Can we talk about the 'bad week' at the shop last month

Everyone says a crash is the worst, but that week we had zero crashes. The bad part was three machines down for coolant pump failures in two days. Had to run everything through the old Mazak VTC, which added 12 hours to the schedule. Anyone else think pump maintenance gets ignored too much?

2 comments

2 Comments

taylor.jessica12h ago

You're right about pump maintenance being ignored, but it's the hoses that get me. We had a pump fail because a coolant line was so brittle it collapsed internally. The pump looked fine on the checklist, but it was basically starving. Now we squeeze every hose during the weekly walk.

uma_reed268h ago

That hose squeezing trick is smart, but it made me wonder about the checklist itself. If a part can fail in a way that passes a visual check, maybe the list needs to ask different questions. Instead of "hose intact?", it could be "does the hose feel firm or spongy compared to the new spare?" It forces a direct comparison that might catch those slow changes.