A Complete Guide to Preventive Maintenance and Best Practices for Implementation
As the term suggests, preventive maintenance’s focus is on prevention. It’s not about addressing problems once they arise, or using a band-aid approach to keep operations going. This old-school and inefficient approach is referred to as run to fail . While there may be some short term benefits with it, overall, this approach has been shown to be very costly and inefficient because unanticipated equipment failures slow down production and delay orders. Reactive maintenance or conducting repairs as needed, always costs more because it is unplanned.
By performing regular preventive maintenance on key assets and machines, maintenance and facilities managers can identify and address potential problems before they turn into major issues resulting in costly downtime and repairs.
Regular maintenance helps businesses reduce downtime and costly repairs, and adhere to preventive maintenance compliance, regulatory and safety standards. This ultimately translates into lower costs and increased productivity for businesses.
Plant Engineering reported that given the benefits, 80% of industries worldwide are now opting for preventive maintenance as their leading maintenance strategy.
Perhaps it is time to consider where your own business stands with respect to implementing a preventive maintenance strategy.
Is your facility experiencing the cost saving benefits of a consistently implemented preventive maintenance program?
Preventive maintenance involves performing routine tasks on a scheduled basis to prevent breakdowns and extend the lifespan of your equipment. Detecting potential issues before they escalate into major problems can result in cost-savings on repairs and replacements, minimize downtime, and enhance the dependability and productivity of operations. In simple business operations, it boils down to knowing and following proven steps in conducting preventive maintenance.
Having a preventive maintenance plan in place helps organizations avoid costly replacements. Preventive maintenance, therefore, is an important aspect of any businesses’ operation, providing several key benefits.
What makes preventive maintenance critical for your business?
The answer can be found in the 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle which was named after the Italian economist, Vilfredo Pareto.
According to a report, the majority of losses experienced by organizations can be attributed to a small number of failure events, typically less than 20%.
These 20% of failure events can then lead to 80% or greater of losses incurred.
When priority is given to identifying and analyzing these critical events, organizations quickly realize a positive impact on their bottom line. Implementing preventive maintenance strategies that address these chronic failures reduce labor hours, minimize material waste, and increase overall production efficiency.
This not only improves the quality of the end product, but also reduces the risk of safety and environmental incidents. Customers are also happier because they are getting orders on time without unexpected delays.
By implementing a regular maintenance schedule for your equipment, you can enjoy a range of advantages that will help your business run more smoothly and improve your bottom line. When done properly, preventive maintenance can also assist with the following:
Catch small issues and address them with simple repairs, rather than expensive replacements. As a rule, preventive maintenance is much less costly than reactive or corrective maintenance.
By performing maintenance on a regular schedule, businesses can avoid unexpected downtime and keep their operations running smoothly.
Regular maintenance can extend the lifespan of equipment and reduce the risk of costly breakdowns, increasing overall reliability.
Well-maintained equipment runs more efficiently, reducing energy consumption and saving money on utility bills. Reliable equipment and reduced downtime can help increase productivity and meet production goals.
Meet safety regulations and standards and reduce the risk of fines and legal liabilities. Be able to provide a record of preventive maintenance on assets and facilities during audits to prove compliance and avoid any potential fine.
Well-maintained equipment runs more efficiently, reducing energy consumption and saving money on utility bills. Reliable equipment and reduced downtime can help increase productivity and meet production goals.
While the many advantages of preventive maintenance are notable, there are also some challenges and pitfalls that maintenance professionals should be aware of.
Implementing a preventive maintenance program requires an upfront investment in technology, personnel, and training. To begin, organizations need to invest in CMMS or similar maintenance management software that tracks preventive maintenance activities. Then, company staff need to be trained on how to use the system. Both take an investment in time, energy and money.
Businesses can sometimes fall into the trap of performing too much maintenance, wasting time and resources on tasks that aren’t necessary. It’s important to strike the right balance between preventive maintenance and cost-effectiveness.
