Preventive maintenance is an essential component of infrastructure management, leading to increased equipment lifetime, decreased unscheduled downtime, and, ultimately, lower long-term maintenance costs.
In this comprehensive guide, we will look at what preventative maintenance is and what it entails, why it is vital, and what its benefits and drawbacks are.
What is Preventive Maintenance?
Preventive maintenance entails measures that avoid breakdowns and reduce the likelihood of an item breaking. That is, it is a sort of scheduled maintenance that is carried out even when a piece of equipment is still working.
It can be as basic as cleaning HVAC filters or examining centrifugal pump bearings, but it also involves more complicated inspection plans, calibration and/or gauging plans, gas leak detection, and other cycle modifications.
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Types of Preventive Maintenance
In general, there are two forms of preventative maintenance:
Time-based i.e. executed at previously established intervals, independent of asset utilization (e.g. periodic inspection of elevators every 2 years or elevators every 6 years).
Usage-based, that is, based on the actual use of the assets, such as lubricating a machine after x production cycles (for example, every 500 uses) or reviewing fleet cars when they reach a particular mileage (10,000 km).
Predictive maintenance and prescriptive maintenance are two further forms of preventive maintenance. Even though they all aim to prevent breakdowns and asset failure, there are significant variations between these three forms of maintenance:
Predictive maintenance
Predictive maintenance is concerned with forecasting when a breakdown will occur to prevent it. It is based on the state of the equipment, as opposed to preventative maintenance, which is scheduled and follows pre-set time or use milestones.
Prescriptive maintenance
Prescriptive maintenance uses Artificial Intelligence to recommend maintenance tasks based on data and indications gathered about each piece of equipment. As a result, it necessitates a high level of computerization and is linked to Industry 4.0.
Applications
Industries Using Preventive Maintenance Programs
Preventive maintenance programs may assist any firm with assets to manage. Here are several industries that use maintenance operations:
- Hotels
- Restaurants
- Oil/Gas/Utilities
- Manufacturing
- Fleet Management
- Facility Management
- Property Management
- Governments
- Schools
Why is Preventive Maintenance So Important?
As previously stated, preventative maintenance enhances asset lifetime and the proportion of scheduled repair. However, this is not the only reason to engage in preventative maintenance. Finally, preventive maintenance is an important factor in keeping your consumers delighted.
Reducing downtime and increasing effectiveness (OEE)
Preventive maintenance reduces unscheduled downtime, increasing equipment uptime, and availability and boosting total equipment efficiency. As a result, you gain a larger return on your equipment investment and fulfill your clients’ deadlines.
Increase in asset reliability
Preventive maintenance makes the equipment more reliable: it works better for longer and has a longer lifespan. Reliability allows for more accurate forecasting of firm operations, production capacity, and revenues.
Any organization, whether secondary or tertiary, must ensure the operationality of its infrastructure.
Reduction of reactive maintenance costs
Preventive maintenance lowers the cost of components and transportation; consider the expense of buying an HVAC system part overnight from an international source. It’s a well-known truth that emergency maintenance nearly usually entails costly repairs. In the worst-case situation, a lack of maintenance necessitates asset replacement.
Increased security
Preventive maintenance and frequent overhauls identify part wear and keep equipment in top shape. This increases the safety of people who come into contact with the asset, both staff, and consumers.
Greater comfort
When it comes to a facility that is utilized by a big number of people, preventative maintenance also helps to provide more comfort to its consumers. Maintenance guarantees that all equipment is operational without the need to shut down the entire system to fix it.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Preventive Maintenance
If you have read thus far, you are aware of the benefits of preventative maintenance. Therefore, it is not always the best technique, as it may result in maintenance operations on equipment that is still in good shape just because a specific period has passed.
We next discuss the benefits and drawbacks of preventative maintenance, both in terms of the internal running of your business and the influence on service offered and customer satisfaction.
What are the Advantages?
- Improves equipment lifetime, resulting in a higher return on investment.
- Prevents unexpected stoppages, which enhances corporate operations.
- Improves equipment dependability, making projections more accurate.
- Reduces the expense of maintaining high-value assets. It is less costly than the existing reactive and predictive maintenance options.
- A budget makes it simpler to stick to maintenance tasks since it anticipates (reliably) how you will deploy your resources throughout the year.
- Saves resources since equipment with operational problems consume more energy and degrade in quality.
- More security on the premises since all assets are kept in excellent shape and free of wear and tear.
- Meeting client deadlines is easier since there are fewer stoppages and the production is more predictable.
- It improves the client experience by exceeding expectations regarding the quality of your service, resulting in loyal consumers.
Disadvantages
However, preventive maintenance has some disadvantages. What are they?
- It takes extra time to prepare as well as inspect.
- You'll need to retrain your team's behaviors and potentially implement new software.
- It cannot be used on equipment that suddenly malfunctions.
- It may result in superfluous maintenance tasks since it is not condition-based.
- If applied to assets of lower value or priority, it may result in greater expenses.
- More maintenance work may be required, prompting you to hunt for new providers.
- SLAs should be negotiated with suppliers and partners to guarantee that deadlines are met.
Wrapping Up
It appears that organizations are beginning to recognize and appreciate the benefits of preventative maintenance. According to a maintenance survey, 78% of facilities that execute a maintenance strategy are shifting to preventive maintenance, compared to 61% that still depend on reactive maintenance. 59% of such facilities employ preventive maintenance technologies such as a CMMS.
Developing a proactive mentality and creating a preventative maintenance program might be a wonderful approach for your firm to save money on equipment failure and downtime.
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