Preventive Maintenance: A Comprehensive Guide

This comprehensive guide explains preventive maintenance definition, its types, maintenance strategies, importance, and more.

How often have you heard people say: ‘Prevention is better than cure’? Preventive maintenance or preventative maintenance is a stiff example that fulfills the meaning of this known saying.

The routine inspection and maintenance of everyday use equipment and tools lie under the heading of preventive maintenance.

It ensures that a severe fault does not spontaneously affect machines’ working, halting the smooth flow of production of the system. Preventive maintenance is an intelligent act if the company wants to avoid extraneous burdens on the stored financial reserves.

Since scheduling and upkeeping the appliances in a firm manually could be a tough job, most ventures make use of preventive maintenance software.

Types of Preventive Maintenance

We could further divide preventive maintenance into three distinct categories, each primarily covering the time aspect of the procedure.

1. Time-Reliant Maintenance

This kind of preventive maintenance works on a calendar-based schedule. The maintenance procedure is initiated irrespective of whether or not the machine needs to be worked upon.

With a time-based preventive maintenance system in place, the maintenance team can follow a pre-planning schedule. This lets them know when and what tasks they would perform on a piece of equipment to keep it running in an optimum condition.

You can set up your planned preventive maintenance schedule by using the calendar to determine the interval between each maintenance task. For instance, if you want your tools to be updated each month, a 13-days maintenance interval would allow your software to be updated every 47 days.

2. Condition-Based Maintenance

Condition-based Preventive Maintenance (CBPM) uses a machine’s state data to decide what activities are to be performed on the tool. The determining condition of an appliance could also be used to run scheduled preventive maintenance courses on the device.

CBPM is an effective strategy for improving overall reliability, reducing costs, and increasing productivity.

3. Usage-Based Maintenance

Usage-based Preventive Maintenance depends on an asset’s exposure to environmental conditions. It uses information about the daily usage of equipment and forecasts a due date for future inspection or repair tasks.

This preventive maintenance procedure makes complete sense for machines and devices under constant operational usage. Such appliances are more likely to be affected by external or internal damage.

Maintenance Strategies

An efficient preventative maintenance strategy requires planning and scheduling maintenance of equipment ahead of time or before a problem occurs. Here are some practical maintenance strategies that you could use/involve:

Get the Stake Holders On Board

Before running any preventive maintenance initiative, it is critical to take stakeholders into confidence. After all, they are the ones responsible for funding such initiatives.

Failing to do so could lead to issues, as stakeholders may feel that their needs haven’t been considered or that they’re being kept in the dark about important decisions.

Ultimately, taking stakeholders into confidence builds trust and ensures everyone is on the same page before any work begins. Furthermore, gaining stakeholder buy-in allows for constructive feedback that can help shape and improve the program.

CMMS Preventive Maintenance

A CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) should have the standard functions below in order to be effective for preventive maintenance.

1. Work Order Management: This module should allow users to generate, track, and manage work orders.

2. Inventory Management: This module should help users track inventory levels and manage stock.

3. Asset Management: This module should help users track the age, location, and condition of assets as well as schedule preventive maintenance tasks for those assets.

Pilot Project

You’re halfway done by choosing the perfect CMMS Preventive Maintenance. But it is better, to begin with a pilot plan to evaluate the viability of maintenance.

By testing out the program on a limited scale, you can get an idea of how it will work in the real world and whether or not it is likely to be successful. You can also use a pilot project to assess the costs and benefits of preventive maintenance.

For example, Bayer CropScience tested and analyzed several solutions before choosing the final software for their employees working outside the office. They were in search for a solution that could integrate with Oracle Siebel CRM, including third-party tools and custom development.

After evaluation process, they based their final decision on the users feedback, overall architecture, costs and synchronization time.

Why is Preventive Maintenance Important for Companies?

There are a few factors that influence companies to go for preventive maintenance. These include the age of the asset, how often it’s been used, its condition, and the cost of repairing or replacing it.

Preventive maintenance is typically more cost-effective than corrective maintenance, so companies try to schedule it as often as possible. Some of the factors include:

Closer to Failure Mode

Companies often perform preventive maintenance when an asset is closer to failure mode. This type of maintenance is meant to stop or detect an issue before it becomes a bigger problem. It can also help avoid unplanned outages and keep production running smoothly.

