15+ Sample Equipment Maintenance Plan

What Is An Equipment Maintenance Plan?

An equipment maintenance plan refers to a business document that details all the types of equipment or machinery that is present in your company or production facility. This document describes the equipment down to the small details via a tabular format. This plan also assesses the type of maintenance that each piece of equipment needs, how frequently it needs to be maintained, and who will conduct the said maintenance on that equipment. When drafting an equipment maintenance plan, it is important to keep in mind that nothing of importance is to be overlooked for the maintenance process to function smoothly and effectively.

The Importance Of An Equipment Maintenance Plan

Have you ever worried about what could possibly happen when even the smallest component in your machinery breaks down? With an effective equipment maintenance plan, you will ensure that you are doing everything possible to avoid equipment breakdown and any halt in production – which could have far-reaching financial consequences and would necessitate hands-on crisis communications with all customers and stakeholders. Remember that your company’s reputation is its most valuable asset, so ensuring that your equipment is always fit for purpose should be a top priority.

What Needs To Be Planned When Conducting Equipment Maintenance?

Here are the numerous factors that should be planned when conducting equipment maintenance:

The maintenance work. You must be clear on what you need to do when creating your maintenance plan. Once the maintenance work begins, determine the priority areas as well as the sequence of activities.The maintenance instructions. Proper instructions reduce the dependence on specific workers. Equipment maintenance work must also adhere to strict quality standards. Only by including explicit instructions in the plan will you be able to meet such standards. Consider including job observations that you can perform to ensure the efficiency of the maintenance tasks while you’re at it.The maintenance schedule. The equipment maintenance schedule’s purpose is to do the work as regularly as needed – not over-maintaining by doing the work too frequently – and not under-maintaining so that you experience downtime and breakdowns. While weekend maintenance is unlikely to disrupt your operations, there is a chance that you will be unable to find suppliers. When you begin your year, it is always a good idea to set aside a maintenance window. Make sure that everyone in production is aware of this window. During this time, you will require the full cooperation of this team. Make changes to the plan as the year progresses to improve its efficiency.The maintenance workers. The equipment maintenance plan must specify the skill set that is required for each maintenance task. This information will help you select the best contractors for the job. Assign each member of the maintenance team to a specific area based on your organizational arrangements. While you’re at it, make a list of the tasks you’ll delegate to outside contractors. Make sure that the plan also restricts access to areas that pose a high risk to the facility’s employees.The maintenance spare parts. You can forecast your spare part consumption during this stage. Once you’ve indicated the parts you’ll require, the worker knows exactly what to get from the store before beginning the actual maintenance work. This section provides the maintenance manager with information about parts used in the previous period as well as future part consumption. They’ll find it easier to create a budget for the next twelve months.The maintenance contractors. Some maintenance tasks may necessitate the use of outside contractors. External specialists who come on-site to do specialized work are among them. To service assets, the majority of them bring specialized equipment such as mobile cranes and metering equipment tools. The work that you will request contractors to do is specified in the effective maintenance plan. With this section, you won’t have to rely on a single contractor for all of your maintenance needs. You could use these specifications to solicit quotes and tenders from various contractors for a specific type of work.

Types Of Equipment Maintenance

Here are the different types of equipment maintenance that can be done by your business or industry:

Preventive Maintenance. Preventive maintenance is defined as “a routine for inspecting on a regular basis” with the goal of detecting minor issues and correcting them before they become major ones. In an ideal world, no single component fails. The primary goal of preventive maintenance is to move on to the next maintenance activity with no machine or equipment breakdowns or failures. It encompasses activities such as partial or complete servicing at predetermined intervals, oil changes, lubrication, and so on.Predictive Maintenance. This maintenance activity is also performed in advance, which means that issues are resolved in advance. This activity is more of a precautionary measure to avoid problems. The primary goal of predictive maintenance is to determine the condition of equipment and machines in order to determine when maintenance can be performed. This is one of the promising cost-cutting measures that your company can implement. It also aids in estimating the stage of degradation of an asset, piece of equipment, or machine.Corrective Maintenance. Depending on the fault, corrective maintenance restores the equipment. It consists of several steps following the failure of equipment, such as diagnosis, determining the cause of the failure, ordering a replacement part, installing the new part, testing functionality, and continuing the process. There are two types of corrective maintenance: immediate corrective maintenance and deferred corrective maintenance. Immediate corrective maintenance necessitates immediate action following a failure. Deferred corrective maintenance, on the other hand, is a process in which the maintenance activity is scheduled for a later date for a variety of reasons. For example, replacement parts may be unavailable, the process may take a long time, or technicians may be needed in other high-priority cases.Routine Maintenance. The primary goal of routine maintenance is to clean, oil, lubricate, replace batteries, and change the oil. Routine maintenance can be performed on a weekly or semi-monthly basis. It is dependent on the equipment used. As a professional equipment maintenance practice, the emphasis should be on maintenance rather than repair. To put it simply, routine maintenance should be performed on a regular basis to keep your equipment in good working order.Emergency Maintenance. This is a reactive maintenance activity for equipment. The primary goal of emergency maintenance is to prevent a threat to lives or a company’s property. To keep the facility operational and safe, emergency maintenance can be used. Emergency maintenance is commonly used in chemical plants, tenant buildings, and other similar settings.Condition-based Maintenance. Condition-based maintenance is based on monitoring the actual state of assets in order to perform maintenance when there is evidence of decreased performance or impending failure. This evidence can be obtained through inspection, performance data, or scheduled tests, and it can be gathered on a regular or continuous basis using internal sensors.Prescriptive Maintenance. Prescriptive maintenance uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to further automate the maintenance process (AI). With a prescriptive maintenance strategy in place, sensors track machine performance in real-time and use artificial intelligence to tell you what maintenance work needs to be done and when.

