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With the rapidly evolving technologies and tools, it has become even more critical to keep the highly sophisticated machinery and equipment maintained to keep the production smooth. But, Maintenance should not be limited to traditional practices. Like other quality processes in the organization, the maintenance processes also need regular, continuous improvement to cope with the business environment’s ever-changing needs.
Maintenance is one of the inevitable parts of production processes since it keeps your equipment functioning for an extended time. It is categorized into different groups, namely –preventive, reactive, condition-based, and much more.
This post will look at the different categories of equipment maintenance that may help you strategize business operations in an optimized manner. There are eleven types of maintenances, including:
Preventive maintenance is the type of maintenance intended to prevent equipment breakdowns, failure, or downtime. Organizations take specific measures in advance to reduce the probability of inconsistencies. It is also known as a proactive approach to equipment maintenance before it leads to any production delays. It basically requires maintenance teams to track the past incidences of breakdowns and failures to identify the timespan when equipment may stop functioning correctly.
Fortunately, enterprises can access advanced maintenance management software to analyze equipment performance, anticipate the interventions, and organize their maintenance activities accordingly. It not only ensures increased productivity but also demonstrates the organization’s commitment to best practices.
Predictive maintenance is something that smart maintenance teams stay prepared to manage inconsistencies of the system through constant monitoring of data and devices. For this type of maintenance, organizations generally use sensor devices to keep them alarmed and informed on every issue that interrupts the production cycle. The sensor devices interpret the data signs to warn on-site staff about approaching dangers or downtime.
It is often the most intensive and advanced type of maintenance since it requires processing hefty chunks of data in real-time and even the sensor devices need regular maintenance. But you can manage predictive maintenance with ease using cloud-based maintenance management software like Qualityze that offers a centralized and scalable platform for your critical data.
Condition-based maintenance is somewhat similar to predictive maintenance. But these maintenance activities are applicable only when asset or equipment meets the specific condition defined for them. Condition-based maintenance is better than predictive maintenance since there is more clarity when maintenance needs to be done. You need not rely on data analysis where you don’t have clearly defined metrics to look for. CBM requires your maintenance teams to submit a request to initiate the maintenance activity every time the conditions are met.
The manual practices may lead to unnecessary delays in processing maintenance requests. However, you can rely on robust maintenance management software to create, manage, and track the maintenance activity requests more effectively and efficiently.
Planned maintenances are all about completing all the scheduled maintenances. The maintenance teams will keep the resources in place that they may need for the scheduled maintenance. It helps maintain equipment performance and meeting compliance. More will be the number of planned maintenances you will execute; lesser will be the interruptions in your production operations. Planned maintenance can be more manageable with an electronic maintenance management system.
The advanced systems allow your teams to set alerts and notifications for the upcoming maintenance activities, so you don’t miss maintenance or compliance excellence.
Corrective maintenance is intended for repairs and maintenance required on the spot whenever a problem or defect is detected. The only objective is to make equipment functioning asap so it can perform the assigned task. It can be planned and unplanned. The unplanned corrective maintenance is quite expensive since you cannot anticipate the costs it may levy on you. Hence, corrective maintenance is for managing the unexpected events that may happen anytime, anywhere.
Having a sound maintenance management system can help manage unexpected maintenance in a more standardized and streamlined manner, enabling you to make faster and better decisions based on the available data.
Emergency maintenance is quite similar to corrective maintenance since it also deals with sudden breakdowns and equipment failures. Such maintenance requires immediate intervention for repairing and replacing the equipment’s failed components to get everything back on track at the earliest. It is expensive than all other maintenance because it leads to repair and replacement costs and productivity loss. It is five times more inefficient and costly than preventive maintenance.
To handle emergency maintenance, you can keep extra resources stocked in your production unit to save as much time as possible to get equipment up and running.
Deferred maintenance includes repairs and inspections that organizations put on hold due to budget and resource limitations. With deferring maintenance, you can save upfront costs up to 7% annually. But these costs may rise due to fines resulting from missed inspections and unscheduled downtime that can halt the production. In all the maintenances, deferred maintenance and emergency maintenance are the least desired maintenance-types because of the expensiveness and inefficiency.
In this type of maintenance, the organizations generally perform an inspection or test of the equipment at regular intervals to determine equipment condition. Such regular inspections help them keep a check on equipment health and take the right preventive measures on time. In simple words, risk-based maintenance requires organizations to perform a risk assessment of their equipment.
A computerized maintenance management system can help you manage risk-based maintenance in an organized manner so you can focus on the equipment that is riskier than others.
It is a scheduled type of maintenance wherein maintenance teams replace the spare parts and equipment components after a certain usage level. For example, if an element can best perform for 1000hrs, it will be replaced once this limit is met or crossed even if the condition of the part or component is not so bad. It works best with sensor alarms that keep your maintenance teams notified about the usage level.
An advanced maintenance management software can make a valuable addition to keep your equipment in the best working state by sending them automated alerts and notifications within time.
Total productive maintenance (TPM) is often referred to as the broadest type of maintenance. It targets more than the assets that need maintenance. It improves employee satisfaction and overall morale in the workplace and maintains equipment health, especially in manufacturing plants. It focuses on increasing overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and the amount of planned maintenance to ensure that all the workers get the required resource for performing their job well, which implies higher satisfaction levels. It also includes encouraging machine operators to participate in maintenance activities and take ownership.
In this type of maintenance, organizations generally perform functional tests on equipment to identify the failure on fixed intervals. However, you can specify the schedules based on the risk assessments.
So many maintenances to manage; so are their activities and requirements? Do you still think traditional paper-based practices are sufficient to manage multiple maintenance programs for the voluminous amount of equipment used in your production unit? You must understand the critical need for powerful maintenance management software like Qualityze. It allows organizations to create and manage maintenance programs to ensure the safe functioning of the equipment and hassle-free production. You can integrate it with your existing quality management system to streamline the maintenance activities more efficiently.
Built on the most powerful and secure cloud platform, i.e., Salesforce.com, Qualityze leverages your configurable workflows to implement the industry best practices for managing all types of equipment maintenance activities without any hassles. It comes with amazing features like Alerts and Notifications, Dashboards, Advanced Reporting, Email Approvals, and much more on a centralized platform to help manage equipment maintenance activities from anywhere across the globe.
Every organization needs a standardized maintenance management system to help manage production instabilities, malfunctioning machines, or complete breakdowns to avoid potential pauses in the production, partially or wholly.
If you also want to enhance your assets’ performance, including equipment and spare parts, while decreasing the downtime and overall maintenance costs, get in touch with the Qualityze Customer Success Team on 1-877-207-8616 or write to us at info@qualityze.com, and we will be right there for you.