How to Control Motor Costs
Electrical motors are vital to keeping your production moving, but they can also create unnecessary, and unexpected costs. Over time, those costs can creep up.
Rising motor costs can be driven by a number of factors such as:
The application or environment exceeds motor capability, leading to premature failure
Un-diagnosed operations issues, leading to a cycle of premature replacement and procurement
Health and protection issues such as circuit protection, connections, alignment, etc.
Storage and inventory loss
Pricing resulting from sourcing fragmentation
There are many ways to reduce these costs. One option is to conduct an installed base evaluation (IBE). This will provide a detailed list of all motors in service and the storeroom. Pictures are usually taken of problem areas such as poor bases, failing equipment, or upgrade opportunities.
Another option is to address the most immediate opportunities for savings and improved uptime. This is an easy and low risk way to identify and plan upgrades.
Some basic questions to consider are:
What motors seem to fail most often?
Are these motors failing prematurely?
Why are they failing?
What are the most critical motors in operation?
Would it help to increase their operating life? How?
Identifying these issues will provide a foundation for planning and you should share this information with motor vendors to begin exploring opportunities for improvement. Consider implementing a task force to cut motor costs and sustain the savings.
EECO can provide the manpower and expertise to conduct a thorough, multifaceted evaluation to assist in the development of a comprehensive motor program.
How EECO Can Help:
Conduct an installed base evaluation, documenting motor totals and identifying issues.
Conduct a site assessment to evaluate problem motors and applications.
Evaluate the motor storeroom for operational readiness.
Conduct an extensive IBE and log results in a database for analysis.
Lead fact finding meetings to help identify a short list of motors to work with.
Develop motor specifications for purchasing
Establish multi-year migration plans with contract pricing.
