Preventive maintenance management is a relatively new approach to maintenance of equipment but it is becoming a very effective one. The concept involves preventing reactive maintenance by being more proactive to replace equipment before it fails.
Companies that are making the decision to invest in preventive maintenance processes and technology are seeing some huge benefits, such as cost savings and reducing equipment downtime for maintenance procedures to take place.
How Preventive Maintenance Works
There are different methods to perform preventive maintenance, which could include routine manual inspections of equipment, where the inspector is looking for any signs that parts are likely to fail in the near future. Depending on the equipment, there will often be physical signs of wear and tear on equipment that indicate the equipment will soon fail.
Another way of implementing preventive maintenance is to factor in the average life of components and keep records to show when the part will need replacing before it fails. By preventing parts from failing and replacing them prior to this, a more planned out strategy to maintaining equipment is possible. Some of the benefits include:
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Improved health and safety for equipment operators
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Reduction in unplanned downtime caused by equipment failure
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Improvement in the reliability of equipment
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Reduction in repair costs associated to when urgent repairs are required
Keeping the necessary records is possible without software but it still relies on the maintenance team keeping accurate records and regularly checking when replacements are required. This can be time consuming and leaves scope for human error.
Using preventive maintenance software
This is why preventive maintenance solutions can be greatly beneficial. The solution is developed to help manage maintenance processes more efficiently, using data to identify the best times for planned maintenance to happen.
When equipment suddenly fails, equipment can be out of use for an extensive period of time whilst the maintenance team identifies the problem, places the order for the part and arranges for the part to be replaced when it eventually arrives. Often, this can happen at the most inconvenient time, such as when a big project is underway and this can cause huge delays in production, for example. Any such delays will obviously then cost the company a considerable amount of money, which could have been completely avoided if preventive maintenance software had been in place.
As well as planning out the most appropriate time for preventive maintenance to take place (for minimal disruption) the software takes care of a lot of the administration tasks that a technician would need to complete. So, instead of paying expensive call out fees and further costs for time spent on admin tasks, the software removes these avoidable costs that can become very expensive when being charged emergency repair rates.
By making sure that equipment parts get replaced before they fail, this also helps to prolong the lifetime of the equipment. If parts are constantly failing, this will often cause damage to the equipment and can also be an injury risk for employees who are operating the equipment.
Preventive maintenance management solution is usually referred as CMMS which stands for computerised maintenance management system. A company such as Lena will set up the best technology to link up with all of your equipment and produce a preventive maintenance schedule that will help your business to work more efficiently. Over time, you will see significant reduction in maintenance costs, so if you would like to find out more about how it would work for your business, contact the team of CMMS experts at Lena.
