Following a fire to a 2,000 tonne press, rendering it beyond economical repair, FDML were called in to scope and price the decontamination works to the other presses and tooling which had suffered from smoke contamination. In order to avoid any loss of productivity or downtime, FDML had to agree an action plan with the client, which had to be flexible, on a week to week basis, depending on production orders received for each machine.
In total there were 9 other presses which required full decontamination works undertaking, ranging from 40 tonnes to 2,700 tonnes, as well as a significant amount of ancillary equipment.
In order to maximise productivity for the client and minimise any downtime, the project was split into 2 phases. Phase one consisted of completing decontamination works to 8 of the presses and all the ancillary equipment. Phase two had to be scheduled for a later date as this depended on the arrival, installation and commissioning of the replacement press to the one that had been fire damaged. Until this happened the 2,700 press could not be decontaminated and would have to continue to run, full time in order to compensate for the loss of the fire damaged press.
FDML compiled a full schedule of works for phase one, together with timings, but cognisant of the fact that this could change at any time, due to other production requirements. In order for the project to run seamlessly daily meetings took place between the FDML Site Supervisor and the client’s Operation’s Director, in order to plan for upcoming events. The FDML team was split into 2 with one team working on a press and the other team working on the tooling and ancillary equipment. If a press was suddenly required for production then the full team would drop onto that press to ensure it would become available in the timescales required.
For phase two there was only a small timescale for decontamination works on the 2,700 tonne press to be undertaken, without impacting production. Therefore a team of 16 FDML technicians were deployed to undertake working 2 x 12 hours shifts continuously in order to ensure that all decontamination works were completed on time, thus allowing production to recommence.
Both phase one and phase two required working closely and effectively with other contractors and the client. In doing so, this enabled the client to quickly restart individual production lines until such a time as all the production lines were handed back to the client, completely restored and the project completed.