Choosing the right maintenance strategy for a company's assets and properties can be challenging. We are often faced with the dilemma of choosing between reliability and profitability. In this article, you will learn useful guides on deciding a maintenance strategy for your assets.
Before going further, it is important to understand why a piece of equipment might fail in the first instance. The most common reasons for equipment failures are highlighted below:
While some approaches to equipment maintenance are universal, some are unique to specific equipment. The nature of a piece of equipment to be maintained will determine the type of strategy to be implemented. Other factors that could also influence our choice include:
Not all the equipment in a facility has equal value. Routine equipment is handled differently to special or business critical equipment. In the same vein, more expensive and sophisticated assets will usually cost more to maintain than the less expensive ones.
In the event of an asset breakdown, what effect will it have? This can be evaluated in terms of equipment downtime. Essentially, this refers to the time that a piece of equipment is not in use due to a defect or scheduled maintenance activities. It makes sense that if equipment downtime will cause a significant loss of revenue or if the costs of repair are enormous, a strict maintenance strategy will be adopted.
Maintaining a piece of equipment comes at a defined cost. If the cost of monitoring a given asset is close to or exceeds its repair or replacement, such maintenance may not be worth implementing.
The maintenance strategies list is hardly exhaustive as different approaches can be mixed and matched. Here, we will discuss three common types, their benefits, and when they are most suitable.
This is a proactive approach to asset maintenance as these maintenance tasks are scheduled to be performed regularly. The type and frequency of maintenance are predetermined according to the nature of the equipment under maintenance and company policy.
An example is changing the machine oil at the end of each month. Planned maintenance ensures that assets, or their components, operate smoothly for a long time.
This type of maintenance strategy is also referred to as breakdown or run-to-failure. In simple terms, it means the habit of fixing things when they break. In other words, you wait for your equipment (or part of it) to fail, and then you correct it.
Reactive maintenance is the simplest as it does not require elaborate planning. Here, it is assumed that as a piece of equipment ages, one or more of its components will eventually fail. A simple example would be changing a busted light bulb.
These kinds of failures do not significantly affect operations, and they can be easily fixed. However, adequate care must be taken when implementing this strategy because the negative impact can be substantial if misapplied. Generally, this method is most suitable for equipment that is not essential for operations or is easy to replace.
This is arguably the most advanced maintenance strategy. It involves predicting failures before they occur so that maintenance can be done promptly. In some cases, predictions can be made through visual inspections of critical functions of an asset. However, the mainstay of predictive maintenance is the use of sensors to track an asset's condition in real-time and performing maintenance in advance.
The condition of equipment can be monitored using any of the following methods:
Predictive maintenance is expensive to carry out and requires a special skill set. Ideally, it is most suited for more sophisticated machines.
Planned maintenance comes with numerous benefits. Many of these are associated with the possibility of flexible scheduling. For example, maintenance can be fixed for a time when there is less activity such that there is no interference towards normal operations. Other benefits include:
The major drawback of this method is the inefficient use of resources since maintenance is carried out based on schedule rather than when needed.
Predictive maintenance ensures that more accurate decisions are made since real-time data about the condition of the equipment is readily available. Other benefits include:
The challenges of implementing this strategy are higher initial costs, high tech and trained workers are required - if data is misinterpreted, wrong decisions about asset condition are taken and this could be costly.
Asides from the simplicity that comes with reactive maintenance, it also ensures that equipment is utilised maximally. Other benefits include:
The challenges of this strategy are increased asset deterioration, longer equipment downtime, and an approximate maintenance budget.
In reality, there is no specific strategy that fits all instances. In developing a strategy, the benefits and drawbacks of each method are evaluated and compared against the type of assets in question, the organization's policy, and the potential impact of equipment downtime. The following are useful sequential guides in determining the right strategy for you:
Developing a suitable maintenance strategy for your assets is necessary to guarantee optimal performance and improve overall efficiency. In choosing a strategy, a balance should be struck between profitability and reliability.
If you would like to discuss planned, reactive, predictive, or other maintenance strategies, get in touch.