backwards from your profit margin to find the “value” of those time-saving innovations you use: 

Savings / profit margin = sales required to pro­duce the same “profit.” For the example at the start of this article: $10,000 / 0.05 = $200,000 

That calculated savings is not even taking into account things like bad debt expense, war­ranty and other adjustments. Since these savings are cost reduction ideas, it is more difficult to prove the results. The value of 1/2-hour saved on every job passing through the shop is just too great to ignore! 



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