Preventive Maintenance: The Ultimate Guide [2021] • Infraspeak Blog

Preventive maintenance is an important part of the management of any type

of infrastructure, contributing to the increase of equipment lifetime,

the decrease of unplanned downtime, and, ultimately, the reduction of

long-term maintenance costs.

In this ultimate guide, we explore what preventive maintenance is and what

it consists of, why it is so important, what its advantages and

disadvantages are, how to create a preventive maintenance plan, and how to

outline a schedule. We also provide examples and a preventive maintenance

plan template in Excel, for free download!

Table of Contents
1. Definition and types
2. Applications: when to use or not to use
 3. The importance of preventive maintenance
4. How to create a maintenance plan
5. How to outline a schedule
6. Automation of preventive work order
7. Advantages and disadvantages of preventive maintenance
8. Plan assessment and review
9. Free Template: Preventive Maintenance Plan in Excel

What is preventive maintenance?

Preventive maintenance consists of interventions that prevent breakdowns

and decrease the probability of an asset failing. That is, it is a type of

planned maintenance that is performed even when a piece of equipment

maintains its operational capacity.

It can be as simple as cleaning the filters on HVAC appliances or inspecting

the bearings on centrifugal pumps, but it also includes more complex

inspection plans, calibration and/or gauging plans, detection of gas leaks and

other cyclic revisions.

 
 
Types of preventive maintenance
Generally, we can divide preventive maintenance into two main types:

 
 time-based, i.e. periodic reviews performed at previously defined
periods, regardless of asset utilisation (e.g. periodic inspection of
elevators every 2 years or elevators every 6 years).

 
 usage-based, i.e. based on the actual use of the assets, such as the
lubrication of a machine every x production cycles (every 500 uses, as
an example) or the review of the fleet vehicles when they reach a
certain mileage (10,000 km).

Some consider that there are two other types of preventive maintenance

– predictive maintenance and prescriptive maintenance. Still, although

they share the goal of preventing breakdowns and asset collapse, there are

substantial differences between these three types of maintenance:

 
 predictive maintenance focuses on predicting when a failure will
occur to prevent it. Unlike preventive maintenance, which is scheduled
and follows predefined time or usage milestones, it is based on the
condition of the equipment. Check here for more differences between
predictive and preventive maintenance.

 
 prescriptive maintenance uses Artificial
Intelligence to prescribe maintenance actions based on the data and
indicators collected about each equipment. Therefore, it requires a
high level of computerisation and is associated with Industry 4.0.

Applications of preventive maintenance

In what situations is it advisable to use a preventive maintenance strategy? In

which cases is it best to maintain a purely reactive approach? Taking into

account the types mentioned above, let see in which situations this strategy is

recommended.

 
When NOT to use preventive maintenance
Let’s start by discarding those assets where we cannot use this technique. If

preventive maintenance is based on scheduling, equipment that fails

randomly is automatically excluded – such as a bulb that goes out, bells,

battery controls, or clogged flushes.

 
Usually, if it is not possible to establish a standard for the breakdowns of

an asset, preventive maintenance is not the best option.

 
When preventive maintenance is recommended
 

On the other side of the coin, we have the assets whose probability of failure

increases with time and use. In these cases, there is a pattern – we can

schedule maintenance by following statistics about the expected

operation of the equipment and the manufacturer’s recommendations.

That being said, planned maintenance allows us (1) to increase the lifetime

of the asset under consideration and (2) to maintain productivity over

time. 

We then come to the conclusion that preventive maintenance should be

applied to assets that are essential to maintain the normal operation of

the company, as well as assets of greater value, whose repair or

replacement is more expensive than regular preventive activities.

Excessive preventive maintenance (which is possible, taking into account

that it can generate unnecessary maintenance actions) and its application to

assets of low value or priority may result in costs too high concerning the

downtime it prevents, as shown in the following graph:

In the case of manufacturing, the priority assets are the machines essential to

production. In public buildings, the cleaning of water tanks to prevent

outbreaks of Legionella is a good example of preventive maintenance.

Why is preventive maintenance so

important?
As seen already, preventive maintenance increases the lifetime of assets

and the percentage of planned maintenance. But that is not the only

justification to invest in preventive maintenance. Ultimately, preventive

maintenance is also a great contributor to keeping your customers satisfied.

 
  Reducing downtime and increasing effectiveness (OEE)

Preventive maintenance avoids unscheduled downtime, which increases

equipment uptime and availability, improving the overall efficiency of the

equipment (learn more about OEE). As a consequence, you get a higher

return on your equipment investment and meet the established deadlines with

your customers.

 
 Increase in asset reliability

 Preventive maintenance makes the equipment more reliable: they work

properly for longer and have a greater lifetime. Reliability makes it possible

to forecast more realistically the operation of the company, production

capacity, and revenues.

