Preventive maintenance: what it is, when to do it and its advantages
Companies need to take care of their equipment and machinery to ensure operationality and productivity, serving customers on time. Preventative maintenance is part of this industrial routine and is crucial for the progress of the production cycle.
Remember the saying: prevention is better than cure? For companies and industries, “cure” can be costly and even harm deadlines because it freezes the team’s work.
Therefore, the best solution for industrial maintenance management is to create a plan with predictive, preventive and corrective actions. These activities are complementary and help the responsible team to monitor potential failures and the quality of the assets.
In this article, you will learn what preventive maintenance is and what it is for, when to do it, the benefits and examples of activities carried out in this process.
Keep going and enjoy reading!
What is preventive maintenance?
Preventive maintenance plans and schedules periodic inspections of machines and equipment in industrial operations. This process aims to extend the useful life of items, reduce failures and minimize unexpected stoppages during work. This ensures greater efficiency and continuity in production, avoiding unnecessary costs and interruptions .
This type is the opposite of corrective maintenance, which occurs after an error or equipment failure.
Preventive activities are proactive measures, indicating a possible point of failure, due to factors such as wear, misuse of the machine, incorrect positioning of a part, among other factors.
NBR 5462 is a national technical standard that establishes guidelines for implementing an internal machinery management system.
By following reliability and maintainability standards, it is possible to establish a standard for all types of maintenance activities, data recording and results analysis.
In this way, companies cover all necessary fronts, preventing failures, constantly monitoring their assets and efficiently correcting urgent situations.
What is this type of maintenance for?
Preventive maintenance serves to organize activities aimed at preserving machines and equipment, establishing criteria and dates for carrying out the work, in addition to defining the teams responsible for carrying out the tasks in each production sector.
This maintenance activity reduces and even eliminates frequent occurrences related to defects and wear and tear on assets. This is because technicians act beforehand and identify any risk factors.
Scheduled maintenance also ensures the availability and reliability of machinery, increasing the useful life of the company’s assets, which helps to obtain a positive return on investment.
After all, modern machines are technologies with high acquisition costs and losses due to lack of supervision can impact the financial health of the business.
When to perform preventive maintenance?
The timing for preventive maintenance is defined in the maintenance plan. Each company, depending on its size, volume of equipment and type of operation, establishes the ideal standards for supervising its assets.
This way, it is possible to create a calendar with the dates and the team responsible for each maintenance cycle, which makes it easier to activate team members on the established day and time.
One factor that helps determine the right time to assess the condition and operation of a machine is the manufacturer’s recommendation. Most industrial equipment has this indication in the manual.
This way, the area team can list and organize the preventive maintenance schedule and even increase the monitoring frequency, if necessary, to meet the business needs.
What are the advantages of preventive maintenance?
Preventive maintenance, when carried out effectively, brings numerous advantages to companies and industries. Below we list the main benefits achieved with correct execution:
Reduced downtime
One of the villains of operational efficiency is work interruption, especially when stoppages occur frequently.
With good scheduled maintenance planning, companies avoid unexpected failures, keeping staff working longer and reducing downtime to what is necessary for inspections.
Extending the life of the equipment
The useful life is the time that a piece of equipment/machine operates, meeting the desired production capacity. With regular care and maintenance, this period can be extended.
Regular care and maintenance can significantly extend the life of machines and equipment by avoiding damage, preventing wear and tear and replacing parts.
Operational cost savings
Organizing the entire maintenance process generates costs, such as hiring a qualified team, losses at each stoppage, and repair costs (purchasing parts, tools, etc.).
However, in the long term, scheduled supervision generates greater savings for companies, as it avoids expensive part replacements and emergency corrections, which further burden the business’s cash flow.
Improves workplace safety
Equipment and machinery are not the only assets that are well looked after by scheduled maintenance. Staff operate machinery more safely knowing that the machines are well maintained and working properly.
This care also reduces the rate of work accidents and protects the team from the dangers generated by the operation.
Increases asset efficiency
Regular maintenance ensures that machinery and equipment operate at peak efficiency, resulting in energy savings and achievement of production goals.
What to do in preventive maintenance?
Technicians perform the following activities in preventive maintenance on machines and equipment:
- cleaning of equipment;
- lubrication of structures;
- replacement of parts, when necessary;
- equipment repairs.
In addition to equipment, the team can check, clean and repair other infrastructure items, such as:
- heating, ventilation and air conditioning system;
- water and sanitation systems;
- electrical grid.
Maintenance requirements vary depending on the type of equipment used on the production line. In addition, each sector (food, footwear, automotive) has specific needs to operate within safety and compliance levels.