A maintenance plan is a document that outlines the work done to proactively maintain assets in a facility. It helps ensure continuous use of an asset with optimal performance, preventing major breakdowns or unforeseen renovations. Maintenance planning refers to the scheduled repair of buildings and equipment, and is important for both large and small businesses. Items that require regular maintenance include computer hardware and software, company vehicles, and any regularly used mechanical tools and equipment. Planned maintenance is the process of detailing what materials, tools, tasks, and services are required to resolve a problem.
The purpose of planned maintenance is to determine what work needs to be completed and how it should be performed. To do this, a designated planner develops a work plan for each work request. These work plans detail everything a technician should do and use to accomplish the task. A maintenance plan is essential for a company's success. It ensures safety, reliability, and productivity by improving the long-term success of the company.
A maintenance planning function is a fundamental tool for reducing downtime and maximizing the value of preventive maintenance. The goal of planned maintenance is to keep equipment running as efficiently as possible, for as long as possible. Computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) can be an invaluable tool for generating maintenance schedules, creating work orders, and keeping track of task completion dates and work times. Communicating preventive and corrective maintenance requirements to production helps them understand the need for the maintenance window. Applying a careful approach to planning scheduled maintenance can also allow multiple maintenance tasks to be performed in a parallel time frame. The primary purpose of planned maintenance is to determine where maintenance needs exist and what processes, tools, and parts are needed to address them.
Other applications for scheduled maintenance combine planned and unplanned maintenance tasks to improve efficiency. An effective planning and scheduling system will allow your maintenance staff to do more work. To minimize risks and surprises, business owners and maintenance planners should schedule maintenance and repair for times outside the normal course of business. Maintenance teams should also strive to minimize emergency maintenance needed on their facilities. Coordination between preventive and planned maintenance can reinforce advanced maintenance practices with the efficiency, uptime, and schedule compliance needed. Examples of tasks that are normally included in maintenance programs include preventive inspections, lubrication services, filter changes, repairs, calibrations, adjustments, cleaning services, etc.
MicroMain offers industry-leading maintenance scheduling software that improves the efficiency, organization, and analytical power of any scheduled maintenance program. The importance of maintenance processes is continuously balanced by the availability of resources, and realistic deadlines are assigned to maintenance personnel. With proper planning and scheduling, organizations can make maintenance a standardized and efficient process for all.
