Detailed Overview and Importance of Planned Maintenance

Maintenance is a very critical part of any business because a business has lots of assets. In some cases, maintenance is the reason for an organization's long-term success. Poorly maintained assets can result in decreased equipment performance.

Obviously when asset performance is not up to the mark then it can result in delayed production work. That can impact the bottom line. So, the point is maintenance shall not be ignored and organizations should keep their assets well maintained.

If you want to keep assets well maintained, then maintenance shall be done proactively not reactively. Although in the market there are several types of maintenance.

What is Planned Maintenance?

However, planned maintenance is one of the most effective types of maintenance. In the beginning, you might just see expenses but in the long run, it is more effective than other maintenance types.

Planned maintenance is scheduled maintenance that is the most important part of maintenance. When maintenance is scheduled, it decreases the chances of asset failure if don't provide maintenance to the asset on the time it may lead to asset failure.

Asset failure can be very dangerous for organizations as not only business operation halt and business production speed will decrease. This can also lead to delayed product delivery which can impact the organization's reputation.

When a sudden asset breakdown occurs it also leads to increased maintenance costs which are not good for business. With scheduled maintenance, your asset performance will be predictable, and its maintenance costs will be minimized as well.

Lots of people think maintenance is only when a breakdown occurs but it is not! It is also done to improve the performance of assets and equipment.

When asset performance increases then production will also increase which means delivery on time and it leads to a happy customer which is very important in business.

Also Read: How Simple Preventive Maintenance Schedules Save Time & Money

In simple words, planned maintenance is scheduled maintenance that decreases chances of asset failure & avoids it. It also minimizes maintenance expenses and optimizes asset performance as well.

Planned maintenance such as preventive maintenance schedules maintenance whenever any sign of a problem is seen within an asset.

Preventive maintenance utilizes asset history that helps in making effective business decisions related to assets and pieces of equipment.

According to Markets and Markets,  “The global predictive maintenance market size is expected to grow from USD 4.0 billion in 2020 to USD 12.3 billion by 2025, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 25.2% during the forecast period.”

What Is the Importance of Preventive Maintenance?

Preventive maintenance is important due to several reasons that we have mentioned below:

1. Better Safety

Providing safety to employees is important and that can be done when you provide maintenance to assets proactively. If the asset is not in good condition, then the environment is not safe, and it can create hazards.

Unmaintained assets may release gases that are not good for the health of employees, and it can lead to catastrophic failure which can be dangerous for the organization and reputation as well.

Preventive maintenance plays a crucial role in providing a safe and healthy environment and better safety to the employees.

2. Increased Uptime

When you rely on preventive maintenance then maintenance is provided before any problem occurs. As a result, equipment downtime decreases, and uptime increases.

Since every piece of equipment need maintenance so it needs to be planned smartly on holiday so that work is not hampered. If you do maintenance on a regular day, it can interrupt daily operation. As we said it needs to plan smartly.

3. Extended Asset Life

If equipment is working without any issues its performance gets improved with time and no sudden failure occurs then asset life expectancy can be increased.

It saves the organization from the premature replacement of assets and pieces of equipment, it really saves a lot of expenses, and the bottom line also increases.

Regular maintenance can prolong asset life and an organization can get more productive with an asset. It means increasing profitability and decreasing expenses.

Also Read: Difference Between Downtime & Breakdown Time in Terms of Maintenance

4. Enhanced Asset Performance

Preventive maintenance ensures that assets get the maintenance on time. With time the maintenance work decreases, and the maintenance team can focus on increasing asset performance.

Enhanced asset performance results in more productive work and increased machine efficiency. When production work is increased than your top-line, as well as bottom-line, improves.

How to Use Preventive Maintenance Effectively in an Organization?

In order to use preventive maintenance effectively, organizations need to implement maintenance management software or an asset management system. As preventive maintenance is one of the main features of these organizations.

When organizations have a lot of assets, they need to be maintained but the catch is you cannot do it manually.

This is where automated software comes in handy, as they automate the maintenance process, so no one has to do it manually. Moreover, it alerts the maintenance team about upcoming maintenance tasks and activities so they can plan accordingly.

With this software, you can keep track of asset maintenance history, asset performance, asset life expectancy, and so on. This type of data is very helpful to the organization while making business decisions or when they are analyzing their assets.

Data is important for gaining valuable insights. Asset tracking is a very useful feature especially when asset theft and misplacement is a sensitive issue.

What Are Various Types of Maintenance Available?

Maintenance can be divided into two main categories:

1. Planned Maintenance

Planned maintenance is cost-effective in the long term. This includes maintenance types such as preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, condition-based maintenance, etc.

2. Unplanned Maintenance

Unplanned maintenance is also a maintenance strategy that is used by several organizations. It can be cost-effective in the short term. Unplanned maintenance includes run to failure maintenance strategy, emergency maintenance, etc.

What Are the Various Types of Preventive Maintenance?

Mainly there are two types of preventive maintenance:

1. Usage-Based

In usage-based preventive maintenance, the asset is provided maintenance as per the utilization. For instance, previous data of vehicles helps managers in deciding when to provide maintenance.

Maintenance may be done after every 1000 kilometers drive or 1500 or 2000. It means that a vehicle will be scheduled for maintenance after a specific kilometer drive.

2. Time-Based

Time-based is similar to usage-based preventive maintenance as in usage depending on the usability, but time is fixed which means the asset will be provided maintenance after a specific period of time either the asset is used frequently or not.

Time frequency varies from one organization to another in some it is 1 month in some organizations it is two months and so on.

Also Read: How to Optimize Operational Costs Through Breakdown Maintenance?

Conclusion

Maintenance is one of the pillars of the organization. It is a very important aspect; the organization must take it seriously. As we have told how important & beneficial preventive maintenance is for an organization.

However, for preventive maintenance, you need to invest in asset management software. It gives you several other benefits including preventive maintenance.

Since this software comes with cloud computing technology you can get several other benefits as well.

This software can be very fruitful to the organization as it can increase the productivity of not only the employee but the organization as well. If you want to take your business to another level, then this software can assist you in the same.