If you run a business that heavily relies on equipment and machinery, you must ensure that your equipment and machinery don’t experience much downtime. Incompetently functioning equipment can result in a range of issues.
However, there is a solution in the form of preventive maintenance, enabling you to maintain and streamline the efficient upkeep of your valuable assets.
Facilities Net conducted a survey that found preventive maintenance can lower the cost of machinery repairs by as much as 40%.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explain preventive maintenance and discuss how it can minimize downtime, reduce operational expenses, enhance safety, and prolong the lifespan of your equipment.
What is preventive maintenance?
Before you discuss the subject further, you need to answer the question, “What is preventive maintenance?”
Preventive maintenance (also referred to as preventative maintenance) is a process that involves the systematic and regular maintenance of physical assets to ensure they operate in optimal condition. Its primary goal is to reduce the chance of equipment failures and unexpected machinery downtime.
Preventive maintenance examples
Some preventive maintenance examples may include various activities, such as cleaning, lubrication, part replacement or repair, and even partial or complete overhauls. Similarly, the upkeep of production line machinery to ensure smooth operation or the cleaning, inspection, and upgrades of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems also serve as examples of preventive maintenance.
To ensure effective preventive maintenance, you can use real-time data analysis to plan and schedule maintenance tasks. Computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) supports this. CMMS systems can help organizations organize, track, and examine the condition of their assets. For example, a CMMS system lets you quickly set up preventive maintenance schedules for equipment based on time or usage.
Organizations can perform preventive maintenance while the equipment is still operational to prevent unpredicted breakdowns. Within the maintenance strategy spectrum, a preventive maintenance strategy is a widely adopted approach that sits between reactive maintenance (running equipment to failure) and predictive maintenance.
Below, we have explained the basic difference between reactive and predictive maintenance.
Reactive maintenance
Reactive maintenance involves repairing equipment after a breakdown to restore it to its operational state. Some companies favor this approach because it demands fewer resources in terms of time and personnel for equipment maintenance.
Predictive maintenance
Predictive maintenance, a data-centric approach to maintenance, leverages machine learning algorithms and other predictive technologies to identify potential equipment failures in advance. This method entails gathering data from sensors and various sources and then employing analytics to detect patterns and anomalies that specify equipment issues.
What is a preventive maintenance strategy, and why is it important?
A preventive maintenance strategy involves proactive maintenance of assets to keep them in optimal condition and to minimize the chances of unexpected repairs and safety issues. It effectively addresses factors that could disrupt production, project timelines, or jeopardize the company’s reputation.
Having a preventive maintenance strategy in place is important as it helps organizations:
- Reduce expenses associated with costly repairs
- Minimize downtime by preventing unexpected equipment failures
- Enhance workplace safety by ensuring equipment is not in a hazardous state
What is a preventive maintenance strategy, and why is it important?
A preventive maintenance strategy involves proactive maintenance of assets to keep them in optimal condition and to minimize the chances of unexpected repairs and safety issues. It effectively addresses factors that could disrupt production, project timelines, or jeopardize the company’s reputation.
Having a preventive maintenance strategy in place is important as it helps organizations:
- Reduce expenses associated with costly repairs
- Minimize downtime by preventing unexpected equipment failures
- Enhance workplace safety by ensuring equipment is not in a hazardous state
Preventive maintenance types
Now that you’ve understood the basic concept of preventive maintenance let’s discuss the different types.
There are four major types of preventive maintenance, each revolving around the concept of planned maintenance.
Any planned, documented, and scheduled activity is referred to as planned maintenance. The main purpose of planned maintenance is to minimize downtime. It ensures the availability of resources, such as labor and parts, and a strategic approach to utilize them.
Despite their shared focus on planned maintenance, the different types of preventive maintenance are organized and scheduled differently to meet various business operational needs.
The four preventive maintenance types are as follows:
Usage-based preventive maintenance
Usage-based preventive maintenance is initiated in response to the actual utilization of an asset. This approach considers an asset’s daily utilization or exposure to environmental factors to forecast a future inspection or maintenance task.
Meter-based work orders
Advanced CMMS systems like EZO CMMS offer meters module to its customers which is designed to revolutionize asset management. It provides robust work order tracking and management capabilities for meters associated with various assets.
The meters module allows users to record meter readings for specific assets, set reminders for preventive maintenance scheduling, and create insightful reports. This streamlines the monitoring of asset performance and maintenance schedules.
On the other hand, it also helps optimize operational efficiency, reduce downtime, and improve maintenance practices by utilizing data derived from meter-based readings.
Calendar/time-based preventive maintenance
Calendar or time-based preventive maintenance occurs at pre-scheduled intervals, following a calendar-based timeline. As the scheduled date approaches, the maintenance activities are triggered, and corresponding work orders are generated.
Predictive maintenance
Predictive maintenance is designed to schedule corrective maintenance actions proactively before equipment failure occurs. It necessitates an initial assessment of equipment condition to estimate when maintenance should occur, thereby preventing unexpected breakdowns.
Prescriptive maintenance
Prescriptive maintenance goes beyond predicting failures and their timing. It also explains the reasons behind those failures. This type of preventive maintenance involves an in-depth analysis, exploring various options and potential outcomes to alleviate operational risks effectively.
The advantages of preventive maintenance
A preventive maintenance strategy brings several benefits to the organization, which are as follows:
Enhanced safety
Implementing preventive maintenance strategies can help prevent potentially hazardous breakdowns, thus reducing the risk of injuries and potential liability lawsuits.
