When developing maintenance practices for your facility, it’s crucial to understand various maintenance approaches and their benefits. Maintenance strategies can be classified into different categories to understand which ones suit your environment. Reactive and preventive maintenance are two popular strategies that industries implement to keep the equipment up and running.
You’re probably aware of how preventive and reactive strategies work. However, developing a deep understanding of your maintenance procedures will help you avoid mistakes and inefficiencies. Here are some common myths surrounding industrial maintenance:
It’s expensive to develop an effective maintenance plan
So far as history is concerned, it was true to some extent that having a sound maintenance plan in place required plenty of resources. However, it’s just a myth considering the rapid progress in industrial maintenance technologies. Companies today have the knowledge, awareness, cost-effective tools and products to implement a cost-effective preventive or predictive maintenance program.
In fact, the absence of maintenance makes it difficult for a facility to stay profitable and efficient. Money a plant invests in unplanned shutdowns and repair is always more than what is required to implement a maintenance plan.
Maintenance programs are hard to implement
People who manage maintenance teams understand those situations where a solution seems easy on the surface, but successfully implementing it can be excessively difficult, if not impossible. Companies that haven’t made maintenance a top priority might struggle to train their staff to utilize data collection tools and implement an effective preventive or predictive maintenance program.
Fortunately, modern technologies such as smart monitoring systems and smartphone-enabled devices have changed things. All you need to do is either train your staff or hire a proven preventive maintenance company to streamline your maintenance-related affairs.
Equipment isn’t worth maintenance
Your industrial machines serve various functions and make it possible for you to run your business. While some machines are less expensive than others, even less important equipment should be given due attention. Traditional and outdated repair or maintenance solutions may have led you to believe that it’s not appropriate to apply sophisticated maintenance techniques to inexpensive machines. It’s time you discard this myth and care for each machine on your manufacturing floor.
Equipment is new and it doesn’t need maintenance
While your new machines are under warranty and performing at peak efficiency, ignoring maintenance can negatively impact your equipment down the line. Even new machines can have a minor misalignment or bearing wear. So, your new equipment needs as much attention as your old equipment. Real-time insights will help you understand your new machines during the warranty period so that issues can be addressed on time.
Doing it once a year is sufficient
Maintenance is not a once-a-year job. To stay competitive in a noisy industrial world, you need to ensure equipment reliability throughout the year, and this can’t be achieved by maintaining your equipment once a year. Analyze and maintain your assets as per recommended maintenance practices. If you don’t have an experienced preventive maintenance team, make sure to consult a maintenance company.
About Quality Millwright
We are Quality Millwright, an engineering company in Canada where we provide impeccable preventive maintenance and shutdown services to a broad range of industries. Contact us for more details!