Affecting the Operation

The best time for a company to carry out preventive maintenance is when an asset starts showing signs of affecting operational activities. By carrying out work on the asset before it breaks down, the company can avoid incurring major repair costs or even having to replace the asset entirely. Other considerations might include cost-benefit analysis and the asset’s importance to the company’s operations.

Tend to Fail in Future

Most companies usually opt for preventive maintenance when an asset is not constructed for heavy-duty and is most likely to fail in the future. Businesses can prevent or minimize future failures by performing preventive maintenance on these types of assets.

In this way, instead of the cost associated with corrective repairs or replacements, companies are only investing in the upkeep of their assets. You can nip the issue in the bud and stop it from becoming a bigger problem later by fixing or replacing the parts that have already degraded, damaged, or broken.

Advantages of Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance is undoubtedly an advantageous deal. From financial benefits to safety measures, preventive maintenance keeps you covered up.

Improved Equipment Life

Preventive maintenance is a proactive way to increase the life of your equipment. It’s easier than ever to keep your machines running smoothly; thus, your operational procedures are well-maneuvered.

Since preventive maintenance involves executing undersized jobs from time to time, it allows your safety-critical assets to function at their peak performance.

Reduced Cost

One of the preventive maintenance benefits is less overall expenditures on tools and apparatus.

Preventive maintenance has reduced cost impacts, saving you money in the long run. Therefore, investing in this vital but often overlooked cost indeed makes sense.

Well-installed preventive maintenance services can help you avoid the need for expensive repairs when the machines break down. The temporary break in product supplies may also have an enlarged impact on your markets and, thus, the financial reserves of the firm.

Less Energy Consumption

What if a single investment gets you savings on utility bills along with other benefits?

Preventive maintenance is one such proactive investment. Continuous technical practices on machinery result in increased efficiency that contributes to energy conservation.

Once the various equipment owned by the company operates at peak efficiency, there is a massive saving on electricity consumption. Therefore, the utility bills assume a pocket-friendly shape.

Reduced Safety Risks

Preventive maintenance is not all about saving money, but it also contributes to reduced safety risks. It helps protect the safety of your employees, customers, and the general public. Regular inspections can uncover potential hazards before they lead to an accident.

Boosts Production

Boosted production is a fair possibility of proactive preventive maintenance planning and management. Preventive maintenance ensures a timely response to equipment malfunctions and avoids costly production delays.

Unexpected downtimes hold back production on a timely basis, disturbing the smooth product flow from the factories to consumers.

Disadvantages of Preventive Maintenance

Unfortunately, we can claim nothing in this universe to be perfect and fault-free. Similar is the case with preventive maintenance. Despite its numerous benefits, there are a few disadvantages to the preventive maintenance package.

Lengthy Procedure

Preventive maintenance is a lengthy procedure involving coordinating and organizing regular repairs and inspections. Scheduling this job can be difficult, especially when there are many customers and responsibilities to take care of daily.

It also requires multiple hours of pre-planning to obtain essential knowledge about the appliances and decide what repair methods will be selected.

Relies on Additional Resources

Preventive maintenance costs can be high, and staffing and other resources may not be readily available. It might require more time and skillful staff.

Difficult to Organize

You may have seen the preventive maintenance importance, but where does it start? Preventive maintenance begins with planning and ends in execution.

Unfortunately, planning requires building a great deal of statistical data. Bringing a good plan in place is crucial and dedicating a tremendous amount of time to the task is necessary.

Examples of Preventive Maintenance

Here are some specific or practical preventive maintenance examples.

Cleaning

Cleaning is an important aspect of preventive maintenance. By keeping your equipment and assets clean, you can save yourself time and money down the line.

Neglecting to clean your equipment can lead to a build-up of dirt, grime, and other materials that can damage your property or cause it to malfunction. If you want to avoid these costly repairs or replacements, make sure to keep up with your cleaning schedule.

Lubrication

Lubrication is typically considered a form of preventive maintenance. The purpose of lubrication is to reduce friction and wear on mechanical components. Keeping parts well-lubricated makes them less likely to fail prematurely or experience excessive wear.

