What is Predictive and Preventive Maintenance and Why You Should Care
Maintenance is a critical aspect of your assessment management strategy, however, you should not rely solely on reactive maintenance measures. The most cost-effective strategies will take a proactive approach, which includes both predictive and preventive maintenance.
At face value, predictive and preventive maintenance aims to increase the reliability of assets and reduce the likelihood of failure, which can reduce the cost of unplanned (reactive) maintenance. Both of these maintenance methods have similar goals and often complement each other, however, they are not the same. In this blog, we’ll take a look at each strategy, the difference between them, and why they are important to streamline your maintenance operations.
What is Preventive Maintenance?
Preventive maintenance, sometimes referred to as planned maintenance or planned preventive maintenance, is a strategy that consists of performing regular maintenance on equipment and machinery, which reduces the chances of failure. A real-world example would be taking your vehicle to a mechanic for regular oil changes to reduce the chances of a breakdown.
Preventive maintenance is driven by several different kinds of triggers, including time-based, meter/measurement-based, or event-based. This asset management strategy is based on the assumption that your machinery and equipment will degrade over a given period of time. Under this approach, the relevant parts will be removed, replaced, or rebuilt on or before the expected failure point. To continue with the car analogy, it would be the same as replacing your engine oil every 10,000 miles.
The requirements of this maintenance approach often differ depending on the equipment being maintained. Some tasks may include cleaning, lubricating, replacing or repairing parts, or even partial or complete overhauls. Some examples include:
- Ensuring production line equipment is working efficiently
- Heating, ventilation, or air conditioning elements are inspected, cleaned, and updated regularly
- Water supplies being sanitized
- Electrical systems are being inspected for safety and compliance
- Doors, lighting, and flooring are being checked to ensure that are working properly
Preventive maintenance is crucial to operations because it can improve the reliability and life of equipment, bring down the cost of repairs and downtime associated with unexpected failures, result in fewer errors in operations, and reduce health and safety risks associated with equipment working incorrectly.
The main issue with taking this approach, and that sometimes preventive maintenance can sometimes result in unnecessary maintenance or replacements of machinery. A way to circumvent this is the utilize scheduling software to notify teams or individuals of upcoming equipment maintenance. Another issue with preventive maintenance is that it often requires machine downtime. However, this approach can improve overall asset performance and health, ensuring a return on investment over time.
What is Predictive Maintenance?
Predictive maintenance is an approach that uses data analysis tools and techniques to monitor possible defects in equipment and prevent failure before it happens. Machinery is monitored constantly during normal operations and focuses on the very early detection of defects. This allows maintenance frequency to be as low as possible to prevent unplanned maintenance. In many cases, when predictive analysis spots an issue, the repair can be scheduled at a time that minimizes the impact on production. We can even continue the car analogy here as well. With predictive maintenance, you would take oil samples at regular intervals and then replace the oil once it degrades beyond a certain point, rather than replacing it every 10,000 miles.
There are several examples of predictive maintenance, including:
- Vibration analysis
- Oil analysis
- Thermal analysis
- Laser-shaft alignment
- Motor circuit analysis
- Ultrasonic analysis
Predictive maintenance focuses on the assets (parts and sensors) by using technology to address potential problems and schedule corrective maintenance. There are some disadvantages associated with predictive maintenance, including high start-up costs, the need for specialized skills, and the limitations of some equipment. However, it allows maintenance to be performed on an “as-needed” to help cut costs, save time, and maximize resources.
The bottom line is that predictive maintenance seeks to determine the best time to do work, in order to keep maintenance frequency low and reliability high. This approach can improve equipment efficiency since parts aren’t run to failure but aren’t replaced too soon and it doesn’t typically require downtime. If downtime is needed, it is generally short.
Preventive vs Predictive Maintenance
The main difference between these two maintenance methods is that preventive maintenance is scheduled on a regular basis, from time to time, while predictive maintenance is scheduled as needed, based on the asset’s condition.
While both approaches to maintenance will require relying heavily on data to guide the decisions, the sort of data used is different. When crafting a maintenance schedule based on a preventive approach, you will need to access industry averages, check the recommendations from the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM), and know the best practices. On the other hand, when crafting a maintenance schedule based on the predictive approach will use the asset’s actual utilization data and current conditions to decide when to perform maintenance.
Both preventive and predictive maintenance has an important place in strategic facility maintenance plans — it is necessary to understand the differences between the two and how they work together.
Take Your Maintenance Approach to the Next Level
How do you take your company from a state of reactive maintenance to predictive and prescriptive maintenance? How do you reap the benefits of a modern maintenance strategy while avoiding pitfalls along the way?
In order to get your maintenance strategy under control, it starts with the right technology and equipment. Investing in preventive and predictive maintenance can reduce unnecessary maintenance, minimize costs, help to develop a strong overall maintenance program, and monitor the equipment and systems to keep your facility up and running.