Having some sort of preventive or proactive maintenance plan in place is an excellent idea and to be honest, crucial to your department’s longevity and success.
However, some may not realize what the difference is between the two and which one is a better fit for their maintenance department. Here is a little about each and which one may be best for you.
Proactive maintenance tries to identify and fix the root causes equipment failures. Proactive maintenance depends on rigourous mechanical inspections to identify things that will cause failure. Examples are, wrong lubricant, inporper repair, or a wrong sized belt or part being installed. As part of your maintenance plan it can result in significant cost savings. It is different from reactive maintenance and preventive maintenance.
Preventative maintenance will try to perform repairs or parts replacement based on a maintenance schedule. For example, filters and belts will be replaced at regular intervals whether they are needed or not. This makes costs predictive and failures less likely.
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There are quite a few common reasons that your equipment may fail and here are a few:
Regular detailed inspections AND scheduled maintenance replacements are all part of successful maintenance program. Having an organized system for Preventive Maintenance is critical to cost effective, safe, and well functioning systems and faclilities.