Proper lubrication can also help improve efficiency by reducing the energy required to operate machinery. In some cases, it can even help prolong the life of equipment by protecting against corrosion and other forms of damage.

Repairing

Repairing assets “on schedule” is one of the most important ways to ensure they last as long as possible. You won’t require more expensive and time-consuming repairs later on.

You can also avoid the headache and the cost of taking the asset offline for a longer period to complete extensive repairs.

Replacing

Replacing asset parts can be an effective way of performing preventive maintenance. It is mainly suggested for certain types of equipment, like HVAC and machinery.

However, some experts recommend against routinely replacing certain types of assets, such as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems and machinery.

Instead, they suggest only replacing parts when needed to avoid unnecessary downtime and expense. For instance, it’s recommended to replace filters routinely instead of entire units in the case of HVAC systems.

Software Update

With Preventive Maintenance Software Updates, your operating system (OS) and all other software up-keep with the latest releases and versions. Many organizations delay deploying updates because they fear new versions will break existing functionality or introduce new security vulnerabilities. But by not updating, you’re increasing your exposure to known and unknown risks.

That’s why is important to enroll into beta testing programs if available. Testing enable opportunity to “see & try” specific features before deploying into the production. You can catch early bugs, ask software vendor for their fix, and lately update your solution with a peace in mind.

Also, regular software updating is an important part of any organization’s cybersecurity posture. New patches and vulnerability updates are released frequently to address flaws discovered in various programs. Deploying these updates promptly helps keep your systems safe from opportunistic attackers who may try to exploit them.

Preventive Maintenance Vs. Predictive Maintenance

Preventive Maintenance (PM) is a scheduled maintenance action to prevent an unexpected breakdown or malfunction. On the other hand, Predictive Maintenance (PdM) is a data-driven maintenance strategy that uses condition monitoring tools and techniques to foresee when equipment is likely to fail.

While PdM can be more effective than PM in some cases, Preventive maintenance is generally considered the better option for several reasons.

Budget-Friendly: Preventive maintenance is less expensive than PdM because it does not require the same investment in technology and data analysis.

Less-Disruptive: Preventive maintenance is less disruptive than PdM because it can be scheduled during periods of low usage.

Track Record: Preventive maintenance has a proven track record of effectiveness, while PdM is still relatively new and untested.

Preventive Maintenance Workflow

The preventive maintenance workflow is a process that helps keep equipment and machinery functioning properly. By regularly following these steps, maintenance teams can prevent problems from developing into more serious issues.

In order to achieve this, it follows a four-step workflow.

Inspection

Any good preventive maintenance workflow should involve regular inspections. This is important for two reasons. First, it helps ensure the safety of workers who might be exposed to potential hazards. Second, it protects the property from damage caused by neglect or poor maintenance.

For example, Stony Valley, a company supplying aggregate and construction services, converted more than 20 paper forms into mobile questionnaires to streamline inspections. This move has enabled company’s technicians to collect richer data, including photos, documents, or signatures in one app.

Also, the reporting time have been reduced from days to minutes which is key in thorough preventive maintenance management.

Detection

It’s extremely important to detect issues early in the preventive maintenance workflow. By catching an issue quickly, you can save yourself time and money spent on repairs along the way.

For example, catching a small water leak early on can save you from replacing drywall and flooring, whereas neglecting the problem could lead to structural damage and mold growth.

Correction

You must have heard, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Of course, some things can be unpredictable and can’t always be corrected on time. But having a well-organized and effective preventive maintenance plan in place makes you much more likely to avoid any major shutdowns or system failures.

By correcting small issues as they arise, you prevent not only the equipment but also your team from experiencing a worst-case scenario like the entire operation calls off for a long period.

Challenges

Preventive maintenance is a necessary but often overlooked aspect of facility management. While the benefits of preventive maintenance are well known, the challenges associated with it can be significant.

Here are some common challenges faced when implementing a preventive maintenance program:

No Insight

Whether it’s a mechanical system or electronic, every piece of equipment has its own specific “preventive maintenance” tasks.

If you don’t have detailed records of what has been done to each piece of equipment in the past, it can be difficult to create a comprehensive preventative maintenance plan.

Additionally, without data on the performance of your equipment over time, it’s challenging to know if your preventative maintenance schedule is actually effective.

