Quarterly inspections boost safety and productivity at Markin Tubing

Process-critical cranes

Markin Tubing is one of the world’s leading small-diameter tubing manufacturers, producing 30 million pounds of tubing each year. Their process begins when a receiving crane unloads steel coils from flatbed trucks. From there, the coils are transported to one of four production lines, where they are loaded onto the line with a workstation crane. Markin has positioned eight electric chain hoists on each line at various coating, welding and cutting stations. Every unit is critical to the production process.

Adding value through quarterly inspections

Markin was using another crane company for their annual OSHA compliance inspections, which were done for the sole purpose of staying in compliance, when Konecranes representative Thomas Hughes had an opportunity to visit the company. Hughes learned that Markin was experiencing frequent hoist breakdowns, which were very costly to production. He explained that based on the heavy usage of their cranes and hoists, they should be performing quarterly, OSHA frequent/preventive maintenance inspections because too much could happen in the 364 days of constant use between annual inspections.

Markin’s representatives hesitated because of the added cost but were interested in Hughes’ approach of being proactive rather than reactive on maintenance. They liked the idea of performing inspections to promote the safety of their employees, not strictly for compliance. Later that week, Hughes received a call from Markin saying that a hoist had fallen off its monorail beam, and they were ready to implement a Konecranes inspection program. Fortunately no one was hurt in the incident, and it was determined that the failure should have been detected through routine inspection.

No more breakdowns

Three years later, breakdowns are a thing of the past at Markin Tubing. According to Purchasing Manager Ivan Zahariev, the company has gone from five-10 instances a year where a line was shut down due to crane failure, to none.

“We entered into this relationship with Konecranes to save money by eliminating breakdowns and to guarantee our customer’s delivery dates would be met. But in terms of value, you can’t put a price on worker safety. That’s where this program has really paid off for us,” Ivan Zahariev says.