CULTURE OF MAINTENANCE

Introduction

Culture of maintenance is the adoption of the attitude of ensuring regular servicing, repairs
and maintenance of workshop machines to guarantee their continuous usefulness.

Machines, buildings and other service facilities are subject to deterioration due to their use and
exposure to environmental conditions. If this process of deterioration is not checked, it may
render them unserviceable. It is, therefore, necessary to attend to them from time to time, to
repair and recondition them so as to enhance their life economically.

Maintenance aspect is more important specially in the case of machines due to their non-
uniform pattern of wear and tear which depends on large number of factors.

Every machine is thoroughly tested and inspected by the manufacturers before selling it, and by
the purchaser before it is put to use. When it is used, it will be subjected to wear and tear hence
proper attention should be given to protect the machine and its components from undue wear
and thus protect them from failures.

A proper attention means lubrication, cleaning, timely inspection and systematic maintenance.
Maintenance of a machine means efforts directed towards the up-keep and the repair of that
machine.

A major part of the expenditure is generally on men, material and maintenance in an industry.
Every machine will require repairs even if it is best designed, hence the repair must be done at
such a time when it may have least disruptions, i.e. machine may be repaired when it is not
being used or its use may be postponed without affecting the production of the whole concern.

Therefore, checking of the machine is generally done when it is not in operation, so that the
defect, if any, can be immediately and easily rectified without causing extensive damage to the
plant.

In this way, we say that maintenance is responsible for the smooth and efficient working of an
industry and helps in improving the productivity. It also helps in keeping the machines in a
state of maximum efficiency with economy.

Importance of maintenance

Production capacity:

Machines idled by breakdowns cannot produce, thus the capacity of the system is reduced.

Production costs:

Labor costs per unit rise because of idle labor due to machine breakdowns. When machine
malfunctions result in scrap, unit labor and material costs increase. Besides, cost of maintenance
which includes such costs as costs of providing repair facilities, repair crews, preventive
maintenance inspections, spare parts and stand by machines will increase as machines break
down frequently.

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Product and service quality:

Poorly maintained equipment produce low quality products. Equipment that have not been
properly maintained have frequent break downs and cannot provide adequate service to
customers. For example, air craft fleets of the airline, railway and road transport services not
maintained well can result in poor service to customers.

Employee or customer safety:

Worn-out equipment is likely to fail at any moment and these failures can cause injuries to the
workers, working on that equipment. Products such as two wheelers and automobiles, if not
serviced periodically, can break down suddenly and cause injuries to the stress.

Customer satisfaction:

When production equipment breaks down, products often cannot be produced according to the
master production schedules, due to work stoppages. This will lead to delayed deliveries of
products to the customers.

Types of maintenance

1. Routine maintenance
2. Preventive maintenance
3. Planned maintenance

1. Routine maintenance

Routine maintenance refers to any maintenance task that is done on a planned and ongoing
basis to identify and prevent problems before they result in equipment failure. Some common
routine maintenance includes regular inspections or service work. These can be carried out on a
time-based schedule or on a usage-based schedule.

Routine maintenance tasks are usually fairly straightforward. They typically do not require
specialized maintenance training, skills, or equipment to complete. Because of that, routine
maintenance can be carried out by staff outside of the maintenance department, such as
machine operators.

Examples of routine maintenance

Typical examples of routine maintenance include:

 Lubricating, cleaning, or adjusting machinery

 Inspecting equipment to ensure proper operation and safety
 Replacing parts that show deterioration
 Checking, testing, and maintaining safety equipment, such as safety barriers, fire
extinguishers, or alarm systems
 Checking for and replacing damaged signage or utilities, like light bulbs
 General workplace maintenance, such as cleaning floors, replacing HVAC filters, and
washing windows, trash removal, and landscaping

Advantages of routine maintenance

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 1. Routine maintenance can decrease downtime and lengthen the lifespan of equipment
when used in conjunction with a well-planned preventive maintenance program.
2. Regular routine maintenance can reduce the need for reactive maintenance.
3. Routine maintenance helps assets and equipment working in optimal conditions,
leading to fewer failures, better productivity, higher profitability, and improved safety.

2. Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance (or preventative maintenance) is maintenance that is regularly

performed on a piece of equipment to lessen the likelihood of it failing. It is performed while
the equipment is still working so that it does not break down unexpectedly.

Types of preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance can be scheduled on a time or usage-based trigger. Let’s look at an

example for each.

Time-based preventive maintenance

A typical example of a time-based preventive maintenance trigger is a regular inspection on a

critical piece of equipment that would severely impact production in the event of a breakdown.

Usage-based preventive maintenance

Usage-based triggers fire after a certain amount of kilometres, hours, or production cycles. An
example of this trigger is a motor-vehicle which might be scheduled for service every 10,000km.

Preventive maintenance planning

One way to hone your preventive maintenance schedule is to follow the PDCA model:

Plan: Create a baseline for PM frequencies by looking at recommended OEM (Original

Equipment Manufacturer) guidelines, repair histories, criticality, and usage patterns for
equipment

Do: Follow your plan consistently for accurate results

Check: Look at failure metrics for each asset to determine if your plan is working

Act: Increase the frequency of PMs if an asset is breaking down between maintenance and
reduce the frequency if you are not finding failures between PMs

3. Planned maintenance

Refers to any maintenance activity that is planned, documented, and scheduled. The aim of
planned maintenance is to reduce downtime by having all necessary resources on hand, such as
labor and parts, and a strategy to use these resources.

There are two main types of planned maintenance. The first is planned preventive maintenance,
which is scheduled maintenance aimed at repairing assets before they fail. An example would
be conducting maintenance on a forklift after every 150 hours of operation.

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The second is planned and unscheduled maintenance, which is based on having a strategy in
place to repair or replace an asset as quickly as possible when it fails. An example would be
planning to have a sufficient number of easily accessible power drills on hand so replacing a
broken one is quick and easy for a technician.

Scheduled maintenance activities are tasks that are set up to occur ahead of time. They are done
so assets can remain functional for as long as possible without any unplanned downtime.
Scheduled maintenance is determined by maintenance triggers, including time, usage, event,
and condition.

Advantages of scheduled maintenance

1. Know what to expect

Planning maintenance in advance allows you to properly allocate resources to the job, so that
you have the time, personnel, and tools you need, when you need them.

2. Manage your calendar

Some scheduled maintenance can be planned years in advance, like changing the tires on an
industrial transport vehicle every winter. Other tasks require shorter lead times, such as
swapping out air compressors after 100 hours of use. Planning maintenance in advance lets you
look ahead in your calendar and see what’s coming up, so you are rarely caught reacting to
breakdowns and spreading your resources too thin.

3. Get work done faster

Planned maintenance allows the maintenance team to focus on efficiency. Technicians can
gather all the parts they need, review all best practices and procedures, and shut down the asset
safely before starting work. Because all this work has been done beforehand, the actual
maintenance can be finished quicker, easier, safer, and more effectively than if an asset goes
down unexpectedly.

Planned unscheduled maintenance

Also known as run-to-failure maintenance, planned but unscheduled maintenance occurs in

situations where the maintenance plan for an asset is to wait for it to break.

This approach is typically reserved for assets that have little or no impact on production. Tools,
such as power drills and measuring instruments, are a good example. It’s wasteful to
preemptively replace these tools, as they are inexpensive and are not critical to production.
Instead, organizations keep extra tools on hand so they are available when one fails.

This is still considered planned maintenance (rather than reactive) because the assets are
tracked and a strategy to repair them is in place when they wear out, instead of being caught off
guard by failure.

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