Increasing the service life of machines and equipment is an important factor for competitiveness. When it comes to asset life cycle management, the maintenance stage is critical for achieving this goal. It allows companies to optimize the use of available resources and avoid unnecessary investments.
The occurrence of other priority organizational demands, which often compete for the same budget resources, can end up prolonging maintenance intervals. In more extreme cases, preventive maintenance is no longer carried out. As a result, the machine suffers greater wear and tear, the repair costs are higher and equipment has a shorter service life.
Although the maintenance sector is not a source of revenue, it is responsible for keeping the manufacturing facility operating. Equipment in good service conditions ensures that contractual commitments can be fulfilled. This can be decisive for customer loyalty and gaining new contracts, or for customers losing interest in doing business with your company.
For this reason, we have prepared this article presenting 7 strategies you can put into practice to optimize machine and equipment performance, extend their service life and help your company save money:
1. Build relationships
Generally speaking, a maintenance area that operates in isolation will not meet business expectations satisfactorily. The first step is to build and cultivate good relationships with the other areas of the organization and also with the higher levels of management. In addition, maintenance practices should be fully aligned with organizational goals. Without support, it is hard to think about implementing improvements in maintenance management and, especially, getting the resources needed to implement them.
2. Train the workforce
Many companies operate 24 hours a day. With the change of shifts, machine operators change as well. It is important to train everyone so they know the operating procedures and use the equipment correctly. Training should be part of the routine, especially when there is a large turnover of collaborators.
To facilitate this, the company can provide operators with copies of manuals or procedures. It is important that the text is written in plain language so that everyone can understand it. Later, tests or evaluations can be carried out to ensure that the information has been assimilated. These practices help prevent unnecessary machine downtime and work-related incidents, which can lead to fines and penalties for the company that could have been avoided.
3. Create a customized maintenance plan for machines and equipment
It is important to know the operating conditions of each piece of equipment, as this guides you when preparing a maintenance plan. If a piece of equipment is used for only a few hours a day, maintenance can take place at longer intervals since the equipment does not suffer as much wear and tear. On the other hand, if equipment is used intensively, this interval must be shorter. Furthermore, the plan should take into account the periods when the equipment is in use. Good planning allows maintenance to be carried out while the equipment is idle, without impacting production and routine operations.
4. Carry out preventive inspections
Even if equipment is used correctly, operation conditions can accelerate wear and contribute to failure. This includes vibration, friction and abrupt temperature changes, among others. Misaligned belts or poorly regulated gears can generate vibrations. Lack of lubrication can cause friction, resulting in equipment operating above ideal temperatures. Carrying out inspections is important to help identify these cases. When necessary, a part can be replaced in a timely manner, before it leads to bigger problems and more costly repairs.
5. Take into account the operating environment
Another issue that needs to be considered is the environment where equipment is installed. Dusty locations, for example, can accelerate wear.
Some industries, by nature, are more complex and cannot tolerate equipment failure. Medical and hospital equipment failure can compromise the health and safety of patients. For this reason, they may require special maintenance plans.
6. Determine responsibilities
The maintenance plan should identify who is responsible for the maintenance activities for each piece of equipment. The maintenance manager should define these responsibilities and get proof that the activity has been carried out. Failure to determine responsibilities can result in the plan being forgotten and the failure to carry out activities. This kind of negligence can result in non-conformities, defective products and customer complaints.
7. Use maintenance management software
Software to support maintenance management also helps to extend the service life of machines and equipment. This kind of tool helps improve efficiency in general by simplifying activity planning, alerting those responsible for the activities and organizing the inventory of inputs to meet maintenance needs. This way, companies can avoid equipment failure, count on more reliable equipment and promote continuous improvement.
If you enjoyed learning about these strategies, we suggest you look at the other articles on Asset Management that we have prepared!