How To Create An Effective Equipment Maintenance Plan

Here are the following steps you can take in order to create an equipment maintenance plan; while it may be intimidating at first, once you go through it, you will notice that it follows a logical order and it gets easier.

  • 1. Establish the People Involved In the Maintenance

    Maintenance managers, your technical maintenance team, finance departments, and senior management may all be involved in the equipment maintenance plan. It is best for one or two people in each department to ‘own’ the project so that the management team always knows who is responsible for what. As a result, you’ll be able to make quick decisions and get them approved by management or your finance director.

  • 2. Set the Goals

    To ensure that the team you select is fully invested in the project it is critical to establish an Effective Goal right from the start. – the number of people will vary depending on the size of your facility. When it comes to equipment maintenance plans, the goals will most likely be to reduce reactive maintenance or corrective maintenance costs by a certain percentage or to reduce downtime by a certain percentage.

  • 3. Create An Inventory

    Once you’ve decided on your team, begin compiling a detailed inventory of all relevant equipment in your manufacturing process. This is by far the most time-consuming aspect of creating an equipment maintenance plan, but it is essential that it is done correctly because it ensures that every last piece of critical equipment is on the list for routine preventive maintenance.

    It is also vital to consider how you record and store information. Usage of Spreadsheet Software is recommended because it allows you to create thousands of rows and columns, which should provide enough space to store large databases of text and data. Each piece of equipment’s make and model, as well as serial numbers, product specifications, asset identification numbers, and location information, must be entered.

  • 4. Establish Preventive Measures

    Make a note of the type of work required to keep the equipment running smoothly, as well as how long it will take. This can be estimated based on previous corrective maintenance experiences or by consulting owner’s manuals, manufacturer recommendations, and documented industry standards. You should be able to plan ahead and schedule maintenance for times when you’re less busy or naturally non-operational, such as overnight, if you record this alongside the frequency of maintenance work. There may be times when preventive maintenance can be performed during normal operating hours, which will be less expensive than bringing in maintenance engineers after working hours.

  • 5. List the Required Materials

    Ensure that your equipment maintenance plan includes a list of the specialized tools required to repair each piece of equipment. Include this in your list and make sure that you either acquire the tools or that your maintenance team or contractors have the tools they require. You must also consider the materials that will be required and ensure that you have them on hand or know where to get them in time for planned maintenance procedures.

  • 6. Create the Maintenance Plan For Each Piece of Equipment

    Begin by documenting the equipment’s condition, as this will help you prioritize its importance as part of your equipment maintenance plan. You’ll then need to have your expert technicians evaluate each component to determine when its next maintenance inspection is due and how frequently these inspections should be performed. All of this must be documented for future use. If you physically tag each part, asset tracking software may be useful for digitally tracking your equipment.

FAQs

What are Maintenance Procedures?

Maintenance procedures refer to a set of detailed instructions for doing maintenance tasks. Maintenance procedures must be up to date and easily accessible so that the maintenance personnel can follow them precisely. This ensures the reliability and good performance of the equipment.

How to determine the cost of planning equipment maintenance?

Equipment maintenance plans take time to develop, and it is best to prioritize high-priority maintenance before overburdening staff with lower-priority tasks. The initial preventive maintenance goals set will determine which assets should be prioritized. When evaluating each piece of equipment and the work required to keep it running, you should be able to estimate the number of hours for performing the task, shutting down the equipment, and determining which personnel are required in each case. This will allow you to calculate the cost of performing these tasks in the most efficient manner.

What happens if the equipment maintenance plan is incomplete?

Any omission being done in the document is likely to weaken the plan. If you leave out the work, there’s a chance you’ll do more than you need to and waste resources. You may have to work with less-experienced personnel on occasion and they will certainly struggle if you do not include instructions in your plan. Without a schedule, maintenance plans frequently place facilities in a ‘firefighting’ mode. You will not be able to optimize the performance of your assets throughout the year. You will have a difficult time budgeting for your maintenance program if you do not include a section indicating the spare parts required for maintenance tasks. The absence of sections in your plan dealing with workers and contractors predisposes your assets to poor maintenance.

Any company or industry that operates some sort of equipment whether it is heavy or not should have an effective equipment maintenance plan in place. They should also have one if they want to maximize their returns on investment. Scheduling a maintenance plan is considered critical to company operations since it involves time, energy, and various staff resources to complete. It is also essential because maintenance plans happen frequently. In creating this document, it is essential to make a list of different high-priority items as these will serve as starting points in the maintenance process. Maintenance activities should also be frequently and effectively done because when you neglect to perform maintenance on your assets, equipment, and machines in an effective manner, there is a very big chance that your company will end up at a loss.

In this article, examples of effectively made equipment maintenance plans are available for you to download and use as a reference in case you need to make one.