While this may be a downside to implementing preventive maintenance, the benefits generally outweigh the negatives. It is important for businesses to weigh the pros and cons of any maintenance program before implementing it and make informed decisions based on their specific needs and circumstances.
If you’ve already decided which type of maintenance strategy is best for managing your equipment, the next step is to create your preventive maintenance plan.
Planning is key to ensuring your equipment runs smoothly and reliably. Preventive maintenance planning involves scheduling maintenance activities ahead of time, reducing the risk of equipment failure and unscheduled downtime. Each asset you own will have a prescribed preventive maintenance schedule with specific tasks that need to be performed.
Businesses that rely on heavy equipment, machinery, and vehicles need to have a structured plan that outlines regular inspections, cleaning, servicing, and repairs. This is called a preventive maintenance program, and ensures that everything is functioning at optimal levels.
By assessing your equipment needs, creating a maintenance plan, and tracking performance, you can maximize your equipment reliability and ensure it stays in tip- top shape.
The following are the steps in building an effective preventive maintenance program that will save you time and money, while improving equipment reliability!
What are your business goals?
Do you want to reduce downtime, minimize repair costs, or improve equipment reliability?
Start by defining clear goals and objectives in creating a successful preventive maintenance plan that aligns with your business strategy.
Once you’ve defined your goals and objectives, it’s time to create a maintenance plan that outlines the preventive maintenance tasks required for each piece of equipment. This includes equipment identification, maintenance frequency, and a list of required tasks for each piece of equipment.
Investing in a preventive maintenance software can take your program to the next level!
A centralized software not only holds all of your preventive maintenance data in a single cloud-based platform that is accessible to your team from anywhere, but also empowers team members to collaborate more efficiently without having to rely on paper, spreadsheets or other offline formats. This promotes better communication, coordination, and decision-making.
The software also automates the maintenance process, tracks maintenance history, schedules tasks, and alerts technicians when maintenance is required. Preventive maintenance software also provides valuable insights into equipment performance and maintenance costs.
According to a report by ATS, 80% of companies have found that using preventive maintenance software helps them achieve higher levels of productivity.
Next, consider the steps you plan to take in implementing a preventive maintenance management software and boost your productivity.
The success of your preventive maintenance program depends on having a team of skilled personnel with a proven track record and understanding for preventive maintenance. Be sure to hire qualified technicians who have experience with the type of equipment being maintained.
Also, make sure that you not only hire the right people but also ensure that their responsibilities are well-defined and communicated. The table below provides a useful guide in this regard. Since requirements vary across industries and businesses, use the table below as a starting point and add or modify as needed.
Finally, training and education of team members are essential components of preventive maintenance planning.
Ensure that stakeholders are trained in safety procedures and how to properly maintain equipment to minimize the risk of accidents and maximize the lifespan of equipment. Keep your team up-to-date with the latest technologies and techniques to maintain industry best practices.
By following these steps, you can create a preventive maintenance program that saves you time and money while improving equipment reliability.
By following these steps, organizations can achieve successful CMMS integration that aligns with their goals and requirements. Successful integration empowers organizations to optimize maintenance operations, improve data accuracy, enhance decision-making, and unlock the full potential of their CMMS investment.
There is a difference between a “preventive maintenance schedule” and a “preventive maintenance plan”.
A preventive maintenance plan is a high-level strategy that outlines the goals, objectives, and overall approach for maintaining equipment.
Consider it as a macro view of your maintenance program. It includes things like, defining maintenance objectives, identifying the equipment to be maintained, and establishing the resources needed to carry out the maintenance program.
On the other hand, a preventive maintenance schedule is a detailed plan that outlines the specific tasks and activities required to maintain each piece of equipment in a facility.
It includes things like, maintenance frequency, specific maintenance tasks to be performed, and the resources needed to carry out those tasks. Consider it as a day-to-day schedule of your maintenance program.