Any company, both in the secondary and tertiary sectors, needs to guarantee

the operationality of its facilities. A hotel, for example, can only accept

reservations several months in advance if it can predict how many rooms will

actually be available.

 
 Reduction of reactive maintenance costs 
Preventive maintenance reduces the cost of parts and transport – just imagine

the cost of ordering a part for the HVAC system overnight from an

international supplier. It’s a known fact: emergency maintenance almost

always involves very expensive repairs. In the worst-case scenario, a lack

of maintenance requires the replacement of the asset.

 
 Increased security 
Preventive maintenance and regular overhauls detect wear on parts and keep

equipment in optimal condition. This offers more safety to those in contact

with the asset, both employees and customers. A clear example is a

preventive maintenance on elevators, which prevents someone from getting

trapped and offers much more safety to anyone in the building.

 
 Greater comfort
Whenever we talk about a building used by a large number of people,

preventive maintenance also contributes to offering more comfort to its

customers. Maintenance ensures that all equipment is in full operation,

without having to shut down the entire system to make a repair.

 
Can you imagine what it would be like to be without air conditioning in the

middle of summer to do maintenance? There are things we don’t wish on

even our worst enemy.

Creating a preventive maintenance plan

(step-by-step)
The benefits of preventive maintenance are undeniable. (Honestly, it would

be surprising if at this point you were not yet thinking about applying

preventive maintenance to your equipment!) The question is how? Where to

start? How to create and execute a preventive maintenance plan? Make

yourself comfortable, because we have the answers.

The first step in implementing a preventive maintenance strategy is to define

a plan. All work orders must be well defined, taking into consideration

materials, parts, the necessary labor, and even the hiring of specialised

external services. The process can be divided into 5 steps:

1. Setting goals.
To make your preventive maintenance plan really useful, the first step is to

set the goals you want to achieve. What do you want? To reduce downtime,

increase asset reliability, reduce costs, or increase the planned maintenance

rate? What have you done so far to meet these goals? What has failed? This

first diagnostic test is your starting point.

 
2. Make an asset inventory.
For your plan to be comprehensive, you need to map the assets, that is,

organise the assets by equipment families and location. Each asset should be
linked to the manufacturer’s recommendations, warranties and quality

standards to be met.

For example, air conditioning equipment should be grouped into the HVAC

equipment family, with the respective location of each appliance and user

manuals, as well as the ISO standards (if applicable) to be met.

 
3. Establish priorities.
Both time and resources are limited. Unfortunately, you are unlikely to be

able to perform all the preventive maintenance you would like, so give

priority to the most critical assets. Select those assets that are essential to

the normal operation of the company, those that can cause high losses, and

those that pose the greatest risk in the event of failure.

On this later matter, it is important to establish priorities according to the

current conditions of the equipment. A risk assessment is extremely useful

to rank the priority level of each asset. The inspection of gas leaks, for

example, is always a priority because it puts at risk the safety of all those

who use the facilities.

4. Creating KPIs for the maintenance plan.
To know if the plan is meeting its objectives, the maintenance manager has to

be able to track events over time. The best way to do this is through
performance indicators (KPIs), which we talk about later on in the

assessment and review section of the plan.

 
5. Review and improve the plan.
Even the best things can be improved. Depending on the results you get

(measured according to the KPIs you defined), make progressive

improvements to the plan.

To put this into practice as quickly as possible, we strongly recommend

that you read our expert tips on how to create a preventive maintenance

plan. 

Draw up a preventive maintenance

schedule
After creating your plan, you need to define dates, timetables, teams. In

short, a preventive maintenance schedule or a work plan. This work can

also be divided into 5 steps:

1. Assess labor productivity. 
For the schedule to be realistic, you need to know how many hours

maintenance technicians actually spend performing maintenance work orders

(and not looking for tools, on trips, or reading requests). The average is 25-

35% of the total hours, but it can go up to 50% with good planning.
 
2. Analyse the maintenance backlog.
Evaluate overdue work orders and finish pending work orders before

posting to new work orders.

 
3. Adjust the schedule based on the maintenance plan.
Determine how many employees, hours, materials, and tools you need for

each task in the maintenance plan. You must also define the best days and

time to perform scheduled maintenance which forces you to temporarily

deactivate assets.  

 
4. Get ready for surprises.
Remember that there are always failures that occur randomly.

Therefore, your schedule must be flexible enough and must set response

times for failures that need reactive maintenance. Any “unforeseen” event

that arises during planned actions should always be categorised as reactive

maintenance.

 
5. Schedule the work orders
The final step is to schedule the work orders by day and time, with all the

information so that the maintenance personnel can perform preventive

maintenance safely and effectively.

Are you ready to go from theory to practice?

See in detail how to organise your preventive maintenance schedule.

