For enterprises of the metallurgical industry, the task of increasing the operational life of drawing mills is urgent. The reasons for a significant decrease in the resource and an increase in the number of equipment downtime are related to the operational problems. Downtime due to emergency equipment failures account for up to 45 % of the mill’s operating time per month. The paper considers the drive scheme of the drawing mill and analyzes the loss of time to restore its working condition. It is shown that the replacement of a cylindrical gearbox with a gearshift mechanism and a bevel gear with a planetary gear motor equipped with a frequency converter will increase the productivity of the drawing mill by reducing emergency equipment downtime.