Prolonged equipment lifespan
The lifespan of your equipment can be prolonged if it operates according to the recommended guidelines for preventive maintenance. Malfunctioning parts can accelerate wear and tear, leading to costly repairs or replacements.
Increased productivity
Statistical data shows that inadequate maintenance can lead to a 20% reduction in a company’s production capacity. When machines are in better condition, they perform optimally. Therefore, meeting maintenance requirements increases productivity.
Cost reduction
Studies estimate that allowing equipment to operate until failure can result in expenses that are tenfold higher than those incurred through periodic maintenance. These costs arise from unexpected downtimes and repair expenditures. A thorough understanding of maintenance needs enables you to schedule necessary repairs or part replacements at convenient times and determine whether that can be handled in-house or require the help of external professionals.
Lower energy consumption
With an effective preventive maintenance plan, you can derive environmental benefits. Inefficiently maintained electrical assets consume more energy than those in optimal condition. This leads to a direct reduction in energy expenses, providing an additional financial benefit.
Let’s understand how organizations can perform preventive maintenance tasks to prevent unexpected breakdowns and increase operational efficiency.
How to perform preventive maintenance
Performing preventive maintenance effectively involves a systematic approach to ensure that assets and equipment remain in good working condition. Below, we have discussed how to perform preventive maintenance:
- Create an asset list
Make an asset list to identify key items needing maintenance before planning. The size of the list depends on business size and may vary.
- Prioritize critical assets
Not all company assets are equally essential to daily operations. Evaluate your asset list to identify which items are crucial and, if they malfunction, would lead to significant revenue loss. Initially, it is recommended to prioritize crucial assets in your maintenance plan.
To determine critical assets for preventive maintenance, consider their impact on safety, production, historical performance, regulatory compliance, replacement cost, and alignment with strategic goals. You can engage a cross-functional team and implement a scoring system for objective ranking. Also, remember to review and adjust the assessment regularly.
- Determine essential tasks for preventive maintenance
After identifying your crucial assets, you must determine necessary maintenance tasks tailored to your specific needs, ranging from servicing engines to changing light bulbs. It is imperative to include all these tasks in your preventive maintenance plan.
- Set a maintenance schedule
Decide how often you want your maintenance tasks to occur: daily, weekly, monthly, or per safety regulations and experience. You can also adjust the frequency of the tasks as needed over time.
- Establish a maintenance checklist and schedule
The next agenda on your list should be putting your preventive maintenance plan in writing for employees to follow and creating customized preventive maintenance checklists to ensure no tasks are overlooked, allowing employees to track their progress.
- Collaborate with the maintenance team
As a business owner or manager, you must rely on your maintenance team to ensure proper asset maintenance. To kickstart collaboration, you can meet your managers and team leaders and introduce the preventive maintenance strategy to them. Involve your technicians and operators for input on crucial tasks and their scheduling.
- Adjust the plan based on the results
It is recommended that you measure the impact of your preventive maintenance strategy over time. Always check for improved equipment efficiency, reduced unexpected repairs, and decreased downtime. Last but not least, the results should be studied thoroughly to refine the program, considering changes such as adding or reducing maintenance tasks as required.
- Extend the program to additional assets
Your preventive maintenance software should initially focus on high-priority assets and critical maintenance tasks. However, as the program proves effective, you can consider extending it to other assets significant to daily operations, even if they are not initially classified as high-priority.
Challenges of preventive maintenance
While organizations can benefit from preventive maintenance, they must also understand its potential challenges or drawbacks. Let’s discuss some challenges associated with preventive maintenance:
Initial investment
Implementing preventive maintenance requires an initial investment as far as resources, equipment, training, and system setup are concerned. Additionally, implementing GPS tracking for heavy equipment along with preventive maintenance may also add up to the costs. These higher costs can be challenging for some organizations, particularly small businesses.
Over-maintenance risk
Without careful maintenance planning, there’s a possibility that equipment may be serviced more frequently than required, leading to a waste of resources and time.
Resource allocation
Dedicated maintenance teams are required for routine maintenance checks, which can strain the available workforce in some organizations.
Equipment downtime
Though preventive maintenance is performed to reduce unplanned downtime, sometimes the scheduled maintenance can lead to operational pauses, which must be managed.
Scheduling complexity
As the number of assets grows in an organization, scheduling preventive maintenance for each asset can become increasingly challenging.
The future of preventive maintenance with AI and IoT
AI and IoT technologies in operations are proving to be a game-changer for organizations. The increasing use of AI and IoT in maintenance operations has brought valuable enhances in the assets and processes that drive the industrial sector.
As we look ahead to the future of preventive maintenance, it is evident that remote monitoring of assets and data analysis have already reduced the amount of resources needed to perform maintenance tasks.
From an asset viewpoint, the ability to gather and analyze more information through AI and IoT technologies has provided organizations with valuable insights, improving the reliability of their operations and products.
This detailed analysis enables organizations to evaluate the quality of their assets, leading to developing asset lifecycle strategies to stop using poorly performing equipment, ultimately reducing unplanned downtime and costs.
Conclusion
Organizations can seamlessly implement a robust preventive maintenance strategy by incorporating a CMMS system such as EZO CMMS. It centralizes asset data, streamlines scheduling, and provides real-time insights for informed decision-making.
