For any industrial company, productivity depends in part on the quality of the maintenance programs used to keep the equipment running efficiently. Each industry has specific needs and requires the appropriate type of maintenance.
However, these concepts are not always easy to understand or are not always familiar to the people involved in these businesses.
In this article, our machine maintenance team introduces you to the 4 most common types of industrial maintenance and when to use them:
- Corrective maintenance
- Predictive maintenance
- Preventive maintenance
- Condition-based maintenance
1 – Corrective maintenance
Corrective maintenance is carried out immediately after the detection of a defect on a piece of equipment or on a production line. The objective is to get the equipment back in working order so that it can perform its function again as quickly as possible. Corrective maintenance is rarely planned, except when a maintenance plan has been established beforehand.
This type of maintenance is less commonly used than preventive or predictive maintenance because it inevitably leads to breakdowns and failures.
2 – Predictive maintenance
The objective of predictive maintenance is to identify when an equipment failure is likely to occur and then prevent that failure by performing maintenance just before the breakdown occurs.
An effective predictive maintenance strategy requires the ability to monitor the condition of equipment. Technicians use technologies such as vibration analysis, oil and fluid analysis, noise analysis and thermography.
When done properly, this type of maintenance provides significant benefits:
- Reduction of equipment maintenance time
- Minimize lost production hours due to maintenance
- Reduced cost of purchasing replacement parts
Compared to preventive maintenance, introduced in the next section, predictive maintenance ensures that equipment requiring maintenance is only shut down just before an impending failure. This reduces the time and total cost of equipment maintenance. But even the slightest error in judgment can result in equipment failure. At your own risk!
3 – Preventive maintenance
Preventive maintenance is planned by technicians according to pre-established maintenance schedules.
To implement this type of maintenance system, teams need to take into account the history of the part and past failures.
Preventive maintenance can be implemented using a computer-aided maintenance management system (CMMS), a tool increasingly used by companies that want to organize this type of industrial maintenance service. The software captures all the details of the interventions. It can be accessed by the various employees, who can follow the operations and the maintenance plans.
Technicians then build up a history of breakdowns and failures of production machines and equipment.
4 – Condition-based maintenance
This is a type of low intervention maintenance, which is cost-effective but difficult to make reliable. It involves the implementation of regular simple operations, such as the regular maintenance of machines using mechanical grease.
No training is required and it can be done directly by those who use the machine, but the basics of industrial mechanics have to be mastered.
The goal is to create a production environment free of mechanical failures and technical disruptions by getting everyone involved in maintenance tasks without relying primarily on mechanics or engineers.
Why is industrial maintenance so important for your company?
Many industrial companies report that a significant portion of their expenses are due to breakdowns, failures or equipment that underperforms after several years of use. The figures vary from company to company, but can sometimes represent up to 50% of overall costs.
You also have to take into account various losses: downtime in case of breakdown, difficult inventory or purchase management, risks of injuries… All these costs can be reduced through efficient industrial maintenance.
Production plants must therefore adopt a well thought-out and optimized strategy to ensure that all equipment operates as reliably as possible.
Always make sure to properly maintain your equipment
Good management of industrial maintenance is therefore essential for your company to operate smoothly. Neglecting the quality of your equipment can also have very serious legal and economic consequences if these breakdowns endanger the safety of your teams.
If you don’t have the internal resources to ensure this, you can count on us to help you. Our team is always ready to maintain your equipment. If you are in the Greater Montreal area, don’t hesitate to contact us to have us maintain or repair your equipment for maximum performance.
