PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE By: Mary Solomon Inyang

DEFINITIONS Preventive maintenance refers to regular, routine maintenance to help keep equipment up and running, preventing any unplanned downtime and expensive costs from unanticipated equipment failure. It requires careful planning and scheduling of maintenance on equipment before there is an actual problem as well as keeping accurate records of past inspections and servicing reports. Preventive management can be very complex, especially for companies with a lot of equipment. For this reason, many companies rely on preventive maintenance software to help organize and carry out all their preventive maintenance needs.preventive maintenance software

What Does Preventive Maintenance Include? Preventive maintenance involves the systematic inspection of equipment where potential problems are detected and corrected in order to prevent equipment failure before it happens. In practice, a preventive maintenance schedule may include things such as cleaning, lubrication, oil changes, adjustments, repairs, inspecting and replacing parts, and partial or complete overhauls that are regularly scheduled.

Preventive maintenance includes much more than simply performing routine maintenance on equipment. It also involves maintaining accurate records of every inspection and servicing, as well as knowing the lifespan of each part to understand the replacement frequency. These records can help maintenance technicians anticipate the appropriate time to change parts and can also help diagnose problems when they occur.

What Are the Benefits of Preventive Maintenance? Preventive maintenance offers companies a number of important benefits including Prolonged life of company equipment Less unplanned downtime caused by equipment failure Less unnecessary maintenance and inspections Fewer errors in day-to-day operations Improved reliability of equipment

Fewer expensive repairs caused by unexpected equipment failure that must be fixed quickly Reduced risk of injury Ideally, a preventive maintenance schedule will prevent all equipment failure before it occurs. It will save time, reduce costs, and keep an operation running efficiently and productively.

How Can Preventive Maintenance Software Help? Many companies choose preventive maintenance software to coordinate all their preventive maintenance tasks because it simplifies what is otherwise a complex process. Preventive maintenance software stores a company’s maintenance data on a computer (or in the cloud) to easily keep track of all inspections, repairs and replacements. With all data conveniently stored in one place, preventive maintenance software can be used to effectively manage work orders, purchase orders, inventory and maintenance records. Preventive maintenance software even prioritizes maintenance tasks and gathers information a technician needs to perform maintenance work.work orderspurchase ordersinventory

Preventive maintenance software offers a number of key benefits. It helps manage all maintenance tasks (and the records of those tasks) so maintenance operations will run smoothly. It can also save on maintenance costs because the system can plan and prioritize maintenance tasks based on operations, therefore minimizing the disruption to the work schedule when maintenance is performed. Finally, preventive maintenance software takes the burden of administrative duties off technicians’ shoulders so they can better focus on their job.

Preventive maintenance is designed to keep equipment running and operations productive. By staying on top of maintenance tasks, maintenance professionals can prevent unplanned downtime that in turn saves a company time and money. The coordination of a preventive maintenance schedule can be very complex, but the use of preventive maintenance software simplifies the process, making preventive maintenance attainable for any business wanting to improve their overall maintenance operations.

The importance of preventive maintenance The term ‘if it’s not broken, don’t fix it’ still applies to many industries. But due to increasing costs of downtime, we want to emphasize on the benefits of preventive maintenance. 1.Operator and machine safety By performing a regular preventive maintenance, you are assured your equipment remains to operate under safe conditions, both for the machine and the operators. Possible issues can be nipped in the but before they have a chance to cause harm.

2.Machine efficiency Normal wear and tear can result in lower machine efficiency. Preventive maintenance assures optimal working conditions and conserves the life span of the equipment. 3.Time savings A planned preventive maintenance may cause small hindrance for production, but that is nothing compared to actual downtime caused by a breakdown. Because it is planned, production can propose the optimal time and can factor in the nuisance. Preventative maintenance procedures take less time than emergency repairs and replacements.

What is the difference between preventive and corrective maintenance Corrective maintenance can be defined as a maintenance task performed to identify, isolate, and rectify a fault so that the failed equipment, machine, or asset can be restored to an operational condition within the tolerances or limits established for in-service operations. Corrective maintenance is maintenance which is carried out after failure detection and is aimed at restoring an asset to a condition in which it can perform its intended function.

Preventive maintenance (PM) has the following meanings: The care and servicing by qualified personnel for the purpose of maintaining equipment and facilities in satisfactory operating condition by providing for systematic inspection, detection, and correction of incipient failures either before they occur or before they develop into major defects. Maintenance, including tests, measurements, adjustments, and parts replacement, performed specifically to prevent faults from occurring.

Difference between Preventive and Predictive Maintenance Predictive maintenance tends to include direct measurement of the item. Example, an infrared picture of a circuit board to determine hot spots. While Preventive Maintenance includes the evaluation of particles in suspension in a lubricant, sound and vibration analysis of a machine.

The Value of Preventive and Predictive Maintenance The main value of Predictive Maintenance is to allow convenient scheduling of corrective maintenance, and to prevent unexpected equipment failures. The key is “the right information in the right time”. By knowing which equipment needs maintenance, work can be better planned (spare parts, people etc.) What would have been “unplanned stops” are transformed to shorter and fewer “planned stops”, thus increasing plant availability. Other advantages include increased equipment lifetime, increased plant safety, and optimized spare parts handling.

Moreover, the planned maintenance of equipment will help improve equipment life and avoid any unplanned maintenance activity. A successful preventive maintenance program is dependent on the cooperation of all the parties involved. Maintenance managers must rely on the knowledge, ideas, and contributions of all the maintenance personnel at the property. The implementation of a preventive maintenance program can be time consuming and costly. This creates constant debate as to whether a preventive maintenance program is worth utilizing.

Will the man hours and money invested in the program outweigh emergency repairs? From our experience, we believe that when a program is properly operated the benefits exceed the costs.

Here are other important benefits of a properly operated preventive maintenance program: Production capacity is increased and the number of repairs are reduced Better conservation of assets and increased life expectancy of assets, thereby eliminating premature replacement of machinery and equipment Reduced overtime costs and more economical use of maintenance workers due to working on a scheduled basis instead of an emergency basis to repair breakdowns Timely, routine repairs circumvent fewer large-scale repairs Improved safety and quality conditions for everyone