If you work with machines, you know how important it is to keep them in good condition. A well-maintained machine can perform better, last longer, and save you money and time. But what are the most effective maintenance strategies for this machine? In this article, we will explore some common and proven methods to optimize your machine's performance and reliability.
Preventive maintenance is the practice of regularly inspecting and servicing your machine before any problems occur. This can help you avoid breakdowns, reduce wear and tear, and extend the machine's lifespan. Preventive maintenance can include tasks such as cleaning, lubricating, adjusting, replacing, and testing parts and components. You should follow the manufacturer's recommendations and schedule for preventive maintenance, as well as keep a record of the work done.
Clean, inspect, lubricate and adjust. This 4 step guideline, using the machine manufacturers manuals as a guide and instruction, will assist you in keeping machinery up and running. Maintaining a stock of common wear parts for replacement and using your inspections to help tune your replacement times in alignment with OEM recommended intervals is a massive step to reducing or eliminating surprises.
Predictive maintenance is the use of sensors, data, and analysis to monitor your machine's condition and performance in real time. This can help you detect and diagnose any faults or anomalies before they become serious. Predictive maintenance can also help you optimize your machine's efficiency, quality, and safety. Predictive maintenance can include tools such as vibration, temperature, pressure, sound, and visual sensors, as well as software and algorithms to process and interpret the data.
Tracking machines assets, their health, trending repairs/issues, and maintenance needs help build a data history and trend which can help you better predict what may happen based on what HAS happened. Doing this electronically is the way to go in 2023. There are CMMS apps that are free to use and other more elaborate tools that can import machine spec data and manual information to build a baseline right away, as well as interface with your companies ERP. Many major players in the realm of sensor technology have products that measure vibration, heat, and environmental conditions to help you understand real-time machine performance, which can immediately warn your team of imminent failures, create tickets, and get your work orders scheduled.
Corrective maintenance is the action of repairing or replacing your machine's parts or components when they fail or malfunction. This can help you restore your machine's functionality and prevent further damage or accidents. Corrective maintenance can be planned or unplanned, depending on the severity and urgency of the issue. Corrective maintenance can include tasks such as troubleshooting, isolating, removing, installing, and testing parts and components. You should use the appropriate tools, techniques, and safety measures for corrective maintenance.
Let's be honest, we typically consider these unplanned events. Being good in preventative and predictive maintenance can mitigate it, but it's simply the nature of the beast to have things fail with surprise and even with the best planning. Equip your team with the right tools, information, training and resources to dig in when the times comes to correct a machine issue. Categorize those actions based on the risk to operation and severity for best planning in your maintenance resource.
Reliability-centered maintenance is the approach of designing and implementing a maintenance plan based on your machine's reliability and criticality. This can help you prioritize and allocate your resources and efforts to the most important and vulnerable aspects of your machine. Reliability-centered maintenance can also help you balance the costs and benefits of different maintenance strategies. Reliability-centered maintenance can include steps such as identifying, analyzing, evaluating, selecting, and executing maintenance tasks and activities.
Judging the risk to operation, risk of failure and availability of resources helps prioritize what is most important as far as scheduling maintenance, budgeting for it, and stocking parts to handle it. Doing this can help you avoid surprises, reduce unexpected costs, and keep the most critical machines in top notch condition first and foremost, with the less critical machines coming next.
Condition-based maintenance is the practice of performing maintenance only when your machine's condition indicates a need for it. This can help you reduce unnecessary or excessive maintenance, as well as avoid premature or late maintenance. Condition-based maintenance can also help you improve your machine's availability and performance. Condition-based maintenance can include methods such as threshold, trend, and pattern analysis, as well as feedback and control systems.
Total productive maintenance is the philosophy of involving everyone in your organization in maintaining and improving your machine's performance and reliability. This can help you create a culture of ownership, teamwork, and continuous improvement. Total productive maintenance can also help you eliminate waste, defects, and downtime. Total productive maintenance can include elements such as autonomous maintenance, planned maintenance, quality maintenance, focused improvement, education and training, safety and environment, and management support.
My biggest discovery is that maintenance teams do not spend enough time understanding their machine and component criticality so they might best judge their scheduled downtime and costs to do important work, as well as ensure the right resources are in place for that work when the time comes. Cleanliness is another tough one. Dirty machines are prone to issues. Debris and dirt can contaminate lubricants, get stuck in the wrong places, and become a major nuisance that would otherwise be avoided wholly by following simple preventative maintenance cleaning guidelines. Start simple... perfect comes later.