Maintain Critical Assets With a Preventive Maintenance Schedule

As an asset manager or small-to-midsize business (SMB) leader, you must be aware of the need to create a preventative maintenance schedule. While most people find it an invaluable tool to keep things in working order, there’s often confusion about what a preventive maintenance schedule is, how to make it, and why it's important.

As a maintenance method designed to keep equipment in working order, preventive maintenance can be quite an undertaking. But it’s worth the effort, particularly if you’re looking to switch from reactive maintenance, where tasks are performed after equipment failure has already occurred. A preventive maintenance schedule, also known as a proactive maintenance schedule will help you stay organized and keep track of maintenance tasks for your most critical assets.

This guide will walk you through the five steps needed to create a preventive maintenance schedule that’s easy to follow and fits your business’s needs. We also have some resources to help you identify the most effective maintenance tools and technologies.

What is a preventive maintenance schedule?

A preventative maintenance (PM) schedule refers to a strategy used to make sure your equipment and systems continue functioning as they’re supposed to. Implementing a preventative maintenance system helps you maintain the value of your assets as time passes.

For SMB leaders, a PM schedule can save you considerable money because it prevents you from having to continually purchase new equipment. Also, because your existing equipment can last longer, your staff doesn’t have to spend as much time identifying and procuring new units.

Using the right preventative maintenance schedule format can solve multiple business problems. First, it reduces downtime and operational interruptions caused by equipment failures. Second, it makes it easier to control overhead expenses by eliminating the need to constantly buy new equipment.

This article can help you better understand the benefits of a preventative maintenance schedule and design an effective one using the five steps outlined below.

Why do I need a preventive maintenance schedule?

A preventative maintenance schedule is essential for organizations that want to prevent unexpected operational issues due to equipment failures. However, they can also extend the lifespan of your equipment, reducing the amount you have to spend on replacing units.

Also, having a preventive maintenance schedule can help you save taxes. If you’ve already implemented a depreciation schedule for your equipment, a preventative maintenance schedule can make the value of each unit at its predetermined end of life higher than what was predicted. Therefore, you benefit in two ways: firstly, you get the tax deduction derived from the item’s depreciation schedule, and secondly, you can get a higher charitable giving deduction for donating the item after you’re done using it.

Another, and perhaps the most important, benefit is enhanced safety. When certain issues arise, equipment that needs human supervision or operation may present physical dangers to operators.

For example, anything with spinning gears, axles, or wheels may need bearing lubrication as part of your maintenance program. If a bearing fails, the component it spins may rotate erratically or even detach, creating a precarious situation for those nearby.

How to create a preventive maintenance schedule

By following these steps, you establish an effective PM system and give your staff the skills to maintain it over the years.

Step 1: Prioritize assets based on criticality

The ideal way to start building a preventive maintenance schedule is to work around one or two assets initially and gradually expand your program to include others.

It’s a good idea to start building a preventive maintenance schedule for one or two assets and gradually expand your program to include others. Making a schedule for many items upfront can be overwhelming, particularly if your business maintains hundreds or even thousands of assets. Knowing what’s working and what could be improved could help you create preventive maintenance schedules for other assets.

But how do you choose which assets to start with? It’s good to start with the most critical ones first. A critical asset is one whose failure would cause the most disruption to your operations. Therefore, you gain the most benefit by using your PM schedule to keep these up and running.

Once you’ve identified one or two critical assets, you should move on to gathering information about the components most important to their operation.

Step 2: Gather information on critical assets to determine their maintenance needs

Now that you know which assets you’d like to create a preventive maintenance schedule for, your next step is to gather information on each one. The original equipment manufacturer (OEM) manual is a great place to start. It will contain detailed information about your equipment’s parts, inspection frequencies, and serial numbers so that parts can easily be reordered when needed.

You may also want to consult with a company representative. They may have gained insights over the years regarding the most effective ways to maintain the equipment they produce.

Another important consideration when gathering information on your assets is whether their maintenance needs are time-based or usage-based.

Time-based PM schedules focus on scheduling maintenance tasks based on the amount of time that has passed. For instance, the maintenance timeframe could be once every two months. The image below shows what a time-based preventive maintenance workflow might look like.

Usage-based preventive maintenance can also be described as predictive maintenance. It involves scheduling maintenance tasks based on real-time usage data from equipment sensors. A usage-based schedule presumes that wear and tear from regular usage results in issues that can be avoided via maintenance. Usage can be measured in hours, kilometers, flow, or temperature, to name a few examples. The image below shows what a usage-based preventive maintenance workflow might look like.

If you’re uncertain whether an asset would be better served by a time- or usage-based PM schedule, start with time-based. You can switch to usage-based if you’re over-maintaining. Preventive maintenance software is useful with either type of schedule because you can set reminders to notify your team once an asset has reached a set amount of time or usage between maintenance tasks. When you’ve determined whether your most critical assets’ maintenance needs, as well as whether their PM schedules need to be time-based or usage-based, you can plan long-term and short-term tasks for each asset.

Step 3: Plan long-term tasks for each critical asset

Long-term preventive maintenance tasks include routine maintenance performed every once in a while but not every day. Although these will vary according to the needs of each asset, here are some examples of what a long-term PM task might look like:

• Inspections

• Greasing and lubrication

• Air filter changes

• Chain or belt adjustments

• Part replacement and/or repair

The image below shows examples of long-term maintenance tasks within our preventive maintenance schedule template, which you can download and use for your own assets:

Once you know which maintenance tasks you’d like to schedule over the coming months, you can narrow your focus to more short-term tasks.

Step 4: Plan short-term tasks for each critical asset

Short-term preventive maintenance tasks are the ones your team performs on a more frequent basis. For instance, you may execute a maintenance task once a day or every week. These also include tasks that will have the most serious consequences if they’re not performed frequently.

For instance, suppose you have a factory with a conveyor belt that moves items from one assembly station to another. By lubricating its rollers and pulleys once a week, you prevent excessive wear. In turn, you avoid unnecessarily stretching the conveyor belt or putting the axles out of optimal position, which could result in high-risk incidents.

Here are some examples of short-term preventive maintenance tasks:

• Cleaning

• Lubrication

• Taking and recording measurements such as pressure and temperature

• Verifying that moving parts are working properly

The image below shows examples of short-term maintenance tasks within our schedule template:

Step 5: Train employees on your preventive maintenance schedule to ensure a smooth transition

Once you’ve planned long-term and short-term maintenance tasks for your most critical assets, it’s important to train your maintenance team so they understand how to fulfill their maintenance assignments. Ensure that each team member knows:

• What they’re responsible for

• How to perform each preventive maintenance task correctly

• Who to go to with questions if they discover an issue or don’t understand how to perform a specific task

In addition to notifying your team when maintenance needs to be performed, preventive maintenance software can help you schedule and assign preventive maintenance tasks, track asset performance, and submit a work order for equipment repair if an item needs reactive maintenance. The right software can also provide you with an easily accessible mobile version of your preventive maintenance checklist for each asset.

Along with training your team on their maintenance tasks, they should know how to use any software platform you select to enhance your maintenance program.

Maintenance tools and technologies

You don’t have to break out a spreadsheet and start painstakingly filling out fields. Plenty of software tools are available to make it easy to build a PM schedule and automate its execution.

These Software Advice resources are a good place to start vetting your options:

• Preventive maintenance Software

• CMMS Software

Get your preventative maintenance program up and running

You now know how to create preventative maintenance schedules and the benefits they bring. You also have some resources to help you make a shortlist of preventative maintenance software that will simplify business operations for you and your team.