SiteIt's 3am. The labeller on line 2 has stopped and won't restart. The operator has tried everything they know. The shift manager rings for an engineer.
The engineer arrives, looks at the HMI for thirty seconds, and switches the machine from manual back to auto. It runs. The timesheet says "no fault found". The line was stood for an hour and a half.
Every site has a version of this. A recipe loaded for the wrong product. A sensor knocked out of line while clearing a jam. A guard that was shut but not quite latched. An e-stop pulled on the next machine along, which nobody thought to check.
It's tempting to file these under "operator error" and move on. That's how they come back. A breakdown caused by how the machine is run is still a breakdown, and you fix it the same way: find the cause and remove it.
Count them first
Most sites don't know how many of their callouts end with no fault found. They remember the big failures and forget the quick ones.
Go back through the last three months of your breakdown log. Mark every job where the fix was a reset, a mode change, a setting, a jam cleared or a sensor realigned, with no part changed. If your log doesn't tell you that, it's worth reading our post on a breakdown log that actually tells you something.
Then add up what those jobs cost. Downtime for each one, plus the callout if you paid for one. A no-fault-found visit at 3am still costs a full callout, and the lost output is the same as for a real fault. When you see the total, the training budget gets easier to find.
Ask why, without the blame
The operator who left the machine in manual didn't do it to annoy anyone. Something made it easy to get wrong. Find out what.
Ask the operator what they saw and what they did, in that order. Then ask why the machine let it happen. Did the HMI make manual mode look the same as auto? Was the jam-clearing method written down anywhere? Had they been shown it, or did they pick it up from whoever was on before them? Was this their usual line, or were they covering?
Our post on five whys without a blame session has a way to run this that people will actually join in with. If the operator thinks they're in trouble, you'll never hear the real story, and the next one won't get reported until it's too late. See getting operators to call it in early.
What the law expects from you
This one sits with the employer. PUWER says everyone who uses work equipment must have adequate information and, where appropriate, written instructions (regulation 8). Those instructions must cover "foreseeable abnormal situations and the action to be taken". A jam on a labeller is about as foreseeable as it gets. And the information must be "readily comprehensible to those concerned".
HSE's code of practice adds detail. Instructions should be in plain English, or other languages if that suits the people using them better, set out in a logical order with pictures where they help (L22, paragraph 119). They should be available to the people who use the kit, including temporary workers (L22, paragraph 116). That last part matters on a site with agency operators.
Training is a separate duty. Everyone who uses the kit must have had adequate training, including in the methods of use, the risks and the precautions (regulation 9). The code of practice says training is needed on recruitment, and also when tasks change, when new equipment arrives, or when the system of work changes (L22, paragraph 123).
Then comes the line we'd pin to every shift manager's wall. Refresher training is needed because skills decline when they aren't used. And people who deputise for others now and then "may need more frequent refresher training than those who do the job regularly" (L22, paragraph 124). The operator covering line 2 at 3am is exactly that person.
Make the right way the easy way
Training helps. A machine that's hard to get wrong helps more. Some fixes are cheap:
- a one-page card at each machine showing how to clear the common jams, with photos
- a check list for "won't restart": mode, recipe, guards latched, e-stops out, air on
- clear marking on the HMI so manual mode can't be mistaken for auto
- marks on sensor brackets, so anyone can see if one has been knocked
- a two-minute handover at each shift change for anyone covering a line they don't usually run
None of this is maintenance work for the operator. The card stops at checks that don't need tools or guards off. Anything beyond that is a job for someone competent to do it. Our post on operator care covers where to draw that line.
Not every "operator problem" is one
A word of warning. Sometimes the machine really is at fault, and the operator gets blamed because the fault is intermittent. A photoelectric sensor that's slowly getting dirty will cause more and more jams before it fails outright. If the same "operator error" keeps coming back on one machine, look at the machine.
That's where you want a good engineer. Someone who spots the reset-and-run pattern, finds the part that's drifting, and tells you honestly when the fix is a training card rather than a new sensor. The wrong engineer swaps parts until it runs and sends you the bill.
What to do on Monday
- Go through three months of breakdowns and count the ones with no part changed.
- Pick the machine with the most, and write a "won't restart" check card for it with the operators who run it.
- List who deputises on each line, and check when they last had refresher training.
- Add "operator action or machine fault?" as a line in your breakdown log.
* Paragraph numbers refer to L22, fourth edition (2014, amended 2018). Check HSE's PUWER code of practice for the latest.