There are two terms that you hear a lot of in the maintenance world – predictive and preventative maintenance. They may seem similar and while they do have similar traits, there are differences that determine your approach to running your facility as well as your bottom line.
Here is a little information on how you can use both predictive maintenance and preventive maintenance software to increase production and have less downtime:
Preventative Maintenance
We all know that preventative maintenance means to keep up with the upkeep of a particular task. Whether it's making sure that the air filters are changed on an air conditioning and heating unit so that it works more efficiently or that the assembly line is kept in tip-top shape to ensure it works safely and expeditiously, preventative is one of the most important components of a cost-effective maintenance facility.
Predictive Maintenance
This term is a little different in its approach at your facility. Predictive Maintenance is used to try to predict or make an assumption of when a piece of equipment might fail or need replacement and maintain it at that point. What this means is that rather than a scheduled preventative maintenance task, you would only perform the maintenance based on condition monitoring. This is when it is the most cost effective instead of on a regular basis, which can save money.
In fact, both preventative and predictive maintenance saves money in the long run. It is up to you as the maintenance manager to determine which works best for your facility and that is usually based on what kind of facility you run. For instance, if you run a hospitality facility then you most likely depend more on preventative maintenance to ensure that everything keeps running smoothly. However, in a processing plant or a facility with an assembly line, predictive maintenance may be more cost efficient because you won't have to perform it as often other than when regulations require it for safety reasons.
Read More: Predicting Spikes in Costs
Regardless of which you work with at your facility, a CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management Software) program can help you determine when to perform both preventative maintenance as well as predictive maintenance.
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