8 Tips for an Effective Preventive Maintenance Program

Lots of organizations ignore the maintenance of assets but asset maintenance expenses are more compared to regular maintenance in the long run. That is why it is essential to implement a preventive maintenance program.

Preventive maintenance program provides several other benefits That we will discuss later but first let us know what preventive maintenance is! So, without wasting any time let us begin.

What Is Preventive Maintenance?

Preventive maintenance is planned maintenance. It is an effective and one of the most utilized maintenance strategies in business. It is important for those organizations which are asset-intensive and have complex assets and business relies on these assets.

Preventive maintenance schedules and asset maintenance easily and avoid sudden asset failure. Preventive maintenance helps enhance asset performance and minimize maintenance expenses.

However, to implement preventive maintenance successfully, you need automated software such as CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Software) software.

A preventive maintenance program is helpful in increasing the return on investment (ROI). When assets get maintenance regularly chances of asset failure are minimized and their working efficiency increases as well.

Recommend To Read: What Are the Benefits of a Customized Maintenance Management System?

Why Is Preventive Maintenance Essential?

Preventive maintenance is essential because there are several assets that need inspection at a regular period. If these assets are not checked at regular intervals, then their failure chances are more, and these assets are very crucial for business. It can be HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning), vehicles, machines, and so on.

Another example is the water purification system. Now the water purification system needs service at a regular period otherwise the water quality will be compromised.

In case of asset breakdown occurs, maintenance expense increases, and it impacts the bottom line as well to avoid sudden asset failure providing maintenance on time is important.

According to Plant Engineering, “Preventive maintenance still is favored by 80% of maintenance personnel in a multi-faceted maintenance strategy”.

What Is a Preventive Maintenance Program?

A preventive maintenance program is a set of maintenance practices that help an organization in keeping assets optimized. Moreover, it assists in increasing asset performance. Effective preventive maintenance keeps track of asset performance and keeps records of service of pieces of equipment as well.

In the preventive maintenance program, all maintenance tasks are defined, and which activity needs to be done by which maintenance employees are also defined.

Overall, the objective of the maintenance management program is to enhance asset performance and increase asset life so that productivity can be increased.

With an effective preventive maintenance program, asset downtime will decrease up-time will be optimized, and unplanned maintenance can be avoided. The bottom line will increase, and ROI will be improved.

What Are the Important Tips for Preventive Maintenance Program?

Tips for preventive maintenance programs are discussed below:

1. Prioritizing Assets

Prioritizing assets is one of the most important tips for running an effective preventive maintenance program. That makes the maintenance team more productive as they know which assets need to be maintained first. If high-priority assets are not provided maintenance, then production work or other operations might delay.

2. Frequently Check Assets

Assets must be inspected and checked regularly so that you can find assets that need maintenance. When employees keep assets utilized regularly then they can find assets that are not working to their expected level. When asset performance decreases it means that assets need to be scheduled for maintenance.

Missed To Read: 5 Must-Have Preventive Maintenance Software Features

3. Ensure All Important Assets Are Tagged

Keeping each asset tagged is especially important for the organization so that they can get all the information about that asset. When assets are tagged you can keep assets safe from theft or misplacement. Moreover, it will provide maintenance information as well.

4. Keep Inventory Tracked for Maintenance

Lots of times it has been seen that while performing maintenance the required spare part is not available in stock. As a result, maintenance work was delayed.

That is why it is important to keep track of inventory for maintenance otherwise the maintenance team will have to repeat the entire process again.

5. Avoid Over Maintenance

When an organization does more maintenance than required then assets are not able to give maximum performance. It leads to wastage of resources and complete asset utilization is not done. That is why it is important to avoid over-maintenance assets.

6. Create a Maintenance Activity Checklist

When you create a maintenance activity checklist then it becomes quite simple and easy for the maintenance team to work on assets.

Preventive maintenance checklist really helps the maintenance team when they have lots of assets for maintenance. It saves time and empowers the maintenance team to deliver effective work on time.

7. Monitor Development

Organization said their goals and objective for one year, two-year, three-year. However, it is important to keep track of development from time to time.

An improvement that has been made so far can be tracked with the date assistance and that information must be shared with the employees of the organization.

8. Invest in Automated Software

One of the most important tips is to invest in automated software which can assist you in all aspects. When you move your work from a traditional method to an automated method your work efficiency will increase.

Automated software such as CMMS can be beneficial as this software specializes in maintenance and with all the tips mentioned above you can easily implement them with this software.

Conclusion

Preventive maintenance is one of the essential practices to run your business efficiently. Therefore, it is important to implement a preventive maintenance program and we have mentioned some of the important tips for implementing a preventive maintenance program successfully.

‍CMMS software can be beneficial while implementing preventive maintenance programs as this software comes with cloud technology and mobile applications as well.

CMMS mobile application is well known for its preventative maintenance scheduling software & app. This app is extremely helpful in scheduling preventive maintenance when you inspect assets and check their condition, so it empowers you to schedule maintenance on the go.

Also Read: What Are the Features and Best Practices of Purchase Requisition Software?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What Are the Main Preventive Maintenance Functions?

Preventive maintenance functions are discussed below:

1. Providing maintenance proactively.

2. Avoiding sudden asset failure.

3. Maximizing asset life.

4. Making assets more reliable.

5. Enhancing asset performance.

2. What Are the Activities Done in Preventive Maintenance?  

In preventive maintenance several types of activities are done, in fact, in any maintenance these activities are done such as changing engine oil, changing an air filter, adjustments are done. Other than this repair, removing old rusty parts and new parts are installed if required, cleaning, lubrication. Engine oil analysis is done to check performance.

3. What Is CMMS Software?

CMMS software stands for a computerized maintenance management system. It helps the organization in scheduling maintenance and automates the maintenance process. It provides several benefits to the organization as well such as preventing asset failure, increasing asset life, minimizing maintenance expenses, asset maintenance, providing analytics and reports which are helpful in improving asset performance.