Bottling plant maintenance: how to eliminate machine downtime
The beverage and packaging sector requires tight production schedules and extremely high quality standards. In this context, bottling plant maintenance is not a simple operating cost, but the pillar upon which business continuity rests. A plant shutdown during peak season can result in huge economic losses and reputational damage with retailers. Understanding the difference between repair and prevention is the first step toward transforming your production line into an efficient and lasting asset.
Do you want to optimize your performance and reduce waste? Contact BBM Packaging experts for a tailored plan.
Why invest in preventive bottling plant maintenance?
In today’s industrial landscape, the difference between a company that scales the market and one that struggles to stay afloat often lies in the technical management of machinery. To understand how to transform bottling plant maintenance into a competitive advantage, we met Daniele Milesi, Service Manager and founding partner of BBM Packaging.
In this in-depth interview, we will explore the crucial transition from corrective repair to preventive and predictive maintenance, analyzing cultural obstacles and practical solutions for the packaging sector. Often, machinery care is neglected in favor of immediate production, but in the long run, this approach proves to be counterproductive and costly.
Curing vs. Preventing: the challenge of operational continuity
Question: Let’s start with the basics. How would you explain the difference between corrective and preventive maintenance to a non-technical customer?
“It’s very simple: corrective maintenance is ‘curing’ the damage when it has already occurred. It means intervening after a breakdown has happened, with the plant at a standstill. This leads to a lack of production, stock-outs, and heavy economic damage. Preventive bottling plant maintenance, on the other hand, is ‘preventing’. Blockages are avoided through a program of periodic visits and continuous monitoring of the machine’s condition. In short: preventive is what allows you to never suffer the corrective.”
Question: What are the concrete advantages in terms of time and costs?
“The main advantage is organization. With scheduled overhaul, machine downtime is not an unexpected setback, but an event planned together with production. It costs less to stop on a Wednesday morning in a controlled manner than to find the line blocked on a Monday at full capacity. Spare parts, personnel are optimized and, above all, delivery to the final customer is not lost.”
Service Strategies: managing cyclic monitoring
Automation and line efficiency are the main drivers for growth in the beverage sector. Our field experience also confirms this trend: proper technical plant assistance guarantees a doubled useful life of the machinery.
Question: Is there a practical example where prevention made a difference for a large player?
“Undoubtedly. I am thinking of a success case linked to one of our long-standing partners, a production hub for a well-known multinational carbonated soft drinks company. On the can lines, we noticed that the high-speed shrinkwrappers (machines doing 70 packs per minute) showed a very evident annual cyclic decay. Instead of the classic total overhaul once a year, we decided with the customer to ‘split’ the intervention into two phases: one in March (pre-summer) and one in October. The result? Efficiency remained linear and constant throughout the year.”
Expert’s Note: Fractionated bottling plant maintenance allows for maintaining high OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) standards, minimizing the impact on logistics.
Breaking the “it’s always been done this way” mentality
Question: Many customers still see service as a useless cost. How do you break this mentality?
“It is a cultural challenge, typically Italian. We often receive emergency calls in the middle of summer because machines stop, but the truth is that those stops are the result of a lack of prevention in the previous months. My advice is sectional maintenance. If we divide a machine into 5 or 6 blocks and overhaul one each year, within 5 years we have a machine that is always new. With a planned investment of about €15,000 per year, the company amortizes the costs and never has to face the enormous expense of a total reconstruction or, worse, an unexpected shutdown.”
Towards the future: predictive maintenance and technical upgrades
Beyond periodic care, the future lies in the ability to anticipate failure through data. Bottling plant maintenance is becoming increasingly intelligent thanks to the integration of IoT sensors.
Question: There is a lot of talk about “predictive maintenance.” Where do we stand?
“True predictive requires cutting-edge sensors, such as probes on bearings that signal the end of the life cycle before they break. But there is a more immediate way to perform prediction: historical data analysis. By analyzing which spare parts a customer orders cyclically, we can propose technical upgrades. An example? On shrinkwrappers, we proposed the switch to a brushless motor to eliminate electrical clutches subject to frequent wear. This is the true evolution: transforming data into a lasting technical solution.”
Roadmap to optimize your plant: tips from BBM Packaging
For companies wishing to improve their bottling plant maintenance, here are the steps suggested by our Service Manager for impeccable production management:
- Quarterly inspections: Don’t wait for obvious damage; monitor the state of health when the machine is still efficient.
- Plant clinical diary: Create a direct contact with the service department to track every intervention and wear.
- Plan customization: Assistance is not “one size fits all.” A small producer may need an annual check, a large group a semi-annual monitoring.
- Leverage incentives: Evaluate framework agreements and annual packages to transform emergencies into ordinary management.
“The most common mistake? Waiting to see the smoke. Machinery care is not a tax; it is the life insurance for your production.”
Evaluate the health of your plants
We are available for a preliminary inspection visit and to study together a bottling plant maintenance plan tailored to your production needs. Avoid waste and ensure maximum efficiency for your line.
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