Proactive maintenance is an essential component in keeping your facility running smoothly. That’s why, according to a 2017 Plant Services study, nearly half of industrial business leaders said they already have a proactive maintenance program in place.
Of course, it’s important to balance proactive maintenance activities with your crew’s normal job duties. To make the most of your time, money and personnel, carefully plan out your preventive maintenance activities.
Know the requirements for each piece of equipment
The first step in understanding how you’ll need to space out your proactive maintenance days is first understanding the requirements for each piece of equipment in your facility. Some items may need weekly inspections while others only need to be reviewed once a year.
Given each piece of equipment you need maintained, determine whether a monthly, quarterly or custom schedule makes the most sense. Then, list each item that will be inspected during each planned maintenance day. Fill those days with any units that need proactive maintenance, even if they’re on a different inspection schedule.
For example, say you have weekly inspections for your fleet of forklifts, monthly inspections for your fans, a semiannual review of your dock leveler and an annual check-up for your conveyor system. You might plan out quarterly maintenance days that look like this:
- January inspection: Fans, forklifts and dock leveler.
- April inspection: Fans, forklifts and conveyor system.
- July inspection: Fans, forklifts and dock leveler.
- October inspection: Fans and forklifts.
To ensure you’re scheduling properly, check the OEM recommendations. When in doubt, reach out to a professional. The experts at Miner can help determine how frequently your various assets need proactive maintenance performed so they continue working reliably.
Use holidays to your advantage
When planning your proactive maintenance schedule, it’s important to strive for minimal workflow disruptions and avoid downtime, especially when your business is at its busiest. One way to make the best use of your time is to schedule proactive maintenance tasks during long holiday weekends.
Plan out your proactive maintenance day in advance.These days are usually slower, which gives you the opportunity to shut down parts of your operation completely without having a major impact on your bottom line or service levels. An extended shutdown allows you to take your time reviewing each component in your warehouse and carefully determine what work needs to be completed on various items.
Weekends that would fit nicely into a proactive maintenance schedule include:
- New Year’s Day weekend: Friday, Dec. 29, 2017 – Monday, Jan. 1, 2018.
- Presidents Day weekend: Friday, Feb. 16, 2018 – Monday, Feb. 19, 2018.
- Memorial Day weekend: Friday, May 25, 2018 – Monday, May 28, 2018.
- Labor Day weekend: Friday, Aug. 31, 2018 – Monday, Sept. 3, 2018.
- Thanksgiving Day weekend: Thursday, Nov. 22, 2018 – Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018.
Selecting a few of these holiday breaks would make for an evenly spaced out proactive maintenance schedule. Choosing Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day and Thanksgiving, for example, would divide the year into nearly perfect quarters.
Outsource when needed
Strategically planning out your proactive maintenance days is essential for making the most of your time. But it’s also important to make the most of your personnel too. While your in-house team knows the equipment they use on a regular basis well, it’s important to recognize when to call in a second set of trained eyes on an issue.
By teaming up with experienced professionals such as the technicians at Miner, you’ll have the advantage of additional experts assessing your equipment, plus easy access to any spare or replacement parts you need. We can also help your teams identify issues within your facility and provide solutions before they turn into larger problems.