4 Ways to Make the Most of Your Plant Preventative Maintenance

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Utility and production plants require a lot of machinery and equipment to continue operating. If any piece of equipment starts malfunctioning even slightly, thousands of dollars of product can be damaged. Depending on what those products are used for, this can be dangerous to workers and even customers.

For those in the manufacturing industry, plant preventative maintenance is absolutely necessary. Plants cannot wait for something to break before they fix it. Even the slightest deviation in mechanical parts can create deformities and errors in the end product. Many errors in the production process can be solved or avoided by implementing the proper maintenance for each piece of equipment.

With a tailored plant preventative maintenance campaign, equipment failures can be reduced and production downtime can be avoided. This translates to savings that can be passed on to other areas of your company.

Here are some preventative maintenance tips you can implement to keep your plant working at optimal conditions:

Clean Your Equipment


There are several ways your equipment can get dirty. Regular wear and tear can leave product residue on your machines, and dust can easily get into individual parts. Creating and sticking to a cleaning routine will go a long way to helping your equipment last longer and break down less often.

Keep Thorough Records


There are several things you need to know in order to create a preventative maintenance plan that works best for your company. You'll need to know what kind of equipment you have on hand, what sorts of problems each machine is prone to, past problems, and expected lifespan of each part of your plant. Trying to remember all of this information for every part of your plant is downright impossible. While taking the time to update and maintain records for your plant's maintenance needs can be tedious, it is a necessary part of creating a plan that works for you.

Create a Schedule


Knowing what times are best to take your equipment off line for maintenance can be crucial to the operation of your plant. You don't want to schedule your machines for repairs during the busiest working hours, but if you wait too long to send them in, you risk product and personnel damage. By using your records of up and down times, you can find the best time to scheduling cleaning and maintenance.

Leave Complicated Repairs to the Experts


While regular cleaning and simple repairs can be done by the workers more familiar with each machine, complicated repairs and detailed maintenance should be left to engineers and mechanics. They have the training necessary to know what techniques will best fix the problem at hand. While you might be tempted to have your workers repair machines to save on money, their lack of training can put your assets at risk. Think of it like investing in the guarantee of your machines continuing to work.

When you look at all of the aspects of creating a complete plant preventative maintenance plan, it can seem overwhelming. But with Asset Panda, it doesn't have to be. Our flexible platform can be configured to fit the needs of any plant or factory. With our cloud based database, you can rest assured knowing your maintenance information will be available whenever you need it.

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By:

Bree Brouwer

Bree has held plenty of media- and marketing-related jobs over the years now, like working as a PR and marketing assistant to a Hollywood screenwriting coach, and writing content for three different digital marketing agencies.

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