Preventative maintenance is something that is actually a very simple and quite straightforward principle, but one that has not always been embraced by businesses, especially within the small business sector.
Basically the concept of preventative maintenance is about carrying out maintenance on a regular and scheduled basis, so that the machinery involved does not breakdown and cause any ‘down time’ in terms of production.
Examples Of Preventative Maintenance
Preventative maintenance is not, necessarily about bringing in engineers and stopping machinery so that it can be given a routine service. This is undoubtedly an important part of the process, but there are other ways in which this type of maintenance can be carried out.
Equipment can be checked on a periodic basis, to ensure that it is in the best condition possible. These checks can be carried out by operators who will be the best placed to simply check that the machinery is operating effectively.
Operators can also be trained to recognise when components may be becoming worn and less efficient. They can then be replaced before there is any risk of the production process being held up by the machinery breaking down completely.
One very minor aspect of preventative maintenance could even be routine oil checks carried out on a regular basis, so that machinery does not seize up and cause a significant period where production is affected.
The key to the concept of preventative maintenance is that it has to be a planned cycle of maintenance. Every person involved within the process needs to be aware of what their role is and what is expected of them. In addition they need to know when to undertake this maintenance; it therefore requires significant planning in order to make it successful.
The Advantages Of Preventative Maintenance
There are some ‘die hards’ who refuse to believe in the benefits or advantages of preventative maintenance, arguing that this is an expensive option that requires too much ongoing staff input and that it is effectively too time consuming.
However, this is far from being true for the majority of businesses. With preventative maintenance there is no ‘down time’ in terms of production, or where there is an unavoidable down time due to machinery breaking down, this will be kept to a minimum.
In addition the machinery, which is regularly maintained will last for much longer than machinery that is poorly maintained and left to go wrong as and when, so there are some longer-term benefits to be gained from adopting a policy of preventative maintenance.
Disadvantages of Preventative Maintenance
Although there are benefits to be had from preventative maintenance, there are some businesses that will probably not benefit from introducing this maintenance approach. For a business to adopt such an approach, there has to be a significant risk that the machinery involved will indeed fail if there is no maintenance carried out on it on a regular basis.
Next a risk assessment has to be carried out. Will the cost of the preventative maintenance be less overall than any downtime that may happen if the machinery fails. If the cost of the downtime is negligible or the inconvenience caused is not great, then there is no real reason to carry out preventative maintenance. This is simply down to classic economic principles which makes the most feasible option the one that has the minimal requirements in terms of cost.
However, in most instances, the cost of the downtime will be significantly higher than the cost of the preventative maintenance (PM), which means that the PM approach will be the preferred option.
