Preventive maintenance can be sometimes referred to as Scheduled maintenance. It simply means taking necessary actions and precautions to prevent machinery failure or accidents from happening even before they occur. By carrying out preventive maintenance routines, including cleaning, inspections, cleaning up business premises, lubricating, adjustments, etc., minor issues can be discovered and corrected before aggravating a significant problem leading to a pricey production operation shutdown.
Studies have shown that more than 80% of companies have experienced an unforeseen outage in less than three years. As such, a well-thought-out, clearly defined preventive maintenance plan is a critical first step for the long-term success of a business.
Preventive maintenance is usually applied to replace consumables and machinery assets that have been shown to pack up frequently based on the mean time between failure records. Notably, any maintenance that is not reactive is ultimately preventive. The disadvantage of preventive care is that machinery parts may be replaced before they start to weaken. Also, with preventive maintenance, there’s a possibility that collateral damage may occur with such care.
However, the advantages of preventive maintenance are numerous:
Time savings
Preventive maintenance reduces business closures and downtime due to unexpected machinery failure. Predictive preventive maintenance helps with time savings. Here, the condition of the equipment is monitored to track functioning levels and discover potential issues that may lead to a system failure.
Machine efficiency
Preventive maintenance increases machinery and device life span and expectancy. Preventive care often increases its resale value at the end of the equipment life. In the long run, the cost is maximized. An essential maintenance effectiveness measurement is the ratio of unplanned maintenance vs. planned maintenance. Time-based preventive maintenance requires that a periodic maintenance schedule following the manufacturers’ advice for cleaning and inspecting is complied with. This is to ensure that machines work at their optimum capacity. It may include periodically cleaning air vents to follow requisite health standards. In the same vein, usage-based preventive maintenance requires accurate tracking of production cycles, operating hours, and machinery monitors, mainly when a machine does not produce notifications when certain working hours have accrued. It can be an essential piece of equipment that has arrived at a particular number of hours. Tracking the usage will make sure machinery is used so that it will last longer.
It also mitigates a lot of safety risks for customers and employees.
This way, the chances of lawsuits are significantly reduced since fatalities, injuries, and liabilities are reduced. The process does this by putting safety measures in place, such as rules and regulations to avoid risks or accidents.
Preventive machinery ensures all employees and machinery operate only during scheduled hours. Employers need to pay over time due to unforeseen equipment breakdowns that are significantly reduced.
Preventive maintenance also means that less energy is consumed for an industry’s assets and equipment due to increased levels of operational productivity, reducing utility bills. Importantly, preventive maintenance maintains warranty coverage with comprehensive service records showing compliance to recommended maintenance needs.