Used Plastics Injection Moulding Machines

Often the Plastics Industry does not give due importance to pay the service charges to Service Engineer who spends his time to solve the Machine Problem.  They never reciprocate the same as Engineer who responds promptly to solve the problem.

This discourages many Engineers to avoid responding to such customers.  My sincere advice to such customers is, treat the payment to Engineer also as priority as running the machine. Imagine if same Engineer is not turning up and the Machine is not running for one more day how much You would be loosing.

Most Engineers prefer Customers who pay promptly.  Hope Plastics Industry Managements will understand this.

It is also my experience with some customers who paid even Rs 1000/- after three to four months that too after repeated calls. That is one of the reason I had stopped entertaining Customer Calls  few years back.

Things are not changed even now. Customers who come to us for the Repair of their Boards, never sends payment without at least two reminders. The scene is still same.

They do not mind calling even in the odd hours to solve the machine problem. They are very prompt in forgetting about the payments.

When will the Plastic Industry learns to treat the Engineers properly ?.

Today, there is acute shortage of Maintenance Engineers and also attrition rate is very high.  It is highly technical skill oriented job without respect.  A doctor diagnoses the problem of humans with lot of testings like X-RAY, ECG, etc. only because he can not identy the problem without these tests. But same is not possible for Maintenance Engineer. No customer provides proper tools and support, in some Industries,  do not even comply with the basic requirement of Pressure Gauge on the Injection Moulding Machine.

Some customers use the same hydraulic Oil for years together.  Never bothered to maintain the Oil Temperature with in the limits.  I have experienced some customers who wants to run the machines even though oil temperature is more than 60Deg C. Some machines do not have the proper cooling. If any thermocouple fails they change the thermocouple without even bothered to verify whether it is J or K type.  Some people put the Thermocouple wire directly underneath the Heater itself.

These are very basic things and also very simple to maintain. Prepare a chart of the Specification of the Machine, type of thermocouple used, Specification of Hydraulic Oil etc. and display the same on the machine itself. This will avoid mistakes and reduces the Machine Down Time.  20 to 30%  of the time for solving the problem goes to find proper information or tools.

Unfortunately I had never come across such a Ideal Shop floor  in the Plastics Industry which maintains information about the machines.

Haribabu