Maintenance, also known as technical maintenance, refers to a collection of procedures and practices to ensure the equipment, machines, and other assets operate continuously and efficiently. It is crucial to implementing maintenance programs on a regular basis can ensure good performance and longevity of your machinery, facilities, and entire businesses.
The three most common types of maintenance include Corrective Maintenance, Preventive Maintenance, and Predictive Maintenance, each type is designed for distinctive objectives. Understanding the differences between these maintenance types can help leaders decide which ones are the most suitable for their circumstances.
Key Takeaways
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- What are Corrective, Preventive, and Predictive Maintenance?
- How can each type of maintenance bring benefits to your organization?
Corrective Maintenance
Corrective Maintenance is any task that corrects a problem with an asset to a condition in it can perform its intended function. This type of maintenance occurs when an issue is detected through condition monitoring, when a routine inspection uncovers a potential fault or when a piece of equipment breaks down. It can be planned and unplanned.
Benefits:
Low short-term cost
Due to the reactive nature of Corrective Maintenance, there are few financial and administrative costs involved before something goes wrong.
Minimal planning required
Corrective Maintenance occurs only when there is a needed change in the components or installations of an asset. Due to this, complicated planning is not required.
Simpler process
The process of Corrective Maintenance has fewer steps and is easier to understand since this type of maintenance measure is only necessary when a problem occurs.
Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is cyclical maintenance that is planned and performed on equipment to ensure that failures do not occur and to lessen the consequences of breakdowns. A preventive maintenance plan is ideal when the engineering team can plan, prevent or predict any malfunction of equipment so it has the least possible impact.
Benefits:
Extend the life of assets
Equipment is a valuable, and often expensive, asset of a company. The better a company cares for its equipment, the longer it will last. Preventive maintenance will prolong the life of equipment, resulting in reduced replacement costs and downtime.
Increase overall efficiency
Routine maintenance such as cleaning, inspections, parts replacement, oil and fluid changes, and more can help equipment run much more efficiently. By performing maintenance tasks regularly, equipment will be running at its best performance resulting in reduced fuel and energy consumptions.
Decrease equipment downtime
Almost all maintenance tasks require some equipment downtime. With a preventive maintenance program, businesses can reduce and optimize downtime. Consequently, this will benefit the company by saving time in maintenance and day-to-day operations.
Reduce costs
A problem waiting to happen if organizations rely solely on reactive maintenance. This can often cost considerably since unexpected failure can lead to interrupted operations, missed deadlines, overtime payment for technicians, and sometimes long-term brand damage.
Improve safety
Hazards, and sometimes injuries, can happen when equipment is not working in optimal condition. Preventive maintenance improves the working conditions and safety of the equipment; hence, the safety of the employee leading to fewer occupational health problems, injuries, and accidents.
Improve reliability
When businesses conduct preventive maintenance, they can deliver products or services on time to customers. By consistently offering a dependable product or service, a company can take better care of its customers and enhance its reputation.
Predictive Maintenance
Predictive Maintenance is maintenance that monitors the performance and condition of equipment during normal operation. By performing it, businesses can predict when equipment failures might occur and therefore reduce the likelihood of failures.
Benefits:
Reduce repair and maintenance cost
Each asset has multiple related costs, and unexpected failures contribute greatly to the cost of ownership of an asset. By being able to predict and avoid equipment failure, a company can save money resulting from reducing repair and maintenance costs.
Reduce new equipment expenditure
Predictive Maintenance enables companies to schedule equipment maintenance and repairs which can predict unwanted events before they occur. Furthermore, companies can real-time monitor an asset performance which allows them to immediately identify parts that need replacement and take rapid actions, thereby prolong your assets’ life. The longer companies use an asset, the more money they save.
Increase asset availability
Organizations can experience a considerable increase in expenditure because of unplanned downtime, interrupted production, and expensive maintenance and repair costs. Preventive Maintenance allows organizations to make the most use of their existing machines and equipment by providing them the ability to detect possible issues providing early notice; henceforth, improving equipment and machine performance, reliability, and availability.
Improve safety for employees
Predictive Maintenance programs can generate performance data of operating assets. By analyzing acquired data for a long period of time, companies can identify possible risks and hazards, evaluate their impact on working conditions, and take appropriate actions before affecting the well-being and safety of employees.
On some occasions, businesses need to implement more than one type of maintenance to achieve their defined objectives. Understanding and correctly implementing the differences can save businesses from wasting money, time, as well as human resources.
Businesses usually tend to cut down costs as much as possible, whenever possible. However, sometimes, you must invest in order to minimize risk, and investing money in maintenance is a practical and useful way to sustain and grow your business in the long run.
