Ebook

The Short Guide

to Preventive
Maintenance
Table of
contents 04  primer on preventive maintenance
A
and other maintenance strategies

11  ow to establish preventive
H
maintenance at your operation

13  ight steps to building a preventive

E
maintenance program

24 A preventive maintenance case study

It’s time to celebrate
failure (a little bit)
Failure is underrated, especially in maintenance. This is what preventive maintenance helps you do. It doesn’t
eliminate failure altogether (random breakdowns are never going
Not the big, catastrophic equipment failures. But the small away). But it does make room for the unexpected stuff so it
ones. The unlubricated bearing. The misaligned gear shaft. happens less often and isn’t as much of a strain on your time or
The rusty fan. The things that could lead to huge failures down resources.
the line.
Of course, getting to that point is easier said than done. It’s not a
Finding these small failures means you can fix them before quick process. And it’s not a magic bullet. But it’s worth it.
something worse happens. That makes maintenance
dependable. You can say goodbye to a lot of unexpected This guide will help you understand how to start your journey to
breakdowns, last-minute orders, late-night calls, and decisions preventive maintenance and how to use it to make your team and
made on a hunch. equipment run at its best.

3 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

A primer on Types of preventive maintenance

preventive Time-based: Usage/Throughput-based:

maintenance Scheduled based on an

interval of time. Ie. Every
Scheduled based on the usage of
an asset. Ie. Every 10 production
30 days, every Monday, cycles, every 200 hours of
every first day of the month production, every 1,000 miles
What is preventive maintenance?

The easiest way to think about preventive

maintenance is by imagining a car.
Examples of preventive maintenance tasks
You can let your car run until it breaks down and then
take it to get fixed. This is reactive maintenance. Bearings: Check lubrication
1
after 10,000 units
Or, you can bring the car into the shop every three
months, after 10,000 miles, or at another regular Motor: Inspect condition on the
2
interval recommended by the car’s manual to get the first of every month
oil changed, the battery looked at, and the tires
Compressor: Do routine
swapped out. This is preventive maintenance. 3
maintenance every 15 days

4
Electrical components: Examine
after every production cycle

4 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

Reactive maintenance: It’s unsafe

Why it’s a problem

Technicians are 28% more likely to have an accident when
work is reactive. That’s because technicians are often under
pressure to repair things quickly. This can cause them to take
risks they wouldn’t take if they had the time to review safety
It costs more requirements and complete the job safely.
Reactive maintenance costs three to nine times more than
preventive maintenance because of lost production, rush
shipping, time wasted on emergencies and diagnosing faults,
and more.

It’s inefficient

Reactive repairs take longer, drain resources, and interfere

“There’s no single best
with preventive work because too much time is spent maintenance strategy, but there
diagnosing the problem and determining what should be is a ‘worst’ strategy and that’s
done to fix it. And if a problem isn’t repaired correctly, the reactive maintenance.”
issue can re-occur, causing more downtime.
Stuart Fergusson,
Senior Manager of Sales Engineering, Fiix

5 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

The benefits of How preventive maintenance helps
preventive manufacturing facilities

maintenance According to a 2017 survey by Plant Engineering,

organizations that used preventive maintenance:

Preventive maintenance can have an ROI

69%
Saw a decrease in
of up to 545% over reactive maintenance 1 equipment downtime
Running equipment to failure costs up to
10x as much as implementing a regular Reduced the probability of failure
maintenance program 2
66% and extended the operational
lifetime of assets and infrastructure
Facilities that rely on reactive maintenance
could cut costs by over 18% with a
preventive maintenance program. 3
63% Improved overall
equipment effectiveness
Over 50 billion is lost by manufacturers
annually due to unplanned downtime 4

62% Were able to improve

occupational health and safety

6 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

Other types of Preventive maintenance is not the answer every time. Finding the
maintenance strategy that fits each of your assets starts with understanding

maintenance strategies
how each strategy works. Below are examples of each maintenance
strategy in practice on a variable speed transfer conveyor.

