Companies that wait for things to go wrong before addressing them are just asking for trouble. They also spend thousands of dollars each year reacting to disasters rather than preventing them in the first place.
A consistent preventive maintenance program on the correct assets is the key to lowering costs, boosting dependability, and extending equipment life spans. If you don’t already have a preventative maintenance program in place, it’s time to develop one. This piece will explain how to put an effective preventive maintenance schedule in place for your business.
Preventative maintenance
Preventive maintenance is the care and servicing of organizational assets to keep them in good working order by routine inspections and observations to discover and fix flaws before they cause a catastrophic breakdown.
Preventative maintenance checklist
A preventive maintenance checklist is an itemized list of written activities that guides technicians through a preventative maintenance process for an asset (PM). For example, while doing preventive maintenance on an electrical system, the technician might consult an electrical preventive maintenance checklist for guidance.          Â
How to Make a Schedule for Preventive Maintenance
Using these steps to design and implement an effective preventative maintenance program will keep your facility functioning smoothly.
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Form a PM Team.
Before you can start organizing your preventative maintenance plan, you must first get the proper personnel on board. Include senior management, maintenance managers, maintenance technicians, and any other personnel familiar with your system’s operation. Personnel from data processing, accounting, artisans, and manufacturing and production control members might all be included.
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Determine your objectives and priorities.
Define the objectives of your preventative maintenance program. What is your goal? How can I save money on maintenance? To avoid malfunctions that have previously jeopardized the company’s regular operation? To safeguard pricey equipment that is difficult to replace?
For example, in a factory, the primary goal is to maintain the entire production line operational — rather than save money.
Before committing finances and resources to develop a preventative maintenance program, it’s a good idea to define the effort’s particular aims. These objectives should be linked to specific indicators that can be affected favorably by the PM program. The goals assist in keeping the team on track and make decision-making easier when deciding job priority.
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Take an inventory of your assets.
Meticulously list all of your machinery, equipment, supplies, and vehicles that require regular maintenance. Make a list of all the equipment needed for your business to function well by walking around your work locations. A successful preventative maintenance strategy begins with explicit knowledge of what must be maintained.
Each item must be uploaded to the tracking system and designated as inventory before maintenance work can be scheduled and allocated. Creating a comprehensive list of essential assets is a critical first step in any maintenance management program. Most CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) solutions offer a visual asset hierarchy that makes it simple to assign and examine the links between various asset systems. After you’ve established your asset database, take the time to prioritize the essential assets to ensure that these maintenance requirements are addressed first when the new system is ready.
When inventorying assets, keep the following in mind:
- Warranty terms
- The manufacturer’s recommendations or user manual regarding equipment maintenance
- Data from previous checks to verify the operation of the equipment
- Data from previous repairs, more so if parts were replaced
All of this information will help you determine how frequently you should perform preventative maintenance: daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, biannually, or annually.
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Create a Strategy for Each Asset
Each asset will have distinct requirements that the preventative maintenance program must meet. Consider possible failure areas, existing maintenance plans, and basic functionality while examining each piece of equipment to build your strategy. Some parts of asset maintenance may be better suited for predictive or corrective maintenance work. Those most suited for preventative maintenance should eventually be allocated a fixed timetable, process, and responsibilities.
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Create key performance indicators (KPIs) for the preventive maintenance plan.
If you’ve established objectives, you’ll want to know if you’ve met them. To track the progress and efficacy of the maintenance plan, performance indicators (KPIs) must be defined ahead of time.
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Staff Training
Don’t throw all of your meticulous planning and hard work away by failing to teach the individuals who will be working with and overseeing the upkeep of your equipment. Speak with each machine operator and show proper daily maintenance and adjustment methods.
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Examine and improve
Nothing is flawless! Regularly review the maintenance plan, KPIs, and reports and make changes as appropriate. Also, check with the manufacturers for the most recent information on maintenance methods.
Winding up
A CMMS software is an excellent tool for staying organized and managing maintenance work in a single location. You may use CMMS software to allocate tasks to personnel, track equipment performance, and submit work orders for reactive maintenance as needed.
If you decide to use a software system to help you carry out your preventative maintenance program, ensure that your personnel are adequately taught how to use it.
