Preventive Maintenance

 Do you have an effective maintenance plan in place? Allow us to shine some light on the pros and cons of preventive maintenance.

WHAT IS PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE:

Preventive maintenance is equipment and facilities maintenance planned in advance for the purpose of improving equipment longevity, avoiding parts failure, and reducing downtime. Activities include the scheduling and completion of testing, inspection, and replacement of equipment or its parts.

Preventive maintenance is most easily related to the upkeep of your vehicle. You regularly have the oil changed, less frequently replace the brake pads, and probably replace the timing belt only once. That timing belt replacement is a costly job, but crucial to keeping your car on the road. While the brakes are also important, they don’t need to be changed as often as the oil. Most equipment is much like a car. Some parts only require minimal upkeep while others warrant a critical part replacement to prevent the risk of critical failure.

Many automation systems rely on pneumatic components for process and machine control. The motion on these parts is often fast and highly repetitive, and the functions these components perform are crucial to the machine’s functionality. Preventive maintenance is one way to ensure your systems remain productive and efficient.

Replacing filters on a regular basis is an easy, yet effective method of preventive maintenance.

 

BENEFITS OF PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE:

Are you a fan of equipment failures, unexpected costs, and production delays? Neither are we. When parts break, production halts and every minute is money lost. Preventive maintenance is implemented to minimize breakdowns and reduce costs. Neither your equipment nor your facility should be operating to their breaking point.

Preventive maintenance measures provide many benefits. They:

· Reduce costs

· Prevent parts failure

· Lengthen equipment lifespan

· Improve employee efficiency

· Ensure safety

If you’re in an industry involving the regular use of equipment, the implementation of a proper preventive maintenance (PM) plan is a beneficial investment.

ASSOCIATED RISKS:

Risks related to the improper completion of preventive maintenance should not go unmentioned. Any time a part is touched, it has a greater risk of failure. A part or any nearby parts risk damage during testing, inspection, or replacement. An important part of proper preventive maintenance implementation should be the training of all individuals responsible for maintenance.

Also worth noting are the cost risks. Excessive inspections and replacements could lead to a net loss in maintenance. Ensure a maintenance schedule that reduces repair costs without overspending the savings. Money spent on prevention will almost always be less than repairs. Risk mitigation can be achieved through quality controls.

IMPLEMENTATION OF PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE:

Preventive maintenance is best implemented early. While it will provide the mentioned benefits sooner, it will also be easier to understand and plan properly. Maintenance on an increasing number of machines and tasks can become complicated to plan. Software exists to aid in the creation of your custom preventive maintenance plan. There are free and paid versions. The larger your operation, the more likely planning software will be beneficial.

An assessment should first be made to determine what scale of maintenance is needed. Preventive maintenance schedules should be optimized to reduce repair costs. Remember, you don’t replace your brakes with every oil change.

Quality control is important to us and our customers. If it is to you too, consider implementing a preventive maintenance process.

AND FINALLY…

We hope this blog has provided insight into preventive maintenance. Feel free to contact us with any further questions.