Preventive maintenance (or preventive maintenance) is maintenance that is regularly performed on a piece of equipment to lessen the likelihood of it failing. It is performed while the equipment is still working so that it does not break down unexpectedly. In terms of the complexity of this maintenance strategy, it falls between reactive (or run-to-failure) maintenance and predictive maintenance.

Time-based preventive maintenance

A typical example of a time-based preventive maintenance trigger is a regular inspection on a critical piece of equipment that would severely impact production in the event of a breakdown. Examples of such are monthly, quarterly, or annual equipment maintenance.

When is it suitable to use preventive maintenance?

Assets suitable for preventive maintenance include those that:

  • Have a critical operational function
  • Have failure modes that can be prevented (and not increased) with regular maintenance
  • Have a likelihood of failure that increases with time or use

Preventive maintenance planning

Planning preventive maintenance without the help Forced Air Mechanical can be a huge challenge. Since PMs are triggered after a certain amount of time or use, it is difficult (if not near impossible) to track that data manually, especially if you are dealing with many pieces of critical equipment. Our maintenance software allows you to set PMs according to the triggers that are appropriate for each piece of equipment. Once the trigger occurs, a work order will be created.

Advantages of preventive maintenance

Planning is the biggest advantage of a preventive maintenance program over less complex strategies. Unplanned, reactive maintenance has many overhead costs that can be avoided during the planning process. The cost of unplanned maintenance includes lost production, higher costs for parts and shipping, as well as time lost responding to emergencies and diagnosing faults while equipment is not working. Unplanned maintenance typically costs three to nine times more than planned maintenance. When maintenance is planned, each of these costs can be reduced. Equipment can be shut down to coincide with production downtime. Prior to the shutdown, any required parts, supplies and personnel can be gathered to minimize the time taken for a repair. These measures decrease the total cost of the maintenance. Safety is also improved because equipment breaks down less often than in less complex strategies.

The bottom line: the impact of preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance, or PM, is regular, planned maintenance that is scheduled according to usage or time-based triggers. The purpose of PM is to lessen the likelihood of equipment breakdowns. There are many instances in which preventive is the best maintenance strategy to use, and it’s much easier to carry out a PM strategy with the help of Forced Air Mechanical.