Previously, we mentioned the importance of an equipment maintenance program, as well as the setbacks a business will face without one in place.
Hence, comes the need for creating an equipment maintenance program within your workplace. After all, with unexpected machinery failure – it can drastically impact the production schedule and even result in expensive downtime which may be damaging to your bottom line.
On the other hand, it isn’t just about avoiding any unwanted breakdown or preparing for them; but also, gaining from several benefits like lowering costs and enhancing operational efficiency over time by putting together a detailed, clear, up-to-date equipment maintenance program.
As such, let us go through the different steps of setting up a proper and accurate equipment maintenance program to help smoothen overall business operations.
Gather a team together
Round up a dependable team of well-versed individuals who have a sense of what equipment maintenance is about. From technicians to maintenance managers – bring together relevant individuals from the operations department. Afterwards, indicate the objectives you want your team to accomplish; be it lowering the downtime for equipment operation or cutting down on corrective repair expenses.
However, if your team is not familiar with engineering – you may have to engage a professional engineer externally instead, which is also a viable option to avoid the costs of hiring, have a reliable expert by your side, and reduce the workload for potential employees within the workplace.
The engineer will be able to cover several maintenance services such as electric motor rewinds or overhauling, switchgear testing, and transformer commissioning.
Train your employees
Training doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll have to take up the task of repairing a piece of equipment. In fact, it may simply mean that they are able to spot for any signs of malfunctioning or what safety precautions to be aware of when handling machinery.
Set up short classes or provide employees with a guide on the signs, action to take, and post-repair measures to implement. When your team knows exactly what needs to be done, the whole workplace is prepared for any equipment failure or even slightly major incidents like a power outage.
Track and record your machinery
Having an accurate equipment count is important for you to know the exact number of machinery which needs maintenance. Some instances of information include manufacturer ID, make/model, location, and equipment specification.
Use an online tool or technology to help update prerecorded information, which will also help in prioritising maintenance tasks that require immediate attention.
Know which maintenance activities to prioritise
To emphasise on the previous point of prioritising maintenance tasks – you will have to arrange high, medium, and low-priority maintenance tasks in order. Moreover, each repair session may consume plenty of time; hence, be sure to service equipment that requires daily use or high-value machinery.
From there, start to schedule maintenance activities with longer intervals first (annual followed by bi-annual), due to the fact that these will use up the most resources and time.
For instance, a diesel generator; the main power source for your business – should undergo repair first before any other machinery. In other words, you should consider generator overhauling and have your engineer take a thorough look at your equipment to discover any alarming issues that need to be addressed.
Then, you can then proceed to put your focus on lower-priority equipment which needs less effort.
Determine maintenance procedures
After you are done with compiling a detailed list of all your equipment – it is up to you to establish the frequency of servicing your equipment. Whether servicing is to be done on a weekly, monthly, quarterly, or even a semi-annual basis; it’s all dependent on the equipment type.
Moreover, you will have to lay down the procedures for maintenance, comprising the typical operating and repair guidelines or safety precautions. Last but not least, put together a list of outsourced or internal repair tools which you may need on hand.
Be sharp and strive to improve
An important trait any employee or business should have; one must always evolve together with the equipment for the long run. In other words, to keep a close eye on the equipment’s condition and measure progress for growth in the future.
For one, if you notice that certain equipment need more maintenance than the estimated number of repairs – maintenance costs will become a concern soon. As such, decisions have to be made for lowering costs and better efficiency – for instance, either upgrading or replacing the equipment entirely.
To better assure that such incidents are lessened or even avoided (if at all possible) – you should go through the equipment maintenance program with your engineer regularly, so it always remains up-to-date.
An equipment maintenance program is key for your assets to always be at its best condition for consistent, excellent performance at all times possible.