Preventative Maintenance: A Cost Saving Strategy
Automotive, electrical, and mechanical maintenance and service activities are essential in any well-run business. Operational costs are kept down by scheduling and implementing regular preventative maintenance activities. A cost-saving maintenance strategy includes preventative maintenance, which aims to protect assets from potential breakdowns and ensure cost-efficient use of already owned assets.
What Is Preventative Maintenance?
Preventative maintenance (PM) is any procedure, practice, or activity performed to help prevent the failure of an asset and extend its lifespan. PM activities are proactive, rather than reactive, in nature and are usually scheduled at predetermined intervals to ensure current and ongoing performance.
Benefits of Preventative Maintenance
Preventative maintenance offers a variety of benefits, including:
- Reducing risk of breakdown
- Increasing asset lifespan
- Improving machine efficiency
- Decreasing labor costs
- Improving safety and security
- Increasing customer satisfaction
- Allowing the company to handle a larger workload
- Increasing ROI
Applying Preventative Maintenance to Your Business
Example of preventative maintenance tasks applicable to mechanical equipment include lubricating, tightening, and cleaning. Electrical preventive maintenance includes testing, inspecting for problems, and making necessary repairs. Knowing and understanding the life cycle of your equipment is key to honing in on the correct maintenance schedule.
Creating an Efficient Maintenance Schedule
The primary goal of PM is to address issues before they occur. Many companies use software programs to create and manage their preventative maintenance schedules. Scheduling software helps to optimize employees’ time and resources by alerting them to routine maintenance tasks and performance evaluations.
Analyzing Preventative Repair Results
Keeping an audit trail of PM results helps to determine trends or patterns that can trigger alerts to potential problems. While one-time PM tasks keep equipment running, regularly tracking performance of equipment helps identify potential issues before they have a chance to cause the failure of the system.
Adopting a Preventative Maintenance Program
A well-developed and rigorously followed preventative maintenance program can reduce downtime, extend asset life, reduce the need for emergency repairs, and boost overall productivity. By instituting a PM schedule, businesses can save money and reap the rewards of greater efficiency and longevity of equipment.
The Benefits of Automation in PM
Automation of preventative maintenance processes ensures better reliability, accuracy, and efficiency. Automating scheduling tasks also saves time and money by eliminating manual processes and freeing up service technicians to be more proactive in problem solving. Automated solutions also make it easier to provide comprehensive feedback to management and employees.
Coach Your Staff for Success
Providing staff with thorough training and ongoing support ensures that they understand and comply with defined best practices. Management should also be regularly kept informed of the success of any preventative maintenance program.
Conclusion: A Cost Saving Strategy
In conclusion, implementing an effective preventative maintenance strategy can help businesses realize significant cost savings and improved operational efficiency over time. By introducing preventative maintenance as part of your operations, you and your team can develop a solid plan of action for catching potential problems before they arise and designating resources for the maintenance and upkeep of critical systems and machinery. This cost saving strategy will lead to a more reliable and productive organization.
What are the benefits of preventive maintenance?
1. Increased Equipment Reliability and Availability: Regular preventive maintenance increases the reliability and availability of your asset, ensuring that it functions and operates at maximum efficiency.
2. Reduced Repair Costs: By performing preventive maintenance, any potential issues can be remedied before they become larger and costlier repairs.
3. Improved Safety: Proper preventive maintenance will reduce the risk of injuries due to malfunctioning and out-of-date equipment.
4. Improved Operational Efficiency: By ensuring that all components of a system are functioning properly, the overall operation can be more efficient.
5. Reduced Waste: When all components of a system are operating properly and the system is functioning at maximum efficiency, there will be less waste produced.
6. Prolonged Equipment Life: Through regular servicing and maintenance of equipment, the equipment’s lifespan can be significantly extended, providing valuable returns on the initial investment.
What is preventative maintenance in relation to equipment?
Preventative maintenance is a routine maintenance program that is designed to reduce the risk of equipment failure and extend the life of the equipment. It typically involves regular inspections, cleaning, lubrication, adjustments, and other steps to help keep the equipment in good working order. It prevents small issues from becoming major failures, reducing the cost of repairs and decreasing the amount of downtime associated with equipment failure.
