Maintenance strategy breakdown: Planning for reactive, proactive and predictive maintenance

Planned maintenance is a way to keep all equipment within a facility running at peak efficiency. When every repair is handled on a reactive basis, with technicians only dealing with problems once they have become inescapable and caused process breakdowns, organizations suffer from the productivity and financial losses that come from forced downtime. Taking a maintenance program to the next level means figuring out the optimal amount of proactive and predictive processes to keep disruptions from ever occurring.

Three ways to think about maintenance

The following are three different types of maintenance – reactive, proactive and predictive. The first of these should be limited wherever possible, while the other two are ways to accomplish such a task. All three are important to think about as part of a facility-wide maintenance plan designed to keep the business running optimally.

Reactive maintenance

There is room for reactive maintenance in a facility’s plans. There will inevitably be times when unforeseen breakdowns take assets offline and technicians have to step in. As Facilities Net explained, there is no need to deal with these incidents completely unprepared. Instead, personnel should be ready to step in at a moment’s notice, equipped with the tools and parts they’ll need to get equipment up and running in as little time as possible.

Having technicians specifically prepared to take action in response to downtime is a sound part of a maintenance plan. Facilities Net recommended having specific team members on call for these jobs rather than handling them in an unplanned fashion. Of course, facility operations are at their best when these reactive personnel aren’t called on often, because proactive and predictive maintenance has kept assets in good working condition.

Proactive maintenance

When technicians inspect assets on a regular schedule, addressing any issues before they become dangerous or result in downtime, the overall performance of the company improves. The U.S. Department of Energy noted that committing resources to maintenance activities laid out by the original equipment manufacturer, operators can make their assets more reliable and save money in the long term, as the costs of performing checks and upkeep is less than the losses incurred by downtime.

Proactive plans, as the DOE explained, can consist of scheduled actions such as changing out filters or ensuring a piece of equipment is lubricated. Getting these strategies right means being aware of the OEM’s specifications for a particular asset and following those guidelines, and keeping up with these processes helps extend equipment’s useful life span.

Predictive maintenance

As today’s technology tools become more advanced, facilities have begun to increasingly embrace predictive maintenance as part of their strategies. Based on projections created by past data, current readings or both, technicians are able to react when equipment is at risk of failure and ideally prevent downtime from occurring.

The DOE noted there are many advantages for organizations that can add predicative elements to their planned maintenance strategies. While proactive maintenance represents cost savings compared to purely reactive approaches, becoming predictive can add still further savings, between 8 and 12 percent. The advantages of anticipating and countering future breakdowns are clear, as companies can expend limited amounts of resources while still stopping downtime from occurring.

Reasons to Embrace Professional Planned Maintenance

Working with a third-party service provider is one way to keep a facility running optimally, with downtime at a minimum. Professionals in such an arrangement will have access to the information, tools and OEM parts they need to perform proactive and predictive maintenance where possible and take reactive measures when necessary.

Take this approach to make sure your business has optimal safeguards against equipment failures in the months and years ahead. Reach out to Miner to learn about how a customized planned maintenance strategy can work for you.