Breakdown or bodge? How temporary fixes become permanent

Walk any production line with a torch and you'll find them.

A proximity sensor held on with two cable ties because the bracket snapped. A link wired across a guard switch "while we wait for the new one". A jubilee clip on a hydraulic hose. A timer in the PLC bumped from two seconds to eight, so a sticky valve stops tripping the line. A bit of cardboard wedged in a light curtain bracket to stop it nodding. A 16 amp fuse where the drawing says 10.

Each one got a line running at 3am. Each one was meant to last until the part came. Most of them are older than your newest starter.

A temporary fix is fine. A temporary fix with no owner, no tag and no end date becomes the way the machine works. Nobody decides to make it permanent. It just never gets undone.

Why they stick

The reasons are dull, which is why they're so common.

The machine runs, so the job drops off the list. The part gets ordered, arrives a week later and goes on a shelf in stores. Nobody books the downtime to fit it, because the line is running fine. The fitter who did the fix moves to days, or leaves. Nobody wrote it down, so the next person who opens the panel thinks the link is part of the design.

Then the machine fails again. Now the engineer on the job is fault-finding a machine that doesn't match its drawings. That costs hours you never see on the breakdown report.

Some bodges are a crime

Most bodges are just bad engineering. Some break the law, and you need to know which.

Guards and protection devices are the big one. PUWER says they must "not be easily bypassed or disabled" (PUWER, regulation 11). HSE's code of practice goes further. Interlocks must be designed and fitted so that they are "difficult or impossible to bypass or defeat" (L22, Appendix 1, paragraph 19). It accepts that bypassing is sometimes needed for maintenance. When it is, "the risks in such circumstances must be carefully assessed" (L22, Appendix 1, paragraph 20). A link left in a guard switch for a month is nothing like that.

The Health and Safety at Work Act puts it more bluntly. Nobody may "intentionally or recklessly interfere with or misuse" anything provided for safety (HSWA, section 8). That duty falls on every person, including whoever fitted the link. If you want to see how guards get defeated and how to stop it, read interlocked guards and how they get defeated.

The oversized fuse is the other common one. The Electricity at Work Regulations require "efficient means" of protection from excess current (regulation 11). A fuse that's bigger than the cable or motor can take isn't efficient protection. The same goes for an overload turned up past the motor's rating to stop it tripping. The trip was telling you something.

Adapted kit still has to be suitable

PUWER requires work equipment to be "suitable for the purpose for which it is used" (regulation 4). The code of practice adds that "if work equipment is adapted it must still be suitable for its intended purpose" (L22, paragraph 53). A PLC timer stretched to hide a fault is an adaptation. So is a hose that isn't rated for the pressure, or a bracket made from whatever was in the scrap bin.

HSE is clear about where this ends. Unsafe maintenance has hurt people during the work, and also "those using the badly maintained or wrongly maintained/repaired equipment" (HSE, maintenance). The operator on days didn't do the bodge. They're the one stood next to it.

If a bodge changes how the machine behaves for good, it may be a modification in its own right. Our post on machinery modifications covers what that means for you.

Bodges happen when the right person isn't there

Look at where your bodges are and you'll see a pattern. A lot of them sit in places the person on shift wasn't trained for. A mechanical fitter faces a sensor fault at 3am. They can't fault-find the input, so they bridge it. An electrician faces a worn cam. They can't make a new one, so they pack it.

Nobody is being lazy. They're trying to get the line back with the skills they have. The fix for that is having the right trade available when the fault happens, not a warning notice. If your team is short of one trade, fitters, electricians and controls engineers helps you work out which.

Do the sums. A two-hour callout for the right engineer has a price you can see. A bodge that hides a fault for six months, then fails on a Friday night, costs a lot more. Add the lost shifts, the repair to whatever else it damaged, and the fault-finding time on a machine nobody can trust. Use your cost of an hour of downtime to put a figure on it.

A temporary fix needs four things

We'd allow temporary fixes. Production sites need them. But every one should have:

1. A tag on the machine, at the fix, saying what was done and when
2. An entry in a temporary fix register, or your CMMS, with the same detail
3. An owner, by name, who is responsible for the permanent repair
4. A date by which it comes out, with the downtime booked

Anything that touches a guard, interlock, e-stop or overcurrent device needs more. It needs a manager's sign-off and an assessment by someone competent before the machine runs. If nobody competent is on site, the machine stays down until they are. That rule is hard at 3am, but your fitters need you to make it.

Then review the register every week, in the same meeting as the breakdown log. Anything past its date gets escalated. Anything older than a month gets asked about by name.

What to do on Monday

1. Walk your two worst lines with a torch and your best fitter. List every cable tie, link, packer and changed setting you find.
2. Set up a temporary fix register, even if it's a sheet on the wall to start with.
3. Pull every link out of a guard or interlock circuit, or get it assessed and signed off this week.
4. Find out which faults your night shift bodges most, and line up the trade that could fix them properly.

* Paragraph numbers refer to L22, fourth edition (2014, amended 2018).