Periodic Maintenance: What Is the Concept Behind It?

Maintenance is very significant for assets and equipment, not just for assets but also for business as they are the backbone of the organization. However, organizations do not provide maintenance on time as a result asset failure happens.

Many organizations utilize maintenance only when the breakdown occurs! Maintenance is done not only to avoid asset breakdown but also for increasing performance as well. There are several types of maintenance but today we will know what is periodic maintenance! So, without wasting any time let us begin!

What Is Periodic Maintenance?

Periodic maintenance is also known as time-based maintenance. As the name suggests periodic maintenance is given to assets after a fixed period defined by managers. Periodic maintenance is used mainly on vehicles it keeps them safe and passenger.

Several parts of the vehicles such as the engine, brakes, cannot be inspected with eyes only. The purpose of periodic maintenance is to make assets long-lasting, stable, reliable & avoid a sudden breakdown, and ensuring everything works just fine.

Lots of manufacturing and locomotive-based organizations invest in periodic maintenance. According to the Globe News Wire  “The Europe maintenance, repair, and operations distribution market size are expected to reach USD 247.1 billion by 2027. Increasing investments toward the repair and periodic maintenance of equipment is expected to fuel the market growth.”

Also Read: Tips & Practices for Better Maintenance Management for an Organization

The idea behind periodic maintenance is scheduling maintenance before asset failure. The anticipation is done with the help of data, asset performance, and risks are analyzed and maintenance is scheduled accordingly. For instance, after giving proper maintenance for how much time the asset performed well and when again proper maintenance was given to the equipment.

What Are the Advantages of Periodic Maintenance?

The advantages of periodic maintenance are as follow:

1. Increasing Asset Life

When maintenance is provided to the asset on time it can result in increased asset life. It makes the asset reliable. Periodic maintenance diagnoses and rectify the small issue before they turn into bigger issues. Avoiding sudden breakdown leads to enhanced asset life and increases productivity.

2. Performance Optimization

Time-based maintenance helps in increasing the performance of an asset. Keeping equipment serviced allows them to deliver better performance. Furthermore, asset-specific data history can help you in boosting the performance of each asset.

3. Avoiding Equipment Failure

Equipment failure is one of the main reasons why organizations emphasize maintenance. An asset failure can burn pocket heavily but regular maintenance can minimize the risk of asset failure. With the help of data, you can also predict asset failure or when an asset will need maintenance!

4. Cost-Effective Maintenance

Periodic maintenance is scheduled maintenance so it does not contain heavy maintenance work such as a sudden breakdown. Thus, it is not expensive compared to other maintenance types!

5. Minimized Downtime

Asset maintenance scheduling and performing maintenance decrease the downtime of equipment. It makes the asset more trustable and long-lasting.

Also Read: Best Practices for Issue Tracking Software to Boost Corrective Maintenance

What Are the Disadvantages of Periodic Maintenance?

The disadvantages of periodic maintenance are as follow:

1. Over Maintenance

Sometimes assets are given more maintenance than required and, in that case, asset performance is not calculated accurately.

2. Resources Are Under-Utilized

When asset maintenance is overdone then maintenance is done before its actual time and resources are not fully utilized. In simple words, resources are wasted.

What Are the Activities That Are Done in Periodic Maintenance?

Mostly smaller issues lead to bigger problems that is why periodic maintenance effective. Regular maintenance & eliminating small issues are one of the most important parts of periodic maintenance. It includes several activities that are discussed below:

1. Changing Engine Oil

Engine oil shall be changed regularly as it helps in keeping equipment performance at its best level.

2. Removing Old and Installing New Parts

When machines are given maintenance after some time their old part become rusty. They need to be replaced otherwise best performance will not be achieved.

3. Cleaning Air Filter

Air filter works as same as lungs do for human beings. Therefore, they need to be kept clean if an organization wants their equipment to work for a longer time.

4. Inspecting All Parts

The vehicle is inspected to see if all parts are working efficiently or not if not, then parts are changed. For instance, engine oil is analyzed to check the asset's health.

5. Work as Per Work Order

When maintenance is scheduled, a checklist is created and all the issues in a machine are mentioned in the checklist. It makes work easier for technicians.

Conclusion

Maintenance scheduling is an important part of periodic maintenance. It decreases asset failure chances and enhances performance. For this purpose, data is utilized for effective decision-making.

Maintenance management software is used for tracking asset and their maintenance. When asset tracking is done in the right way you get other valuable information as well. For instance, where equipment was for how long it was used and you can use the data in asset maintenance.

Furthermore, there is asset history as well so you don't have to remember manually when maintenance was given. Most importantly, this software reminds & alerts managers and team members about each asset maintenance on time.

You can know the asset lifecycle of each asset, for instance, you will know when an asset needs to be disposed of.

Also Read: What Are the Benefits of Using OEE Software for Manufacturing Companies?

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What are the benefits of maintenance?‍

When maintenance is provided to assets on time it results in increased asset performance and uninterrupted daily operations. It leads to improved productivity & when productivity increases bottom line is also enhanced. Furthermore, maintenance on time can increase asset life and makes them more reliable.

2. Which type of maintenance is best?‍

Mainly there are two types of maintenance proactive maintenance and reactive maintenance. Proactive maintenance can be effective but it can be costly as well on the other hand reactive maintenance can be very expensive or sometimes not, depending on the issue.
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Furthermore, you will have to put resources into assets and equipment but also your production work will suffer due to the availability of the asset. Proactive and reactive maintenance both have their advantages and disadvantages. Choose maintenance that best fits your business.

3. On which type of asset periodic maintenance shall be used?‍

It can be used on all assets which need maintenance at a regular interval such as HVAC (Heating ventilation air conditioning) units as periodic maintenance is scheduled regularly.