Your worst nightmare: a failure, a breakdown or any other inconvenience that can disrupt the smooth running of your daily activities that happens at the worst possible time. When you need your equipment, its reliability is absolutely paramount.
In the absence of proper and functioning equipment, you’re not only wasting time, but you’re also jeopardizing employee productivity and the reputation of your service, all while seeing an increasement of operational cost. Not to mention that in some cases, the safety of your employees can be compromised. The implementation of a preventive maintenance plan prevents you from experiencing these unfortunate and frustrating situations.
What does equipment maintenance imply?
Equipment maintenance consists of checking and assuring the proper functioning of the equipment and the preventive replacement of damaged/used parts.
Equipment may include audio or video equipment, construction tools and computer systems. The maintenance to be performed differs depending on the equipment in question. For example, the inspection of heavy construction equipment will not be the same as the inspection of a computer system.
Thus, the term maintenance includes many activities, including inspection, cleaning,replacement of parts and system updating.
What are the different types of maintenance?
There are several types of maintenance that you can integrate into your maintenance plan.
Corrective maintenance
Corrective maintenance is performed after an asset breaks down. Its purpose is to repair, to restore for interim use pending repair or replace the asset in question. Unfortunately, many companies only do this type of maintenance due to lack of time. However, this type of intervention can be extremely costly for businesses.
Perfective maintenance
Often used in the IT sector, perfective maintenance aims to improve the operation or performance of an asset. By making frequent changes to an equipment, you ensure that you are on the cutting edge of technology.
Preventive maintenance
This type of maintenance is the one that is most often overlooked, and yet it could make all the difference. Planned and performed according to previously defined criteria, preventive maintenance is intended to reduce the likelihood of equipment failure or degradation.
Why perform regular maintenance?
Some businesses will limit equipment maintenance due to budget and time constraints, but neglecting this can negatively affect your brand image, productivity and team motivation.
The main purpose of a maintenance plan is to extend the life of the equipment by anticipating potential problems. The implementation of a regular process ensures reliable and efficient performance, ensuring that the equipment does not fail when you need it most.
Regular maintenance makes it possible to:
- Reduce outages and stop time;
- Guarantee the security of your employees;
- Increase the life expectancy of your assets;
- Decrease repair costs;
- Saving time while doing a task;
- Increase the reliability of your equipment;
- Improve work conditions;
- Help guarantee the respect of norms and regulations.
A preventive maintenance plan to avoid the worst
Planning is the key to staying up to date in the maintenance of your tools and materials. A Preventive Maintenance Plan is a document that summarizes the procedures, resources and scheduling of maintenance tasks for a given asset.
Here are a few tips to start your maintenance plan:
- What are the potential consequences linked to equipment deficiency for your business?
- What are your maintenance plan objectives?
- What resources will be necessary for maintenance?
- How often should you conduct inspections, cleanings and reparations?
- What tool or software will you use to conduct maintenance monitoring?
By establishing these outlines, you will be able to establish maintenance procedures for your business.
The benefits of a maintenance monitoring system
To make it easier for you to implement your preventive maintenance plan, you can use hardware monitoring and management software.
The longest aspect of implementing a preventive maintenance program is to create an inventory containing all of your equipment. By choosing inventory software to track your maintenance, you could speed up the addition of equipment. Especially if you use a scanner to scan your inventory.
In addition to this time saved, you will notice several other benefits, including frequent maintenance alerts and maintenance history. Preventative Maintenance Tracking Software offers the ability to enter a lot of information so you can better monitor what you need to.
For example with the Hector solution, users can choose the person responsible for maintenance, the type of maintenance, the task (inspection, repair, cleaning) and indicate the condition of the equipment.
In addition, as soon as an asset is damaged, it is automatically removed from the list of equipment that can be reserved. By putting in personal notes or by adding documents (such as pictures and invoices), each user will be able to follow the life of an asset.
Whether you are lending equipment or sharing tools among colleagues, a preventive maintenance plan could prevent some major problems down the line. You will avoid unpleasant situations without even realizing it. Implement an automated tracking software like Hector in your business and discover the immediate benefits of using it!