Simply put, a preventive maintenance plan is the roadmap for your maintenance program, while a preventive maintenance schedule is the day-to-day plan for executing that roadmap.
If your business needs to avoid unexpected equipment failures and downtime or wants to minimize repair costs and extend the lifespan of your equipment, the a preventive maintenance schedule should be considered.
As noted previously, a preventive maintenance schedule is a facility’s roadmap. It keeps track of when maintenance tasks need to be performed, which equipment needs attention, and who is responsible for carrying out those tasks.
The logical first question when creating a preventive maintenance schedule is asking, “Where do I begin?”
Start by taking a comprehensive inventory of all the equipment in your workplace that needs maintenance. This could include anything from heavy machinery to office equipment. Make sure to list all the equipment details such as the make, model, and serial number.
Once you have identified the equipment, determine the maintenance tasks required for each piece of equipment. This could include visual inspections, cleaning, lubrication, calibration, and repair work.
Determine the frequency of maintenance tasks for each piece of equipment. This could vary depending on the type of equipment, its age, the level of use it undergoes as well as recommendations made by the manufacturer.
Create a schedule that outlines the maintenance tasks required for each pieceof equipment and the frequency of these tasks. Make sure to assign pecific technicians to each piece of equipment and ensure that they have the ecessary training and tools to carry out the maintenance tasks.
Building an effective preventive maintenance schedule is only half the battle - the other half is making sure it gets implemented.
Implement the preventive maintenance schedule by regularly conducting maintenance tasks as per the schedule. Make sure to record all maintenance activities and track any changes to the schedule or equipment details.
Regularly monitor the performance of the equipment and adjust the maintenance schedule as necessary. This could include increasing or decreasing the frequency of maintenance tasks or changing the maintenance asks themselves.
Remember, an effective preventive maintenance schedule is key to maintaining the performance and longevity of your equipment.
Maintenance culture matters and because of this creating a healthy maintenance culture is vital.
Essentially, it involves promoting an organizational culture that values maintenance and emphasizes the importance of maintaining equipment. To achieve this, businesses should:
Metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) are critical in tracking progress and identifying areas for improvement in preventive maintenance programs. Here are some useful metrics and KPIs to consider
This refers to how long your equipment is up and running, and ready for use. When your equipment is available more often, it means less downtime and increased productivity. When machines are down for hours, production is affected and the potential loss of customers may also be a concern.
Improving equipment uptime and availability is a critical goal of preventive maintenance as it reduces downtime and improves productivity.
This is a measure of the average time between equipment failures. If an asset is constantly breaking down, considerable time and money will be spent repairing it. On the other hand, a reliable asset that doesn’t require frequent repairs, will operate better and save time and money.
A higher MTBF indicates that equipment is more reliable and requires less maintenance.
This KPI refers to how long it takes to repair equipment after a failure. The shorter the TTR, the better. That means equipment back up and running faster, which translates to less downtime and more productivity.
Planned Maintenance Percentage measures the percentage of maintenance tasks that are planned and scheduled in advance. A higher PMP is optimal. It translate into being proactive when conducting maintenance tasks, and potentially less likely to experience unplanned downtime.
Overall Equipment Effectiveness takes into account factors like availability, performance, and quality to measure how efficiently equipment is being used. Improving OEE is a crucial goal of preventive maintenance, as it leads to increased productivity and less downtime.
Tracking and analyzing these KPIs can help business owners make informed decisions and optimize a preventive maintenance program for success. By taking them into account, down time is reduced, productivity is increased, and ultimately time and money is saved.
To start, it’s important to remember that preventive maintenance programs are fluid and not static. They should be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure they stay relevant and effective. Here are some tips to keep in mind
By keeping a close eye on certain types of data, trends and areas for improvement can be identified, and progress can be tracked. The following are some examples of data to track and analyze:
Equipment performance data provides valuable insight into the health of equipment.
