Industrial maintenance plays an important role in avoiding unplanned downtime due to equipment failure or reaching the limit of its continuous performance threshold.
Operational efficiency and industrial maintenance are key in allowing organizations to grow and thrive. Proper maintenance is the baseline for increasing productivity and reliability.
There are a variety of different types of maintenance that come with varying procedures. The six notable ones are reactive maintenance, preventive maintenance, usage-based maintenance, condition-based maintenance, predictive maintenance, and prescriptive maintenance.
Keep reading to learn more about each of these types.
Types of industrial equipment maintenance
#1: Reactive maintenance
Reactive maintenance is when businesses act in response to equipment or malfunctions. Reactive maintenance is the quickest way to return to operational status, but can often have negative financial consequences.
Fast fixes or unexpected repairs can be costly, and may not be included in the yearly operating budget. Additionally, downtime of machinery can reduce inventory, or cause a business to have downtime, decreasing the overall profit.
Business owners should be discouraged from operating with only reactive maintenance. Long term, this approach is unsustainable, as essential equipment requires routine maintenance.
#2: Preventive maintenance
Preventive maintenance, simply called PM, is routine equipment maintenance to ensure that all parts are running efficiently without unplanned downtime due to unexpected equipment failure.
This maintenance approach required proper planning and scheduling, to prevent problems before they happen. Additionally, keeping proper records showing previous inspections and servicing is key here.
Depending on the machinery you have, maintenance can be done at various intervals like monthly, quarterly, or every 120 days. When maintenance is done properly, the equipment can run throughout the production periods with little to no emergencies.
Equipment manufacturers often set guidelines for preventative maintenance. In some cases, mandatory tasks are defined that should be executed as soon as the due date is reached. Similarly, there can be suggested, non-mandatory tasks that are important but can be delayed even after they are due. A good PM checklist classifies tasks as mandatory and non-mandatory.
#3: Usage-based maintenance
Usage-based maintenance, or UBM, is a sub-class of preventive maintenance. However, it does not follow a particular plan or schedule. Instead, UBM is triggered by equipment usage over time. It averages the daily use of equipment and projects the due date of maintenance periods.
Usage-based maintenance can be more efficient than scheduled PM since maintenance comes about based on the estimated utilization. Additionally, you can plan and predict many future occurrences by reporting all maintenance done in the past.
Adopting usage-based maintenance can dramatically and positively impact the equipment’s overall efficiency.
#4: Condition-based maintenance (CBM)
#4: Condition-based maintenance (CBM)Condition-based maintenance, or CBM, takes into consideration the condition of your equipment and implements the actual type of asset maintenance required. Maintenance is immediately done under CBM guidelines when particular indicators show signs of decreasing performance or a potential failure.
To make the most of condition-based maintenance, you need clearly defined indicators. They can include visual inspection, non-invasive measurements, scheduled tests, and performance data. Condition data can be collected continuously or at given intervals to not miss out on an important maintenance requirement.
Condition-based maintenance is often considered an as-needed approach. It is beneficial because it ensures your equipment undergoes more maintenance repairs, reducing the chances of surprise failures.
#5: Predictive maintenance
Predictive maintenance makes the most of data analysis tools to detect anomalies and potential defects in your system to fix them before they occur.
Predictive maintenance presents itself as a balance between reactive maintenance and preventive maintenance. It ensures that repairs are done as frequently as possible to avoid unplanned failures that trigger reactive maintenance. Similarly, it saves money that is spent on unnecessary preventive maintenance.
For predictive maintenance to succeed, you need historical and real-time data obtained from different parts of your operation.
#6: Prescriptive maintenance
Prescriptive maintenance is a top-level approach to your maintenance strategy. It uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict underlying issues in a production line and generates information on how to get rid of these issues.
The algorithm used in prescriptive maintenance creates patterns with historical data of operating conditions and extrapolates the data in hypothetical environments. The results inform subsequent actions, ranging from small adjustments to changing an entire industrial process.
HGR recommends adopting a maintenance plan for your industrial equipment
At HGR, we believe that machinery should deliver an efficient and effective service for a highly productive manufacturing line. That is why we recommend that you adopt a reasonable maintenance approach to production operations.