Preventive maintenance involves precautionary interventions and inspections conducted on equipment and facilities frequently to prevent failures, downtime, and workplace accidents. It includes activities like lubrication, visual inspection, cleaning, and calibration. Most facilities have established preventive maintenance schedules to guarantee the optimal performance of assets.
Preserving a preventive strategy requires substantial budgets since facilities must conduct all routine and time-based maintenance activities even when assets are in good running condition. Some failures occur when facilities defer critical maintenance tasks or lack maintenance supplies. Preventive maintenance budgets cater to:
- Purchase of spare parts and tools
- Acquisition and maintenance of digital maintenance tools
- Wages and bonuses for maintenance teams
Preventive maintenance budgets depend on the number of assets within a facility and the intensity and frequency of preventive measures. What risks do facilities face when working with tight maintenance budgets? Does increasing the allocation for preventive maintenance strategies translate to fewer problems?
Reduce Deferred Maintenance Work
Some facilities rely on a run-to-failure maintenance model and implement corrective measures when assets fail. It happens when the facility defers preventive maintenance tasks because the existing funds are insufficient to acquire regular maintenance supplies. Postponing maintenance work is associated with several risks:
- Frequent and extended asset downtime
- Increased maintenance costs
- Lower equipment and facility safety
- Raised operational costs due to reduced equipment reliability
Deferring minor inspection and part replacement tasks leads to the accumulation of maintenance workloads. The pile-up of these tasks leads to arduous asset breakdowns and extends equipment downtime.
In the long run, technicians deal with overhauls and complex component replacements. Additional workload exerts undue pressure on the technicians and lowers the quality of maintenance work since technicians must restore assets within tight timelines.
Increasing maintenance budgets ensures the facility is better prepared to implement all preventive measures at recommended intervals. The facility maintains a lean inventory to ensure technicians complete recommended maintenance tasks within the specified timelines. These technicians have access to all tools needed for routine inspections—that way, they can identify and resolve additional maintenance issues.
Sufficient maintenance budgets also mean companies can acquire sophisticated work tools and high-quality spare parts. They can also source hard-to-find supplies by enlisting the services of experienced vendors.
These facilities can purchase and ship rare maintenance supplies from overseas vendors in good time before the next maintenance cycle. Maintenance departments can also hire temporary staff to assist with extra work or advanced tasks requiring expert guidance.
Boost Workplace Safety
Workplace safety is a top priority in modern facilities, with managers working proactively to minimize and eliminate risks. Some risks emanate from unreliable and ineffective physical assets—it can be leakage of refrigerants from air conditioning units, excessive radiation from heaters, or excess noise levels from mechanical components.
These risks increase if maintenance teams do not pay the utmost attention to usage and time-based maintenance schedules.
Allocating more money to the maintenance departments means facility managers can optimize existing maintenance schedules. They can modify manufacturer-recommended maintenance schedules to ensure older assets receive more attention than newer assets. They can also identify frequently used assets that can benefit from regular inspection.
Sufficient funds for maintenance teams imply facility managers can invest in digital maintenance tools to assist them schedule and track the quality of preventive maintenance interventions. These systems are critical for enhancing standard maintenance practices within facilities.
The digital tools automate routine tasks, with technicians following specific procedures to manage maintenance work. It strengthens safety standards among technicians and ensures consistency of maintenance work. That way, facilities can enjoy uninterrupted equipment performances.
Technicians can mitigate potential equipment risks and optimize equipment efficiency. With reliable and safe equipment, facilities can enjoy:
- Fewer workplace injuries
- Sustainable energy consumption
- Indoor and outdoor facility comfort
- Lower carbon footprints
Implement Preventive Measures in a Timely Manner
Equipment breakdowns significantly affect the quality of workflows in facilities. When breakdowns occur, employees spend more time rectifying failures to restore operations.
These breakdowns cause financial losses and irreversible damage to infrastructure, production systems, and raw materials. Preventive maintenance prevents the occurrence of these breakdowns and minimizes the impact of unavoidable equipment breakdowns.
It is beneficial in averting costly equipment breakdown—yet, some facilities allocate tight maintenance budgets for preventive maintenance. A company prioritizing maintenance budgets enjoys extended asset lifespan and benefits from increased compliance with industry standards.
When the maintenance department has sufficient funds, it can implement all preventive activities within appropriate intervals. That improves equipment reliability and allows employees to concentrate on maximizing production—instead of worrying over potential workplace accidents and unprecedented breakdowns.
The maintenance department can acquire advanced workflow management tools that generate timely maintenance reminders and enable maintenance managers to allocate critical maintenance tasks among available employees.
Maintaining the health of production assets through structured preventive maintenance interventions reduces work-related errors due to faulty equipment and processes. Also, streamlining maintenance schedules enhances the planning and implementation of other business activities.
Summing up
Facilities have well-established maintenance strategies and objectives. However, most fail to achieve these goals by availing of tight maintenance budgets or relying on outdated cost estimates to run maintenance departments despite expanding and aging asset bases.
Every facility manager should liaise with top management to periodically review maintenance budgets and lobby for the allocation of additional funds to maintenance departments. They should also explore innovative measures to effectively manage these and enhance the quality of preventive maintenance work.
Bryan Christiansen is the founder and CEO of Limble CMMS. Limble is a modern, easy-to-use mobile CMMS software that takes the stress and chaos out of maintenance by helping managers organize, automate, and streamline their maintenance operations.