Maintenance of your machine park; is prevention better than cure?

Just a few things that I encountered when I was called in to remedy a fault with measuring and weighing equipment at various of our customers: spilled coffee, sand, blackboard chalk, paper shreds, candy, pencils and pens, nails and screws, shipping labels, but especially: a lot of dust. I found it very unfortunate to see that the costly investment that has a major impact on production was handled so carelessly.

An accident can always happen, but the above can drastically affect the accuracy of the measurement results. They can even ensure that the device does not function at all anymore.

When I talk about maintenance, I see that companies that rely on machines and equipment have two different strategies. Either the preventive strategy or the reactive strategy.

Reactive or preventive maintenance, for which strategy do you go?

Reactive maintenance follows the motto: “if it is not broken, it does not have to be made”. This is a strategy that sometimes saves costs in the short term, but is often more expensive in the long term.

Preventive maintenance, on the other hand, is based on a carefully designed maintenance plan, in some cases aided by a simple preventive maintenance software in which the date of maintenance and work on the material are recorded.

Move the maintenance forward until wear and tear or problems are an urgent problem, or do you choose the preventive method, the choice is yours. For me it is clear what the best strategy is:

Five reasons why preventive maintenance is of great importance:

– Save costs

If you rely on the reactive strategy, then you are actually waiting for something to break. This can be a costly mistake. Preventive maintenance prevents greater costs due to wear and damage to the equipment. It would work better if combined with mtbf analysis.

– Increased safety

An accident is in a small corner. Keep this corner small by ensuring that your equipment works optimally. Poorly maintained machines pose a safety risk.

– Less down-time

Although every form of maintenance takes time, in the case of planned preventive maintenance this time can be used efficiently and optimally. For example: by carrying out preventive maintenance you experience less unexpected downtime than when you only apply the reactive maintenance strategy.

– Increased reliability

When you have your maintenance in order, you guarantee the quality of your services. In the specific case of measuring and weighing equipment, the maintenance also holds the measurement results accurately. You can offer your customers the service they count on without unnecessary delays. Building a good reputation takes years, but you lose it in a moment.

– Value retention

Much precision equipment is costly. The better you take care of, the longer it goes. Preventive maintenance extends the lifespan of your equipment, so you can get more working hours out of it. This way you get the maximum return from your investment.

Do you also go for preventative maintenance?

The benefits of preventive maintenance mean that many facility or equipment managers choose to move away from the reactive plan and maintain a preventive maintenance schedule for their equipment.

I regularly come to customers who have no idea when the last maintenance has been, or what needs to be done. Fortunately, I keep a file for every machine I work on, so I always know where I stand. This also relieves my customer.

Considering all the advantages, it would be logical for everyone to keep their stuff preventive. The difficult thing is to plan, but all difficulties can be overcome as long as we keep trying.