Preventive Maintenance: The Importance of Preventive Maintenance and How to Implement a Successful Program

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Equipment maintenance is vital in companies. It involves more than knowing you are using the latest.

It is also essential to ensure the equipment is running efficiently and is getting the proper repairs and maintenance. You don’t wish to realize your equipment requires repair or might break down during a critical operation. If it does, it means lost time and money and could even lead to injuries.

For this reason, facility managers need to employ preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance is a systematic strategy that predicts equipment failures before they occur. That means conducting routine inspections and maintaining and repairing assets to ensure they are in perfect working condition.

The best way to operate in a business is to prevent issues rather than reacting to them when they happen. Therefore, total preventive maintenance is crucial to reduce the probability of unexpected equipment failure by optimizing equipment performance.

To stay on top of preventive maintenance, facilities need to schedule regular equipment inspections, clean buildings, and assets, adjust equipment controls for maximized performance, lubricate moving parts to prevent wear and tear, and repair and replace worn-out parts.


Different Types of Preventive Maintenance

Different Types of Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance takes different approaches. Nonetheless, every process is meant to keep equipment in top-notch condition and optimize its performance.


Time-Based Maintenance

This approach involves preventive maintenance based on time intervals. It could be a week, a month, or a year. It consists in setting a preventive maintenance schedule for regular inspection services on pieces of equipment, especially those with the most significant impact on production.


Condition-based Maintenance

This is another form of preventive maintenance that monitors equipment condition and determines the kind of service it needs. It dictates that care should be conducted if specific signs like decreased performance.

For example, you can set a threshold for equipment vibration where lubrication or replacement must be completed if the part reaches the point.


Usage-Based Maintenance

This type of maintenance is based on how much a piece of equipment is utilized daily. It is also known as runtime maintenance since it triggers maintenance in kilometers, hours, miles, and production cycles.

It ensures equipment is operating according to its intention and capacity. Unlike time-based maintenance that is calendar-based, this maintenance occurs often depending on how much equipment is used.


Actions for Successful Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance is proactive and involves essential things:

Inspection

Inspecting equipment is necessary for an organization to ensure they are safe. It helps prevent injuries, protects property, and prevents loss of operation.

Detection

When you operate a piece of equipment about to fail, you cost the company a significant loss of time and money. That is why preventive maintenance is critical to detect issues early. It will be easy and inexpensive to solve them during their early stages.

Correction

Once you can detect issues early, correcting them before they occur and providing proper care to your equipment is easy. Once you notice a problem, you can take prompt steps before the equipment shuts down.

Prevention

Combining inspection, early detection, and correction helps prevent equipment failure in the long run. It reduces stress and improves productivity. When your equipment works as per its capability, your team can be proactive on maintenance tasks.


The Benefits of Preventive Maintenance

The Benefits of Preventive Maintenance

There are two significant benefits of preventive maintenance-to increase asset productivity and longevity and to keep equipment safe for use. However, numerous other benefits come with preventive maintenance. They include:

  • Preventing the unexpected and unplanned breakdowns of vital equipment
  • Reducing or slowing down equipment depreciation
  • Eliminating unnecessary maintenance and inspections
  • Saving money by extending the lifespan of assets
  • Preparing for future issues and preventing them from occurring
  • Reducing property and employee risks

Key Takeaways

Preventive maintenance help facility managers stay ahead of maintenance tasks and save money. Using suitable approaches can reduce the likelihood of equipment breakdown and increase efficiency. It is the best maintenance approach since it is more accessible, and you can incorporate CMMS software more effectively.

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