Preventive maintenance is a regular and pre-planned program of maintenance, which is done regularly to check and repair all the equipment in the organization. Preventive maintenance refers to routine maintenance, in which equipment is checked and repaired at regular intervals (with or without wear and tear) that are scheduled in advance.
This process is actually pre-planned, the maintenance engineer (who will do it). The time and place are also decided by the maintenance chief officer. This pre-planning is given to the maintenance engineer in the form of his work list.
Why is preventive maintenance done?
- This process, as I said, is pre-planned, before which the equipment is taken care of for the purpose of maintaining it so that no small problem turns into a big one in future and all the functions of the equipment go on smoothly.
- This process includes maintenance, testing, measurement, adjustment, parts replacement, and cleaning, especially in order to prevent defects from occurring.
- If any equipment is taken care of regularly, it is natural that the cost of its maintenance and breakage or malfunction can be reduced gradually.
Which is the correct preventive or preventive maintenance?
There is almost no difference between the two, the wording is different the methodology and the function is the same which is to prevent anything bad from happening to the device before it happens. Today both these words are used in any organization, it is obvious that according to their own people do both to make their internal works look a little more effective and to identify the works with words.
Benefits of Preventive Maintenance
- The main objective of preventive maintenance is to increase the life cycle of the equipment and at the same time to control the expenditure incurred on the equipment.
- Appliances have to be provided with maximum efficiency so that they run more efficiently, obviously reducing electricity expenses and other resource consumption.
- Increases asset performance by increasing equipment up time.
- Smoothly running equipment can quickly fix faults because maintenance teams have less unplanned maintenance and can react more quickly to new problems.
- Increases customer service, as managers can focus more on the product and its delivery.
Remember, preventive maintenance is regular, planned work designed to prevent something bad from happening before it happens. However, now most of these companies are making it a primary part of maintenance.
What are elements of Preventive maintenance?
As you know, the preventive maintenance is regular requires performing for maintaining the better condition of the machinery or equipment. It is preventing failure / break downs in regular operations. To effectively implement the preventive maintenance in the production facility, we have to clearly understand the basic elements of preventive maintenance. Here are below basic elements are given:
Planning of schedules
The plan section includes development of schedules for selected machinery / equipment. The schedule may content:
- Frequency of maintenance for each machine.
- List of machines where require maintenance.
- Details of date and time when maintenance tasks will be performed.
- List of tasks: such as replacement of parts, repairing of any part of machine etc.
- Name of team individuals who are going to perform these tasks.
Usually, the preventive maintenance tasks are performing when the equipment / machinery are not in use, or ideal time. It will be minimized down time.
Training to maintenance team
This is really very important part of any business to perform accurate and successful management. Typically for maintenance department, the training contains following information:
- Detailed information of each equipment / machinery which is in scope of maintenance team.
- Procedure of maintenance to each team member.
- Safety precautions, protocols, and details of labels.
- Training for uses of maintenance tools, equipment, and other gadgets are require for maintenance.
Training is increasing the knowledge and skills that necessary to carry out maintenance tasks. It is also necessary for safety point of view.
Monitoring and inspection
Regular inspecting machinery / equipment is part of the preventive maintenance, even it is necessary. Actually, there is two types of monitoring and inspection process can be done. First is visual and second it is monitoring using devices.
The visual inspection is conducts by maintenance team, wherein inspector check the machinery parts, motion, and other require parts condition visually. Even it can check machine sound and signs, such as wear and tear, damage, or other damage that may results machine failure.
At in the monitoring, there are require using some specific devices and equipment where maintenance team can review the condition on received data. The monitoring performs using sensors, scanners, or specific devices that can detect the issues which are not visible to the naked eye.
Cleaning & Lubrication
In any industry, cleaning and lubrication can be important task for maintenance department. Mostly where machine or equipment having rotating or moving parts. The lubrication requires to apply on the moving parts to reduce frictions and reduce wear and tear. Same as cleaning of the machine is also similar important as other works. Hence, cleaning is first and all the remains’ works are require to perform later on for maintenance tasks.
Adjustment on time to time
Mostly in manufacturing units, there are frequently machines are running for the production lines. Hence, it is very important that the machines require to reconfiguration on time to time. Generally, maintenance department are conducting the adjustment tasks when machine is not in use. The adjustment process may include adjusting belts, chains, or other components that may stretch over time.
Maintaining records
This is one of the important elements of the preventive actions. When maintenance department conduct any task at the production floor, it is required to keep note in the record file to save evidence of the tasks conducted during the time. These records are also helpful for the prepare next schedule for the machinery maintenance.
The records are helpful for various works, such as tracking equipment performance, identify potential problems with machinery, conditions of machinery etc.