Top 5 Preventive Maintenance Mistakes to Avoid

Posted by Alex Marshall on February 27th, 2020

Rapid advancements in technology have immensely transformed the maintenance and reliability industry over the past few decades. Companies keep on investing heavily in automation to augment employee productivity, enhance safety, and increase product quality. With all the technological changes, one thing that hasn’t changed much is the process of preventive maintenance (PM).

Preventative preservation is the procedure that is used in all the manufacturing industries to increase equipment performance, reliability, and cost-effectiveness. When done effectively, PM details can completely transform the company’s approach towards continuance and achieve considerable improvements in tools’ accuracy to perform. Nonetheless, some issues may prevent your organization from achieving the best results from your PM strategy.

Here are the top 5 preventive maintenance mistakes you should avoid to take full advantage of your efforts towards maintaining quality throughout the process.

Not Following Interval-based Maintenance

Failing to set standard intervals for your machines’ inspection and conservation can significantly impact your overall operations. It can lead to equipment damage if you take too long in between routine PM tasks. You might think of saving some expenses on regular checkups and examinations, but the damage caused to your tools will require additional repairs that could exceed the ongoing PM costs.

Establishing suitable intervals for your equipment’s scheduled maintenance is key to optimize any tools’ performance, longevity, and reliability.

Also Read: Preventive Maintenance Mistakes You Should Avoid

Not Having Enough Data to Use

When you conduct regular PM activities, they provide you with real-time data and insights into issues that are occurring to your machinery. These facts and figures are something that you can utilize to determine what necessary steps you have to take in your PM initiative. You also come to know about any recurrent problems that your systems and sub-systems are experiencing and come up with the right solutions to cope with those issues.

There is some special maintenance software that allows you to measure the performance of your PM plan by keeping track of all data like the number of breakdowns occurring, the percentage of completed PM activities, and the frequency of specific equipment repairs.

Not Providing Clear Instructions

Managers must communicate maintenance technicians what they have to do like different kinds of measurements, any particular actions to take in case of unsatisfactory conditions, and more. Being an employer, if you want to achieve the right results, you will have to be as specific as possible, like providing pass/fail criteria, attaching required drawings, and condition-based monitoring, and others.

It means that preventive maintenance directions must be peculiar to each asset as vague commands might result in incorrect and error-based preventive activities.

Not Covering all Tools during PM

Leaving out some of the critical equipment during PM schedule might lead to increased chances of failure. That’s why it’s imperative to include infrastructure and support items during the PM schedule besides having process-critical equipment checked. According to reliable machine shops around the globe, skipping some tools in your PM program could lead to prolonged downtime events.

Not Utilizing the Latest Technologies

One of the significant reasons why preventive inspections don’t provide adequate results is because companies fail to incorporate the latest technologies like the Internet of Things, also called Industry 4.0. A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) utilizes a set of specialized software that provide data-driven insights helping PM program produce effective preventive results.

Preventive maintenance activities help you identify system errors beforehand and maintain your essential machinery on time rather than carrying out costly repairs or replacements afterwards. These scheduled inspections will enable you to avoid frequent machine breakdowns or even more expensive plant shutdowns.