2. All the companies large or small across the globe,
rely on efficient functioning of equipment in order
to run and gain profit. When an equipment
breaks down or fails, operation is effected and
leads company into trouble. One way for company
to overcome the unforeseen and costly repairs is
having a preventive maintenance program for all
its assets.
3. THE LIST OF ACTIVITIES FOR EXECUTING
PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE (PM) PROGRAM
Gather Information on equipment
Prepare Preventive maintenance checklist
Develop an effective preventive maintenance
schedule
Select trained technicians
Develop a system on equipment usage,
breakdown, etc.
Monitor costs and performance, adjust as needed
Have suppliers and parts on hand
4. GATHER INFORMATION ON
EQUIPMENT
A starting of any maintenance program is
getting familiar with company’s equipments.
One should document the machine make,
model and serials numbers, learn about its
operation along with maintenance guidelines,
repairs and parts replacement.
5. PREPARE PREVENTIVE
MAINTENANCE CHECKLIST
Equipment often has specific maintenance
protocols to be followed. Establishing task
checklists in advance help to estimate the
amount of time needed to maintain a particular
piece of equipment.
6. DEVELOP AN EFFECTIVE
PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE
SCHEDULE
As some equipment need to be maintained
more often than others, examine the
information gathered previously to guide
the frequency with which servicing needs to
be conducted. Based on the findings, time
can be allocated.
7. SELECT TRAINED TECHNICIANS
It makes most sense to select technicians
with the necessary skills to maintain
specific company assets. For small
operations, it may be more cost effective
to use third party technicians rather than
hire in-house service providers.
8. DEVELOP A SYSTEM ON
EQUIPMENT USAGE, BREAKDOWN,
ETC.
To gauge the functioning of the
equipment, it is important to establish
machine downtime, mean-time-between-
failure (MTBF), Mean-time-to-repair
(MTTR), the cost of parts replacement,
etc. From this information, it is possible
to calculate the average cost of one hour
of downtime and thus form a baseline
from which a PM program can be
evaluated.
9. MONITOR COSTS AND
PERFORMANCE, ADJUST AS
NEEDED
Companies should monitor their PM
programs by evaluating cost/benefit effects.
Results may vary depending on conditions
or changes within the company’s activities.
The shift from reactive maintenance
towards preventative maintenance is seen
as beneficial for many companies whose
operations are highly dependent on reliable
equipment functioning.
10. HAVE SUPPLIERS AND PARTS
ON HAND
In executing a PM program, it is
important to have suppliers and parts on
hand to avoid unnecessary downtime. By
ordering in advance, companies might
take advantage of discounts that may not
be available when parts are purchased on
an urgent basis. On the other hand, they
should maintain the stock of critical parts
well in advance.