Every organization has to deal with repairs, downtimes, and a halt in their services. Interruptions in business operations happen when maintenance activities are postponed or not carried out as planned.
A delay in doing repairs or scheduled maintenance tasks could mean faulty equipment going unnoticed. From the supply chain perspective and logistics standpoint, planned maintenance systems are invaluable technologies required by businesses to make sure they’re running their services smoothly.
In this post, we break down what it is, along with its benefits, and include a brief guide to planned maintenance for organizations.
What Is Planned Maintenance?
According to the planned maintenance software definition, planned maintenance is maintenance work that is scheduled at regular intervals or on a frequent basis. The idea of planned maintenance is to keep important machinery/equipment from failing and make sure they operate at peak performance. Any unplanned outages and sudden breakdowns are prevented, as planned maintenance takes care of problems from the roots, avoiding future pitfalls and consequences.
Examples of planned maintenance tasks include changing oils, switching tires of every vehicle during the winters, and doing maintenance work on a forklift after every 150 hours from the time of its last operation.
Scheduled activities are included with planned maintenance and managers are able to properly allocate time, resources, and budget for repairs and renovations since these activities are planned well-ahead of their schedule.
Benefits Of Planned Maintenance Systems
There are various benefits to using planned maintenance systems. Here’s a list of the major ones:
1. Lowers Equipment Downtime
A big benefit of planned maintenance activities is that they reduce equipment downtime. By improving the overall performance of industrial equipment and increasing their lifespan through scheduled maintenance, business owners are able to save money on repair costs and reduce cases of sudden outages.
2. Enables 24/7 Monitoring
Managers get 24/7 monitoring when they implement planned maintenance systems into the company. Real-time monitoring and insights let them make key decisions effectively about the direction a business is heading in and not make any delays.
Down the line, this cuts unforeseen costs, improves budgeting, and leads to higher customer satisfaction rates due to quicker response times. Round-the-clock monitoring enables managers to evaluate their previous maintenance activities better and dashboards give good visualization of historic data.
3. Improves Business Productivity & Efficiency
Technicians buy spare parts and replacements beforehand, know exactly what procedures they will be doing, and are ready for repair works. Planned maintenance prepares them for these steps and when the actual maintenance work starts, it goes much faster.
Staff members can focus on being productive in the company and not worry about having to deal with equipment failure. When supply chain operations are running smoothly and the industrial pipelines are at peak efficiency, the whole organization can focus on what it does best and keep growing.
4. Helps Plan Out Work
When workers are aware of when planned maintenance is going to take place, they can better design their work schedules. Planned maintenance activities help employees set up their calenders and know when to expect downtimes or see what’s coming up ahead.
The 6 Steps Of Planned Maintenance
There are 6 stages or ‘steps’ to planned maintenance –
1. Identifying The Problem
The first step to planned maintenance is identifying the problem. This could mean noting failures in machinery equipment, oil leaks, expiry of models, or anything else that is linked to the malfunctioning materials and equipment. Once the problem has been identified, it can be reported to the management for scheduled maintenance.
2. Planning Out Maintenance Tasks
The next phase in planned maintenance is planning out the tasks and activities to be carried out, step-by-step. All the materials required, labor contracts, costs involved, additional services, and tools are factored into this phase.
Planning maintenance tasks is important for addressing careful critical downtime within the organization. The activities are laid out in sequence and carried out step by step, once initiated.
3. Scheduling Work Orders
Scheduling work orders means deciding when to carry out the maintenance tasks. Priority levels get assigned to these tasks and they are done within stipulated dates based on the availability of inventory and resources.
Managers usually review the work schedule a few times before approving it. This is to ensure the accuracy and quality of the plan and to take the necessary steps for carrying it out successfully without any hiccups.
4. Allocating Tasks
Assigning these tasks to maintenance personnel is what the organization does later. Managers have to make sure that the people who take up work requests have the necessary skills to carry out the maintenance work. If you’re allocating work to external contractors, you need to have a discussion with them before finalizing the deal.
5. Oversee The Work Arrangement
The maintenance supervisor will review work performance and indicate whether it meets the expected quality standards of the organization. Any outstanding work schedules and planned maintenance orders are put on the waiting list. Careful observations are made when the work orders are being fulfilled, on the basis of which future work orders are then decided.
6. Performing Root Cause Analysis
Root cause analysis gets to the bottom of why machines are prone to failures and breakdowns. It resolves incidents before they even get a chance to occur. Systemic causes of errors are identified and this process is repeated until more underlying problems are found. CMMS systems are leveraged during the process of carrying out root cause analysis and contribute to a part of this process.
How To Start Using Planned Maintenance Systems
Implementing Planned Maintenance Systems (PMS) involves doing the following:
1. Gathering Data
From past data related to your maintenance activities to current data feeds, managers should collect all the information and details before implementing a PMS solution.
2. Choose A PMS Platform
There are many PMS platforms available, but choose one that includes CMMS features
3. Insert Your Data
Plug in your collected data into the PMS platform and port it. You can add assets and previous work orders as well.
4. Train Your Team
Show your team how to use the platform and add data to it. This is important in order to make sure you use it effectively.
5. Look At KPIs & Follow Up
Review KPI variables and have meetings with your maintenance team. Follow up with your technicians and other members about planned maintenance activities, when needed.
Conclusion
Planned maintenance systems can be a game-changer for businesses who are wanting to innovate and improve their business operations. Implementing a Planned Maintenance System can help a business make better data-driven decisions, improve reliability, and cut down operational costs without sacrificing performance.