Reactive Run to fail Corrective Routine Preventive (time)

A conveyor breaks down A conveyor is allowed to run A technician notices that a An operator inspects a A conveyor is inspected for
with no plan in place to fix it until it breaks down with a part is misaligned during a conveyor before a shift to potential failure every 10
plan to fix it weekly inspection and ensure it’s safe and free of days
realigns it defects

Preventive (usage/ Condition-based Predictive Prescriptive

throughput)
Maintenance is scheduled Software says that failure- Software says failure-level
A conveyor is inspected for on a conveyor when level vibration on a vibration on a conveyor belt
potential failure every five vibration crosses a certain conveyor belt will occur in will occur in 30 days and
production cycles threshold 30 days repairing it requires
swapping out a certain part

7 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

What strategy is best?
There are a lot of factors to consider when deciding on and implementing the best plan for an asset. While no two assets or
operations are the same, there are five elements that affect almost every maintenance team: Criticality, cost, downtime,
data, and safety. The chart below matches the ideal asset characteristics with each group of maintenance strategies.

PM (Time)
Reactive Run to fail Routine Corrective CBM, Predictive, Prescriptive
PM (Usage/throughput)

Criticality None None to Low Low Low Moderate to high High to essential

Cost to maintain None Low Low Low to moderate Moderate to high High

Cost of downtime None Low Low Low to moderate Moderate to high High

Data required None Low Low Low Moderate to high High

Safety risk & required

None Low Moderate Low to moderate High High
compliance

8 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance: How preventive maintenance creates a foundation for a
balanced maintenance program

A bridge to a balanced
program
A strong preventive maintenance program gives you:

A proactive mindset across your organization

It takes time to create a balanced maintenance program Schedules and processes you can count on
where every asset is matched with its perfect strategy. No one
goes from fully reactive to fully balanced in a single leap. That A better understanding of how equipment can fail
usually takes years. But making your preventive maintenance
Performance baselines and benchmarks
program stronger is a great start to this journey. It will set you
up for success with other, more complex strategies. Data and the know-how to use it

Experience with software and systems

Success stories that justify an extra investment

A template for implementation

9 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

 The journey to maintenance maturity

REACTIVE REACTIVE PREVENTIVE PREVENTIVE PREVENTIVE PREDICTIVE PREDICTIVE

Deferred Emergency Time-based Usage-based Condition-based Forecast-based Risk-based
Throughput-based

Reactive Proactive

10 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

How to establish Processes: Create clarity and consistency

preventive maintenance
Processes are guidelines for what to do, when to do it, and how to
do it. For example, a process will outline what to do if an inspection

at your operation of an asset fails or how to submit purchase orders for new parts.
Processes set a standard for preventive maintenance tasks so
they’re done right, done safely, and done the same way every
The three pillars of preventive maintenance time.

Creating a preventive maintenance program requires you to Technology: Create efficiency

change the way your operation thinks and acts. The three Maintenance technology is a tool that helps you connect your
main areas where this change needs to happen are with your team to each other and the information it needs to make
people, processes, and technology. preventive maintenance successful. It helps you avoid many of the
time-wasters that threaten your preventive maintenance plan, like
People: Create a proactive mindset sorting through paper forms, getting work requests as you walk
For every policy, plan or task you come up with, someone has down the hallway, and constantly writing and rewriting plans.
to execute it. That’s why every successful preventive
maintenance program starts with people. Everyone should
understand how preventive maintenance works, why it’s
important, and their role in making it successful.

11 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

 QUICK TIP

What software is right for

A primer on preventive your organization?

maintenance software The answer is, it depends. Your business

and systems might already be using some or all of

these systems. But the best fit for a
preventive maintenance program is a
CMMS software: Keeps a central record of assets and work so you can plan, track, CMMS.
and optimize maintenance
There are six main functions of a CMMS:
EAM software: Provides a view of assets through their entire lifecycle, from design
to disposal Work order Maintenance
management reporting
ERP software: Collects transactional data from different departments into one
place
Asset System
MES systems: Controls all activities that go into the manufacturing of products management integration

Data collectors (SCADA, PLCs, sensors): Monitors and processes real-time asset Inventory Mobile work
data so manufacturers can control industrial processes management

12 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

Eight steps
1
Get buy-in from top
to bottom
If even one or two people are not on board with your
preventive maintenance program, it could derail your entire

to building a
plan. And odds are, not everyone will be gung-ho from the
start. This can be a big change and change is hard. There are

preventive
three main strategies to make this transition easier:

Include stakeholders from the start. Ask for their input at

maintenance
1
every step of the process.

program

2 Be clear about roles. Explain how preventive
maintenance affects everyone’s daily routine. Be open
about challenges and risks.


