Maximize Efficiency and Minimize Downtime: Mastering Preventative Maintenance Scheduling

Preventative Maintenance Scheduling

Preventative Maintenance, by definition, is: "Preventative maintenance is a proactive approach employed to ensure the longevity and optimal performance of various systems, machinery, and equipment." Of course, this is all good in theory.

What we are really after is keeping our machine downtime to a minimum while operating at the highest efficiency. Correct? There are many different approaches to doing this, though. So, which is the best for your system?

There are really two different approaches to this. Time-based and Cycle-based Scheduling. 

Let's back up. Scheduling is the key. Creating something that will tell you it is time to perform Maintenance on a piece of equipment before the machine tells you it's time.

When the machine tells you it's time, it's too late.

You're starting to push into downtime and expensive repairs. So, let's talk about scheduling using two different methods.

Time-Based Preventative Maintenance:

Let us start out with the easiest method of the two. Time-based Preventative Maintenance is what it sounds like. You create a schedule so you know Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, or yearly that you will perform Maintenance on a piece of machinery.

This is the most common type of Preventative Maintenance scheduling and the easiest. You can look in almost any manual for equipment, and it will tell you how often you should maintain it. Of course, many variables go into deciding the length of time, but we will touch a bit more when we talk about Cycle Based Scheduling.

If you're a small facility, it makes sense to say you will do a PM on all equipment once a month. Of course, now you are scheduling a lot of manpower to do things that may or may not need Maintenance. However, this will ensure you run every piece of equipment through its paces and constantly monitor it.

This is an excellent way to start understanding the wear and tear on your machines because you are setting eyes and determining the machine's state often. The con to doing this is that you may not need to look at that piece of equipment every month or even every other month. You could be wasting a lot of time and money looking at equipment that is more important or run more often.

In my opinion, this is the inferior form of PM scheduling. However, this must be done because state code requires it or other codes according to your state or country. So, when setting up your equipment on a Time-based PM schedule, take this with a grain of rice. Your overall goal should be to set up a cycle-based schedule for your equipment.

Cycle-Based Preventative Maintenance

Let's get into the more involved but worth-it scheduling method.

So, when you start to look at Cycle-based PM scheduling, the variables come into play, and you need to research your equipment to understand its inner workings. Of course, you can always contact the manufacturer; they have a lot of this information and can save you some time. To explain this, we can go through some examples to help out. Let's start with a set of pumps.

Pump A runs constantly with production and is essential for your operation. Pump B is a backup pump that only runs half the time production runs or as needed. Which pump should you be spending your manpower on to maintain? Of course, we are going to say Pump A. It is the money maker and is keeping production running.

With time-based Scheduling, you may do a PM on every pump every week or month. Most pumps will have a schedule that should be maintained according to the run hours of the pump. So, using this, should you really be maintaining Pump B as often as Pump A? No, you shouldn't. You are wasting your manpower maintaining Pump B as much as Pump A. So you can take cycle time off of pumps A and B.

If the recommended PM run time is 500 hours, set your schedule for both off their run times. You may end up PMing Pump A every week and Pump B once a month. You have now cut your cost on Maintaining pump B in a quarter.

This same method can be used on almost every piece of equipment. I have personally introduced this with Overhead doors, HVACs, Pumps, and more. Now, you'll start seeing time in your pocket to allocate to essential repairs or improving your systems.

Tools To Make This Possible

Behind every good PM schedule is good CMMS Software. Here is a link to a list of some different CMMS software. You already have much to keep up with while running your lines and equipment. CMMS software can help you by setting up automatic alerts for your PMs and your work orders so you can manage them much easier.

There are a lot of other tools that can be used to help you. The one that will help the most when making your way to Cycle-based PM scheduling is sensors. Of course, there are hundreds of types of sensors, so what is suitable for the specific piece of equipment? This is going to go off of the piece of equipment and what the manufacturer recommends for PM. Let's go back to our Pump example.

You can go a couple different ways. You can go off of the run rate. So it would help if you had a sensor that lets you know when the equipment is running and how long it has been running. You can be as simple as a time linked to a motor starter. Or you can go off of the flow rate of the pump. Most pumps will have a nominal flow rate for the pump. Throw a flow rate sensor on it and go off this for your PM scheduling.

Regarding overhead doors, we normally go off of the cycle rate. The manufacturer sets a specific number of cycles that the door performs, which needs to be maintained. Use these different tools to save you man hours and downtime on your equipment.

Reading this has given you new ideas on maintaining your equipment or where to start if you still need to set it up. I plan to write about my experiences in maintaining a facility and its equipment. I have failed more than I have succeeded in this role, and I want to help others who want to achieve in whatever role they have.

-Brandon