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An incredibly simple guide to starting a predictive maintenance program at your facility

Predictive maintenance (PdM) can often be viewed as the panacea of maintenance issues these days. However, starting a preventive maintenance program can be complex and expensive, and not all facilities may be ready for such a program. In order to achieve success, a solid foundation must be followed by a methodical plan of action. Here’s a guide to help break down the process into easy-to-digest steps for your facility.

Are you ready?

Everyone thinks of predictive maintenance as a way to anticipate potential breakdowns and failures in equipment and, essentially, “catch them just in time.” Although that is a big part of predictive maintenance, it is not the core. Predictive maintenance is, instead, a philosophy. It focuses on using your actual asset operating conditions to optimize your facility as a whole.

Start with establishing a predictive maintenance mindset and culture. You need strong, visionary, and expert leadership as well as a trained, motivated maintenance team.

Once you have the people in place, you’ll need to look at the processes and technologies you are currently using. If you’re operating in a primarily reactive maintenance mode, you’ll need to move to a preventive maintenance program first. You’ll need the right tools to handle new processes on your complex assets. Implement or refine your computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to serve as the foundation of your maintenance upgrade and help support predictive maintenance technology.

Tip: UpKeep is one of the many CMMS softwares for maintenance and facilities looking to start a predictive maintenance program.

What are the steps to get started?

Let’s say your organization has laid a strong foundation.

You, as a group, have adopted the predictive maintenance attitude. Technicians work regularly to identify issues before they become problems. Emergency work orders are minimal. Your mature maintenance system helps processes run smoothly, and schedule compliance is high. You have some reliable historic data and a solid handle on your machines and assets. Essentially, preventive maintenance is the norm.

This well-oiled maintenance team is also led by visionary management. Leaders who are communicative, flexible, and ready to take on the future challenge of predictive maintenance. You are ready.

What’s next? Here are some sim

le steps to get started:

Step One: Start Small

No company has unlimited resources. Even with the right attitude, you’ll face some level of skepticism any time you implement a new system. That’s why it’s important to start small. Select one or two critical assets to pilot through an initial predictive maintenance implementation. That way you’ll be able to take steps slowly and address mistakes without affecting a large number of assets. There’s nothing like a successful pilot program to build the momentum you need in expanding a predictive maintenance program.

Step Two: Identify PdM Ready Assets

Determine which assets are ready for or deserving of a place in your new predictive maintenance program. For some assets, predictive maintenance simply is not the correct approach. These assets may be expendable or require low-cost solutions. Additionally, you don’t want to pilot a new program on your most expensive or most important asset. Just as a precautionary measure, start your predictive maintenance program with a less significant piece of equipment so that as you scale to more critical assets, your processes will be better than they were originally were.

To decide which assets are most critical, start with failure codes. Codes are asset-based or inspection-based. Common failure codes signify poor maintenance practices, user or operator errors, calibration issues, and asset defects. Some failure codes may not affect immediate performance, but others can cause significant downtime.

Another way to categorize your assets is by the type and number of tasks required to maintain an asset. For example, value-added tasks, comprehensive calibration tasks, “specialist” tasks, interval tasks and repeatable tasks should all be taken into consideration because they all demand high financial and human resources.

Evaluate both failure codes and maintenance tasks as well as the history and condition of particular assets. Frequent breakdowns indicate high repair costs and a great deal of downtime.

Think about how critical an asset is to your daily production line. If a machine is used infrequently, it can probably wait. Your ideal candidate for a pilot asset is one that is moderately used and often breaking down. It is important to address, and you won’t suffer huge losses if your predictive maintenance program takes a little while to refine.

For example, HVAC equipment is widespread and crucial in nearly all facilities. Routine maintenance is appropriate for these machines, but this approach doesn’t always discover the root cause of frequent failures. HVACs often require many little tasks scheduled based on time. Predictive maintenance, on the other hand, can analyze the current condition of HVAC equipment and schedule maintenance tasks only when they’re necessary to prevent it from failing.

Step Three: Identify Resources Required

The next step is to look at all the resources you will need to implement a predictive maintenance program. Here are the key categories:

  • Labor. Evaluate the number of hours you’ll need to start and run your program. This should include supervisor and management hours, planning and updating hours, and total craft hours by job sector and skill level. You’ll also require support staff hours. These should include not only clerical assistance but also tangential departments like materials handling.
  • Materials. Depending on which critical asset you decide to start with, you’ll need to identify the materials needed to move forward. This includes what items and levels you need to stock and when to replenish.
  • Facilities. It’s important to take a hard look at your physical space and determine where predictive maintenance tasks will take place. This may include where to establish your shop, tool room, inventory, training, and repair space.
  • Technology. A wide variety of tools and technology are available today. Determine which data collectors, sensors, infrared cameras, and analysis software you’ll need. There are several types of sensors, as well as many vendors you can purchase from. Monnit and TitanGPS are great resources with many types of sensors available! Below, you’ll find a list of a handful of the MANY sensor types:
    • Temperature Sensors
    • Pressure Sensors
    • Chemical and Gas Sensors
    • Level Sensors
    • Vibration Sensors
    • Motion Detectors
    • Location Tracking,
    • And more!