3 Talk about the benefits. Find out how preventive
maintenance helps each stakeholder achieve their goals.

13 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

2
 stablish goals,
E
KPIs, and metrics
You can create a framework for measuring
The four-step
framework in action

Goal: Decrease the cost-per-item

preventive maintenance in four steps:

KPIs: Reduce downtime and
Identify the goals of your organization.
lower maintenance costs
Think about maintenance KPIs that will help
you achieve the goals. Metrics: Overall equipment effectiveness,
preventive maintenance percentage, and
Connect maintenance metrics to those KPIs.
preventive maintenance compliance
Put benchmarks against them.

Build preventive maintenance tasks that help Strategy: Prioritize PMs on assets with a
you hit your metrics. lower OEE so they don’t break down as
much, allowing for increased throughput
and higher product quality

14 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

3
Create and refine the
frequency of your PMs
When PMs are done too often, it increases costs, downtime, and
Using the PDCA model to
create the perfect PMs

Create & Follow your plan

human error. If they’re too infrequent, you can miss an issue. The
schedule PMs and track results
PDCA model can help you strike the perfect balance.

Plan: Create a baseline for PM frequencies by looking at

recommended guidelines, repair history, criticality, and usage lan

Do
patterns for an asset.

Do: Follow your plan and do it consistently for accurate results.

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

Ac
e c

k
plan is working. Ch
Act: Fine-tune your PM frequencies based on your findings. Increase
the frequency if an asset is breaking down between PMs. Reduce the Fine-tune PMs See what's working
frequency if failed inspections or breakdowns are low between PMs. based on findings and what's not

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 QUICK TIP
What happens when an inspection fails?
These questions will help you create a process for a failed inspection:

How is a follow-up How is the failed

Who is alerted What is done to find
work order created, inspection recorded
and how? the root cause of
prioritized, and and where is this
the problem?
assigned? information kept?

16 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

4
Organize your
preventive maintenance
processes and resources
PM checklists

What needs to be done during each task and in what order?

Asset information

Where are asset hierarchies, maintenance logs, audit logs, and

standard operating procedures kept? How often are these
Clear, available, relevant, and up-to-date resources (like the documents updated and who is responsible for updating each?
ones below) form the backbone for successful PMs:
Work orders
Inventory purchasing What are the possible failure codes associated with common work
Who can submit and approve requests, how are low stock orders? What PPE is required for each work order?
items identified, and how are purchases tracked?

Inventory usage

How is your storeroom organized, who has access to parts,

and how do you track where and when parts are used?

17 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

 QUICK TIP
How to build a PM checklist

Include safety instructions Outline tasks in the order Provide enough detail so Provide photos and/or
(ie. PPE and lock-out tag- they should be completed there’s no guesswork diagrams to make
out instructions) needed instructions clear

Associate every task with a Note the time required to Review checklists with
clear action and goal complete the task technicians to ensure
they’re detailed and clear

18 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

5
Build a strategy for
managing your data
Having a process to collect, analyze, and action data allows Find out what data you need to track your metrics and
you to understand parts of your PM program that are doing optimize PMs
well and where there are gaps.
Identify what data you can get right now from records that
already exist

Determine what data you don’t have and what systems or

processes are needed to get it

Organize data from different sources in one place so it’s

accessible and easy to analyze

Eliminate outliers in your data and train technicians to avoid

these mistakes

Fine-tune your processes and get comfortable with analyzing

data by starting with a handful of assets and PMs

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6
Evaluate, choose, and
adopt your systems
The first step in finding preventive maintenance software is to
QUICK TIP

