Preventative maintenance of equipment reduces the risk of on the job accidents. Here’s a clean-cut way to design an effective preventative maintenance program.
What is Preventive Maintenance (PM)?
Preventative maintenance is routine maintenance performed on equipment to ensure its efficacy. This type of support is especially crucial for any business that uses heavy machinery like iron and steel. Preventative maintenance reduces the chances of breakdowns and saves engineers stress and money.
A reliable preventative maintenance program saves companies from unwanted downtime. And, it allows companies to maintain productivity levels.
Effective preventative maintenance programs use maintenance planning and scheduling before parts experience issues. (PM) also accounts for data from the past, such as previous breakdowns and maintenance reports.
Noticing the potential for these small problems increases productivity. It also saves engineers cash and labor costs.
1. Develop a Plan
Before putting a PM plan into effect, establish who performs the tasks. Choosing who conducts your PM plan is just as important as the plan itself. Maintenance managers are an excellent choice for PM workers.
Maintenance technicians are good workers to place underneath maintenance managers. However, it’s important to manage employee workloads.
Sometimes workers are overworked and not interested in the preventative maintenance program. In that case, you’re spending precious labor hours for nothing.
First, figure out who performs the maintenance. Then, decide what support your company needs and the program’s schedule.
An example of a PM maintenance project goal is reducing maintenance costs by 15% in the second business quarter.
2. Inventory Facility Equipment/Assets
The most time-consuming aspect of setting up a preventive maintenance program is setting an accurate inventory. Setting an inventory is also the most critical.
Taking an inventory allows employees to create a routine out of their preventative checks. With an inventory, employees can cross each item off a list as they finish tasks.
3. Create Preventive Maintenance Procedures
After creating an inventory, create the specific maintenance procedures for each inventory item. Create a frequency number to accompany the task to tell workers how often they should perform maintenance checks.
4. Create Preventive Maintenance Schedules
Creating a preventative maintenance schedule involves designating high-priority items and low-priority items. These designations communicate that certain parts are more susceptible to breakdowns than others. It also identifies the impact of a piece breaking down.
5. Training Your Maintenance Team
A preventative maintenance program is useless without proper training. Your plan could be the most brilliant, but if your employees don’t understand it, it’s futile. It’s not you who runs the preventative maintenance program; it’s your maintenance staff.
6. Analyze – Adjust – Improve
A company’s ability to adapt defines its success. Equipment changes and maintenance methods vary with the machine. Staying on top of the best procedures for your company’s equipment keeps your preventative maintenance program consistent.
A Preventative Maintenance Program Makes a Huge Difference
In an industry where performance is everything, it’s essential to have protection measures in place. Constructing a preventative maintenance program saves your company time and increases its production output.
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