In today's production and manufacturing environment, equipment, machines, and assets are necessary to operate the business. For the same reason, maintenance is also significant for organizations! Thus, maintenance should be performed at all levels to optimize asset efficiency! In this blog, we will explore the role of maintenance, routine maintenance, and what the important daily tasks in routine maintenance are! So, without any delay, let us begin!
Role of Maintenance
It does not matter what your organization does or in which industry your business operates! In business, you cannot afford the “use and throw” strategy as equipment, assets, and machines are not easy to purchase as they are costly. Thus, maintenance is used to make equipment work efficiently and to avoid any business loss.
For all businesses, these assets are very valuable as they are the source of generating revenue. Especially when you are in manufacturing or producing inventory products. If you do not deliver the work order on time, you might also lose business, especially when there are a lot of competitive players in the market. So, maintenance is more important than ever before!
What Is Routine Maintenance?
Routine maintenance is the process in which assets are inspected, and issues are identified after which maintenance tasks are performed. This routine maintenance is divided as per the usage of an asset or after a particular period that can be either of 7 days, 15 days, or 1 month or so on.
Organizations schedule this routine maintenance as per their requirement.
Asset users also provide their input about asset performance or how it can be improved! This routine maintenance can be conducted by any employees who have a little bit of knowledge of machines; it does not require special skills.
According to Statista, “the revenue of the industry “repair and maintenance” in the U.S. by segment from 2012 to 2017, with a forecast to 2024, is projected that the revenue of repair and maintenance in the U.S. will amount to approximately 191.4 billion U.S. Dollars by 2024.”
What Are the Benefits of Routine Maintenance?
The benefits of routine maintenance are discussed below:
1. Decrease Downtime
Asset downtime is a big issue in all organizations. But it should be minimized so that productivity increases. And more importantly, business does not suffer from the loss.
When assets are given maintenance on time, it increases the reliability of the asset. However, this is the time when organizations start ignoring maintenance, and chances of breakdown increase. Thus, organizations perform routine maintenance at regular intervals otherwise a breakdown will occur.
2. Enhance Safety
One of the main reasons maintenance is important is because it keeps the environment safe and employees as well. In order to do so, employees should be skilled and understand the machines and equipment.
It increases the safety of employees and when an organization utilizes a strategy run to failure for machines then it can release chemicals, spill oil which can lead to an accident. It can release dangerous particles in an environment that is no good for the health of any employee.
In short, you would not want fugitive emissions in your facility and no organization wants accidents in their facility. You can easily avoid this scenario with routine maintenance.
3. Increased Efficiency
When assets are given maintenance on time, it results in optimized asset performance. Maintenance can also lead to enhanced efficiency. It will be helpful to maintain and boost an asset.
For example, an HVAC (Heating ventilation air conditioning) system is important in a facility. When they are not maintained, it will not only impact the environment but employees might feel suffocated or uneasy when the HVAC system does not ventilate, the fresh air level also decreases.
The humidity level also changes and the temperature as well. In order to avoid these types of scenarios, routine maintenance should be done regularly. As we said earlier, it can improve performance and maintenance expenses will decrease.
4. Avoid Sudden Failure
Another important reason for implementing routine maintenance is avoiding unexpected asset failure. As it can be costly, maintenance further can also affect daily operations.
When the manager knows how their assets are performing then they can get an estimation of product delivery. You would not want to disappoint the customer when the product delivery deadline is near. That is why equipment maintenance is important!
What Are the Activities That Are Involved in the Routine Maintenance Task?
Activities that are involved in the routine maintenance task, it all starts with the work order! In the work order, a checklist is provided in which all the tasks are mentioned such as changing engine oil, filter, greasing, servicing, and cleaning, or if there are some specific activities mentioned such as changing a headlight or changing some specific part or checking performance, inspection, etc.
Other than this, it also involves lubrication of machines, inspecting & checking certain parts that are not working efficiently. After which, when all maintenance tasks and activities are done, then a report is created for each piece of equipment.
Reports are very helpful in making crucial decisions related to business. They can help you in understanding the health of assets and how efficient equipment is or how productive equipment is!
Conclusion
Routine maintenance is important for the organization. Maintenance becomes hectic especially when an organization is equipped with a lot of assets.
For that, you can use asset management software; this software automatically allows you to schedule maintenance accordingly. Furthermore, this software emphasizes proactive maintenance! It can provide detailed reports of each piece of equipment.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What Is Proactive Maintenance?
Proactive maintenance is the maintenance in which maintenance is scheduled as soon as a small issue is discovered. One does not wait for asset breakdown to occur. Preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance are examples of proactive maintenance.
What is the difference between routine maintenance and preventive maintenance?
Routine maintenance is an activity that is conducted regularly (daily, weekly, or monthly). Whereas in preventive maintenance, a machine is inspected to uncover potential problems of the machine.
What is an asset maintenance checklist?
The asset maintenance checklist contains activities or tasks that need to be performed by the maintenance team. This checklist is created by team members, managers, consultants & management.
What is the best software for maintenance?
CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) is one of the best software for maintaining assets. This software is built only for one specific reason: that is asset maintenance.