By keeping abreast on factors such as temperature, pressure, and vibration, problems can be identified before they escalate into something more serious. It provides a warning in advance of an equipment failure. Moreover in doing so, it can save considerable time and money on costly repairs.
Performance data can be plotted on the PF curve to provide a visual representation of the equipment’s potential failure rate over its remaining useful life (RUL).
By using equipment performance data to build and analyze the PF curve, the following can be identified: early life failure (ELF) period, useful life (UL) period, and wear-out (WO) period of the equipment. This helps maintenance managers plan and schedule preventive maintenance tasks more effectively, by performing maintenance tasks during the UL period to minimize the risk of failure and extend the RUL of the equipment.
This includes information about previous maintenance tasks carried out on the equipment, such as work orders, inspections, repairs, and replacements. By looking at this data, patterns and trends in equipment performance can be identified, which helps in scheduling preventive maintenance tasks more effectively.
This KPI refers to how long it takes to repair equipment after a failure. The shorter the TTR, the better. That means equipment back up and running faster, which translates to less downtime and more productivity.
This data includes information about the inventory levels of spare parts and the usage of those parts in maintenance tasks.
By analyzing this data, inventory levels can be optimized, timely availability of spare parts can be ensured, and the downtime caused by unavailability of necessary parts can be decreased.
The sooner an effective preventive maintenance program is implemented, the sooner results will be seen. The following are some tips to consider:
By following these best practices to design and implementing an effective preventive maintenance program, the lifespan and efficiency of your equipment can be maximized while also minimizing unplanned downtime.
Preventive maintenance helps businesses become more sustainable. By reducing energy consumption, waste, and environmental impact, it can contribute to a greener planet. A successful sustainable preventive maintenance program requires a comprehensive approach that takes into account environmental and social factors in addition to financial considerations.
The following are some sustainable preventive maintenance practices that can help businesses achieve their sustainability goals.
Conducting regular energy audits to identify areas where energy can be conserved and then implementing preventive maintenance practices to ensure equipment is functioning efficiently.
Procuring equipment and materials that are energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, and have a long lifespan. Establishing recycling programs to properly dispose of used equipment or parts.
Implementing preventive maintenance practices that reduce waste, such as properly maintaining equipment to prevent leaks or spills.
Implementing a comprehensive asset management program to extend the life of equipment and reduce the need for replacement.
By adopting sustainable preventive maintenance practices, organizations can not only reduce their environmental impact but also realize significant cost savings over the long term.
Preventive maintenance is a proactive approach to maintenance that involves regularly scheduled maintenance tasks. Reactive maintenance, on the other hand, involves responding to equipment failures as they occur. Preventive maintenance aims to prevent breakdowns from happening in the first place, while reactive maintenance involves addressing issues after they've already occurred.
The frequency of preventive maintenance tasks depends on the equipment being serviced and the specific maintenance tasks required. Some tasks may need to be performed daily, while others may be performed weekly, monthly, or annually. A preventive maintenance program should be customized to meet the specific needs of each piece of equipment.
To create a preventive maintenance program, businesses should start by establishing goals and objectives, creating a maintenance plan, selecting the right tools and equipment, hiring the right people, and providing training and education. It's also important to regularly review and update the program to ensure that it stays up-to-date and effective.
Preventive maintenance software can help businesses improve maintenance planning and scheduling, increase asset lifespan, reduce costs and downtime, and increase productivity and efficiency. The software can also help track and analyze data and ensure that the preventive maintenance program stays up-to-date.
When choosing preventive maintenance software, businesses should consider factors such as the features offered, ease of use, integration with existing systems, and cost. It's also important to choose software that meets the specific needs of the business and the equipment being serviced.
To ensure that a preventive maintenance program is compliant with regulations, businesses should familiarize themselves with relevant regulations and compliance requirements and ensure that their program meets these requirements. It may also be helpful to work with regulatory experts or consultants to ensure that the program is fully compliant.
