The Five Main Factors that Cause Equipment to Fail

(1) Deficient basic conditions

Equipment will ultimately fail if it is allowed to deteriorate progressively when the operating department neglects to fulfill its daily maintenance responsibilities properly by sustaining basic conditions (regularly checking the equipment and keeping it clean, well-lubricated, and tightened), or when no system exists for the operating department to do so, or if abnormal stresses are overlooked.

(2) Leaving deterioration uncorrected

If equipment has badly deteriorated because of Factor (1), and nothing is done to reverse this deterioration, it will be no surprise if it breaks down at any moment. In such a situation, equipment fails because, lacking the necessary skills and not knowing what to look for, neither the maintenance people nor the operators bother about visible deterioration or attempt to investigate hidden deterioration.

(3) Not observing correct operating conditions

Whenever a machine is installed in a factory, it comes with operating standards specifying conditions such as current, voltage, rotation speed, linear speed, and temperature. If these standards are not observed, the equipment may be subjected to unimaginably high-stress levels. The same thing can happen when equipment is remodelled or adapted for a different use if the production engineers do not think hard enough about the new conditions of use.

(4) Lack of skill

Failures are sometimes induced by unskilled maintenance engineers repairing the equipment in such a way as to increase the stress imposed on it, preventing it from reaching its specified service life. The same applies to operators, who may also subject the equipment to abnormal stress through lack of skill and cause it to fail by operating it incorrectly.

(5) Inherent design weaknesses

Insufficient strength can be considered a problem with the equipment’s original design – in other words, a design error. Whether such errors are due to carelessness or to lack of knowledge, experience, or information, they are the responsibility of the equipment’s designers and fabricators.