How to evaluate your

assemble your evaluation team. Getting insight from future CMMS options
users allows you to find the system that best fits their needs and
the way they work. Also keep in mind budget, features, asset Assemble your selection team
capabilities, and data security when evaluating software.
Define your goals and requirements
After choosing a system, it’s time to train users. Go over new
Set a budget and assess the cost of
processes and how to find information in the system. Make sure
each CMMS
to train all users, whether they’re part of maintenance or not.
Investigate and test CMMS features
It’s important to get frequent updates from your users when
they start with the software. That way, you can see how each Build an implementation plan
person reacts to the change and start overcoming the barriers
preventing them from using the software. Choose a CMMS

20 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

7
Using your CMMS to plan and execute preventive maintenance

Set up your preventive

gives you the power to track work orders, schedules, and failed
inspections. It ensures data is accurate and automates tasks so

maintenance processes you can avoid excessive administrative work. It also helps
technicians see all work so nothing falls through the cracks.

in your system Setting up your CMMS for preventive maintenance can seem like a
tall task. But if you start with the five key elements below, you’ll be
laying the foundation for success:

Create asset hierarchies and naming conventions

Set up PM triggers and notifications for you and

your technicians

Add checklists, PPE, SOPs, and notes to work orders

Assign technicians to PMs, and fill out schedules

Build a maintenance dashboard and

automated reports

21 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

 QUICK TIP
How to build reports and dashboards

Key metrics to include on your Key preventive maintenance

CMMS dashboard reports to create

High priority Mean time Planned Failed

PMs to repair maintenance inspections or
percentage failures identified

Cost of Clean startups

Mean time PM maintenance
between fail compliance per asset

22 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

8
Show the results
Sharing the progress and successes of your preventive
maintenance program helps you:
Here are a few tips for sharing your wins effectively:

Celebrate success with the maintenance team to create

a winning culture

Quantify your success and tell people why it matters

to them
See where you’re hitting your targets or falling short
Share the number of failures you prevented and the impact
Motivate your maintenance team by highlighting the
it’s had on the facility
impact of its actions

Link maintenance to the success of other departments

Show the ROI of preventive maintenance to business

leaders

Spreading the news about the success of preventive

maintenance can help you secure a higher headcount and
more room in the budget.

23 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

A preventive How did they do it?

maintenance Created preventive maintenance work orders and checklists

case study Evaluated and choose CMMS software

Trained CMMS users and focused on user adoption

Set up the CMMS with PMs, checklists, dashboard, and reports

Read about Callan Marine’s full journey to

Who: preventive maintenance here
Callan Marine, a leader in the dredging industry

Why preventive maintenance?

Unplanned downtime cost up to $5,000/hour “We’re able to foresee problems now, instead of
them just popping up all the time...[In 90 days], I
Inaccurate and missing data see a return of astronomical proportions just in
terms of a reduction of project downtime.”
Too many missed work orders that led to
emergency repairs Justin McCormick,
Equipment and Purchasing Manager, Callan Marine

24 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

A solid preventive
maintenance program is
within reach. Go and grab it
Creating a successful preventive maintenance program means ensure everyone and everything is working together and running
finding and fixing problems with equipment before they lead smoothly. And you need systems to empower your team and
to complete failure. It doesn’t mean that’s going to happen all facilitate your processes.
the time. There are just too many reasons machines fail that
This might take years to put in place. Don’t worry if it feels like
have nothing to do with the maintenance team. But it means
you’re taking two steps forward and one step back. Focusing on
those unexpected failures will be fewer and far between and
the steps outlined in this ebook will help you push through any
you’ll have the time, resources, and information to fix them
barriers so you can stop reacting to breakdowns and start
fast.
preventing them.
Your whole organization needs to be on board with your
preventive maintenance program. You need processes that

25 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance

Learn more Want to chat?
Visit www.fiixsoftware.com for more maintenance Get in touch with Fiix.
reading and resources.
35 Golden Ave Suite A-201
You can also visit our case studies center to see Toronto, ON, Canada M6R 2J5
how others like you have established a preventive
Local: +1 (647) 317-9055
maintenance program
Toll Free: +1 (855) 884-5619
[email protected]

26 Fiix The Short Guide to Preventive Maintenance