Preventive Maintenance: Benefits & Basics

SUMMARY: Preventive maintenance is performed proactively to enhance the efficiency and safety of electrical equipment. Learn the basics of preventive maintenance, types of maintenance services, and benefits of a preventive maintenance plan.

What is Preventive Maintenance and Why is it Essential?

Just as your car needs regular oil changes and inspections, so does your IT and electrical maintenance equipment. This proactive approach to service, known as preventive maintenance, is performed regularly to keep equipment running smoothly and efficiently. Preventive IT maintenance, for instance, plays a crucial role in sustaining the health of your IT systems by preventing unexpected breakdowns that can disrupt operations.

When discussing preventive maintenance, it’s important to understand it as one of several maintenance types, including:

Preventive and Predictive Maintenance: Preventive maintenance is based on fixed schedules, while predictive maintenance uses real-time data to anticipate when service is needed.
Preventive and Breakdown Maintenance: Preventive maintenance is proactive, while breakdown maintenance is reactive, fixing equipment after a fault occurs.
Plant Preventive Maintenance: This is a holistic, planned maintenance schedule for manufacturing facilities or plants, ensuring machinery operates without costly interruptions.
Annual Preventive Maintenance: These are maintenance tasks performed yearly, often based on manufacturer recommendations for maximum performance.

Preventive maintenance offers a structured approach to extending equipment life, minimising costly repairs, and enhancing operational safety.

Preventive Maintenance Simplified

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Types of Preventive Maintenance

Most preventive maintenance practices fall into three primary categories: Regular, Predictive, and Prescriptive. Each has unique attributes that serve different needs

Regular Preventive Maintenance: Also called calendar-based maintenance, this type occurs at scheduled intervals (weekly, monthly, or yearly). Manufacturers often provide guidelines for annual preventive maintenance of equipment, with tasks like inspections, cleaning, and part replacements to keep machinery in peak condition.
Predictive Maintenance: Predictive maintenance takes things a step further by focusing on equipment conditions instead of a fixed schedule. It analyses wear, tear, and usage data to predict failures before they occur. Common predictive services in electrical maintenance include lubrication, adjustments, and real-time monitoring to detect anomalies.
Prescriptive Maintenance: By leveraging data from IoT and maintenance software, prescriptive maintenance suggests actions based on precise data about equipment performance. This type is valuable in preventive IT maintenance for critical systems where downtime would be highly disruptive.

Why a Preventive Maintenance Plan is Critical

A strong preventive maintenance plan has measurable advantages for both industrial and commercial facilities. Here’s why investing in maintenance and preventive maintenance is essential:

Improves Efficiency: With preventive and predictive maintenance practices in place, machines and systems are less prone to unexpected issues, reducing downtime and saving money. Preventive IT maintenance allows businesses to keep servers and networks optimized, enhancing overall productivity.
Enhances Safety: Aging or failing equipment presents safety risks to personnel. Regular equipment preventive maintenance detects wear that could lead to hazardous situations, especially in high-stakes environments like electrical maintenance and heavy manufacturing.
Extends Equipment Life: For manufacturing facilities, plant preventive maintenance ensures that machinery and infrastructure function longer, reducing the need for costly replacements. According to the IEEE Standards Association, well-maintained switchboards are 62% less likely to fail, proving the impact of regular upkeep.
Lowers Maintenance Costs: Preventive and breakdown maintenance cost comparisons reveal that preventive maintenance saves significant expenses over time. By implementing annual preventive maintenance, businesses can avoid high repair costs, create predictable budgets, and prevent unexpected financial strain.

To maximise the benefits of preventive maintenance, develop a comprehensive plan. Download our whitepaper, ‘Service Plans Enhance the Benefits of Preventive Maintenance Programs,’ to explore how a well-defined program can optimise your preventive and predictive maintenance strategies and improve your facility’s operational health.