Automation of preventive maintenance

work orders
One of the greatest difficulties in drawing up a maintenance plan is mapping

assets and cross-checking them with recommended repairs or inspections. In

infrastructures with a large number of assets, it is almost humanly impossible

to organise the entire inventory. Fortunately, it is possible to automate most

preventive maintenance work orders with maintenance management software

(CMMS), or, better yet, Intelligent Maintenance Management Platforms

(IMMP).

A CMMS or IMMP allows you not only to catalog your assets but also to

associate them with information such as category, brand, equipment model,

serial number, location, supplier, the technician in charge, user manuals, and

dates of previous interventions.

 
Schedule preventive maintenance tasks with an IMMP

All the work of creating preventive maintenance plans for different

equipment is made easier with the use of maintenance management

platforms.

In addition to being able to automatically schedule work orders that only

depend on the passage of time, you can set limits for generating

interventions based on usage (steps 2 and 3 of the preventive maintenance

plan).

 
Track the plan in real-time

Another advantage of using an IMMP for the management of preventive

maintenance work orders is the monitoring of plans in real-time. The

software analyses the data calculates the main KPIs automatically and allows

you to review and adapt the plans at any time (steps 4 and 5 of how to make

a preventive maintenance plan).

Evaluation and Review of Preventive

Maintenance Plan
Regardless of the type of assets, you are managing and the specific KPIs you

have defined for your company, there are some metrics and “targets” you
should always be aware of. We remember the golden rules of preventive

maintenance:

 
 Preventive maintenance compliance

It represents the preventive maintenance rate performed within the

established time frame, which must be at least 90%. Learn more about how

to calculate preventive maintenance compliance.

 
 Scheduled maintenance critical percentage

It should be as close to 100% as possible.

 
 80/20 ratio for scheduled and non-scheduled maintenance

At least 80% of the hours spent on maintenance must be for preventive work

orders.  Only 20% (maximum!) of the time should be spent on reactive

maintenance work orders, ideally, 85% of the maintenance should be

scheduled.

 
 The 10% margin rule
Try to complete all work orders ahead of schedule, with a 10% margin. That

is if you have a task to complete in 100 days, try to do it only in 90 (10 days

ahead of schedule).

If your results fall short of expectations, learn more about how to

measure the effectiveness of your maintenance plan and what each of

these indicators means.

Advantages and Disadvantages of

Preventive Maintenance
If you have been aware of the article so far, the advantages of preventive

maintenance are clear. However, it is not always the ideal strategy, and may,

for example, result in maintenance operations on equipment that is still in

optimal condition, simply because a certain period has passed.

 
We then review the advantages and disadvantages of preventive

maintenance, both in terms of the internal functioning of your operations, as

well as the impact on the service provided and the customers’ satisfaction.

 
What are the advantages?

 
 Increases equipment lifetime, which increases return on investment;

 
 Prevents unpredicted stoppages, which improves the operation of the
company;

 
 Improves equipment reliability, which makes forecasts more
realistic;

 
 Reduces maintenance costs on high-value assets: it is less expensive
than reactive maintenance and predictive maintenance currently
available;
 
 It is easier to follow a budget for maintenance activities because
it predicts (reliably) how you will allocate your
resources throughout the year;

 
 Saves resources, since equipment with operational failures, tend to
spend more energy and lose quality;

 
 More safety on the facilities, since all assets are kept in the best
conditions and without wear and tear;

 
 Meeting deadlines with customers, as there are fewer stoppages and it
is easier to predict the output;

 
 It provides a better customer experience by meeting expectations
about the quality of your service – which, in the end, results in loyal
customers.

 
However, preventive maintenance has some disadvantages…
What are they?

 
 It requires more time, both to plan and to inspect;

 
 You need to readjust your team’s habits and possibly adopt new
software;

 
 It cannot be used on equipment that malfunctions randomly;

 
 Since it is not condition-based, it can result in unnecessary
maintenance activities;
 
 May result in higher costs if applied to assets of lower value or
priority;

 
 May require more outsourcing maintenance work, forcing you to look
for new suppliers;

 
 To ensure that the deadlines are met, you should negotiate SLAs with
suppliers and partners.

Preventive Maintenance Plan in Excel

You already know what preventive maintenance is and how to adapt it to

your business needs. Now, it’s time to get down to business and create a

plan.

 
Download our free template and increase the lifetime of your assets and

reduce unplanned downtime. Schedule, run, and evaluate the performance

of your preventive maintenance plans for all your equipment with this

fully customizable and easy-to-use Excel document.

 
→ Click here to download yours
 

Do you want to know how Infraspeak’s Intelligent Maintenance Management

Platform can help you plan and manage all your preventive maintenance

plans, assets, stock, work orders, and more, featuring a mobile app and

technology like sensors and NFC?