Maintenance activities are essential for keeping equipment and hardware running smoothly. They include partial or complete overhauls at specific periods, oil changes, lubrication, minor adjustments, and recording of equipment deterioration. This allows workers to replace or repair worn parts before they cause system failure. Preventive maintenance is necessary to keep the equipment in good condition and can be done by internal staff or contracted by an external organization.
It is important to document who performs preventive maintenance and if it is done in any type of regular program. In some cases, computers may need a new power supply or fan. The people who make this determination and perform the installation should be identified. If an external third party performs these tasks, the name and contact information of the person or department responsible for managing the third party should be included.
Scheduled maintenance is any repair and service work performed within a set time frame. It details when the given maintenance tasks are performed and who does them. Routine maintenance is performed on a regular basis, whether daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly. It includes regular inspections or machine maintenance and is an important part of keeping systems up to date and functional.
Routine maintenance tasks are small and simple in nature and require only basic maintenance skills to perform well. If your maintenance personnel do not have the basic skills needed to properly repair or maintain critical plant systems, CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) cannot provide any improvement in current maintenance effectiveness. In addition, most maintenance technicians assigned to perform routine inspections, cleanings, or adjustments are entry-level or relatively new to a particular maintenance department. A mature CMMS system will provide the necessary data to properly plan and schedule maintenance activities but cannot replace the experience of a trained planner. In the context of servicing an air conditioning unit, routine maintenance involves removing and flushing the filters once a month, while planned maintenance involves hiring an HVAC professional to check refrigerant levels, potential leaks, and measure air flow through the coil of the evaporator.
When your equipment keeps maintenance records, it's easy to access the maintenance history of every piece of equipment at all times. Scheduled maintenance is facilitated by the use of CMMS software and careful coordination with maintenance planning which are worth investing time and resources in. A maintenance worker performing routine maintenance can clean, inspect and adjust many items of a single piece of equipment much more quickly than planned maintenance which takes care of processes and materials needed to successfully complete the required work. Scheduled maintenance also takes care of who performs those tasks. Once a problem is discovered, a maintenance scheduler works with a maintenance planner to resolve it. It is important for companies to know when to perform maintenance activities to avoid unnecessary expenses for excessive maintenance.
Once the maintenance system is in place, audit all procedures and initial work instructions to ensure they are accurate, complete, and within anticipated time requirements for service support. Good maintenance programs benefit virtually all companies in different industries; the only difference is how they apply maintenance techniques to achieve their business objectives. Because maintenance testing is a predictable set of activities, some organizations consider them preventive or routine maintenance.
