Scheduled plant shutdowns can be an excellent time to perform upgrades, run critical tests, optimize automation, and plan for the future. Even small or remote access plants can benefit from using this downtime in a productive way.
The holidays are a great time of year to schedule downtime or even a full shutdown because there’s little to no staff in the building, machines can be tested individually (they can also be moved safely) and finally, data can be gathered in an isolated, controlled environment if need be.
It’s also important to think about the future. Use scheduled downtimes to audit your processes, mitigate risk by updating safety protocols, test reporting and connectivity between platforms, perform machine upgrades, or test capabilities for future implementation. Take it a step further by