Lack of Training

One big obstacle is simply a lack of training. Things will quickly start to collapse unless everyone on the team knows what they need to do and how often they need to do it.

The mishandling of the task leads to mistakes that can potentially cause injuries or equipment damage. Furthermore, some workers may ignore safety laws and rules in order to save time, which can put them and others at risk.

Regular Process

Preventive maintenance (PM) is a regular, scheduled process intended to identify and correct potential problems before they become serious. Many people consider preventive maintenance to be a one-time event, but it’s something that should be done on a regular basis in order to be most effective.

Poor Planning

The main challenge of preventive maintenance is that it’s only effective if it’s planned and carried out in a consistent, structured manner. Often, the outcomes of preventive maintenance are reduced if proper planning is ignored.

This includes having the correct parts on hand, sufficient manpower to complete the tasks, and proper scheduling so that the tasks can be completed on time.

How Preventive Maintenance Software Helps

Spending time maintaining long records and tracking the history and efficiency of the equipment is not easy. But it is essential to keep your equipment running smoothly and avoid costly repairs.

Preventive Maintenance Software is the one-stop solution to enhance your equipment’s life. The software makes it easy to create and schedule work orders, monitor the machine’s performance, track your progress, and stay within your budget.

Scheduling

Scheduling work orders through software helps ensure that the work is done efficiently. It also prevents any overlap or conflict in terms of maintenance schedules.

Civtec, a company specializing in directional drilling, power, water, gas, telecommunications, and light civil works, uses digital solution to track their jobs.

Thanks to that, companys´s field technicians have access to their customer bookings in real-time when scheduled in CRM or ERP system.

Also information like type of work required, customer details, specific site instructions, or access route directions, enable them to conduct preventive maintenance program.

Tracking

Tracking the history of each piece of equipment allows you to better understand when a particular component might need to be replaced or serviced.

This information can then be used to generate future work orders, ensuring that only necessary replacements or services are carried out.

Streamlining

Finally, a streamlined preventive maintenance process makes it easier for everyone involved — from managers to workers — and can save your business time and cost.

Overall, preventive maintenance software provides a significant return on investment through improved efficiency and reduced downtime for equipment.

Preventive Maintenance Checks

Creating a preventive maintenance checklist is a wise decision, as regular inspection and servicing of your equipment can help improve its lifespan and prevent unexpected issues.

However, there’s no one-size-fits-all checklist for maintenance. But the points of a preventive maintenance checklist will vary depending on the specific needs of whatever facility or equipment you’re using.

Here are some tips on how to get started.

Inspect Regularly

The first step is to make sure you inspect your equipment regularly. This will give you the insight to identify any potential problems before they arise to major damage or render the equipment unusable.

Find the Equipment History

Another essential step is to discover the history of the equipment you’re working with. If it has been well-maintained in the past, chances are it will continue to function in the future too.

Prioritize the Tasks

Now, it’s time to determine what tasks need to be performed to keep your facility or equipment in good working order.

Prioritize the tasks according to how often they need to be performed and how crucial they are to keeping your facility or equipment operational.

Scheduled Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance is a scheduled service visit to clean, inspect, adjust, test, and/or replace parts and components of the equipment. It prevents untimely breakdowns and extends the life of the equipment.

Depending on the sophistication of the equipment and the level of risk involved with its failure, preventive maintenance schedules can be as simple as monthly visual inspections or as complex as overhauls carried out on a quarterly basis.

By creating and sticking to a routine, you can ensure that your equipment gets the attention it needs to stay productive in the long run.

One way to create a preventive maintenance schedule is to use a tool like CMMS software. CMMS Preventive Maintenance software has turned out as a life savior for the industries to keep track of all the different components and systems in your facility and when each one needs to be serviced or repaired.

With all the required details at your fingertips, developing and sticking to a preventive maintenance plan is easy.

How to Make a Preventive Maintenance Plan

Create a Baseline

If you want to carry out preventive maintenance effectively, you need to first create a baseline. This is a record of all the maintenance that has been carried out on your equipment and systems, and it provides a reference point for future work.

To create a baseline, you need to gather information about your equipment and systems, including:
Details of the make, model, and age of each piece of equipment