Preventive maintenance (PM) is a reliable approach for managing equipment on a consistent schedule to lower the frequency of failures. There are many advantages of preventive maintenance, including maximizing asset lifespan, reducing unplanned downtime, and increasing operational efficiencies across the board.
What Does Preventive Maintenance Achieve in Practice?
Preventive maintenance promotes the health and safety of workers while improving productivity and saving costs. Some types of PM are performed at regular intervals to measure criticality whereas other types are usage-based instead, taking corrective actions only when machines fall below accepted parameters. Unlike reactive maintenance, PM predicts equipment failure long before it holds up the rest of the production pipeline. In junction with a CMMS, this system can automate scheduled inspections, cleaning, and part lubrication. Eventually, with the help of condition monitoring and IoT technology, preventive maintenance programs can evolve into predictive maintenance.
What are the Advantages of Preventive Maintenance?
If manufacturers implement a PM program, they will soon experience continuous improvement in machine longevity, which are visible in the KPIs. Over time, this lessens the effects of asset depreciation, as the team makes better procurement decisions in response to adjustments or replacements. In short, it makes the jobs of engineers, operators, and technicians much easier.
Five Advantages of Preventive Maintenance
1. Increases Asset Lifespan
A longer asset lifespan is a major advantage of preventive maintenance, since PM helps detect minor defects that throw a wrench into machine capacity and prevent breakdowns. Maintaining good asset health assures that you have a shorter mean time between failures (MTBF). This KPI lends a hand in you making informed decisions for the next steps, instead of panicking about emergency work orders. It saves you the trouble of replacing expensive pieces and sets the precedent for ongoing regulatory compliance.
2. Saves Costs
Maintenance costs can put financial stress on the infrastructure, especially if there are complex mechanical systems in multiple buildings. To bring down asset spending, PM lets technicians organize a larger number of tasks and complete them with more accuracy. For cleaning, it could show signs of leakage or rust accumulation on metal surfaces. And for the spare parts inventory, you won’t need to purchase stock as often to handle a complete replacement.
3. Reduces Disruptions
Another advantage is lessening interruptions on integral workflows. Rather than halting production when fulfilling requests, you should schedule maintenance around expected downtimes to optimize equipment availability. To conserve resources, have each technician focus on one project while giving them access to the required assets. Plan accordingly by identifying the failure mode and assigning employees with matching skills to quickly finish the work order.
4. Regulates Asset Runtimes
Organizing a floor plan means needing to estimate how long assets will run, and making sure machines don’t fall out of their specifications. This is crucial for modifying the rate of production in case of rust build-up, uneven heat transfer, friction between surfaces, and other factors. Regular maintenance puts a stop to this by saving energy at the factory and generating less scrap or waste. The outcome is fewer faulty and damaged products reaching the consumer.
5. Reduces Equipment Downtime
Lastly, PM minimizes overall downtime because your technicians don’t have to shut everything down just to conduct a maintenance session. Compared to reactive measures, you aren’t facing downtime from having to ship items or waiting for a specialist to arrive on-site. Instead, it gives you an opening to schedule activities after operations have ceased for the day. PM singles out areas that need attention so you don’t have to bring backup appliances to pick up the slack.
Preventive Maintenance Has Its Pros and Cons
While there are many advantages of preventive maintenance, there are disadvantages too. PM is not 100% foolproof and won’t eliminate all risk of unexpected breakdowns. It’s also a labor-intensive method, that requires time and resources to execute effectively.
The potential for over-maintenance is there too: When you have to change the filter on an HVAC unit, you already know when to clean it without using PM. Letting it run to failure would cost relatively the same for a replacement. Save your resources for the breakdowns that are a greater threat to industrial operations. The best policy is to weigh your options and get familiarized with various failure modes before you execute a usage-based PM plan.
For more information, learn how to optimize and improve a preventive maintenance program.