PM Scheduling is Easier than Watering Your Plant

Having a solid maintenance strategy foundation requires consistent care. Think about growing a plant… The plant requires daily or weekly watering and sunlight in order for it to be healthy. The consistent routine is incredibly important to the plant. Even missing a week or so, may lead the plant to start wilting and breaking down. This situation is also similar to the equipment in your plant. In order to keep it running smoothly and efficiently, maintenance activities need to be scheduled in a timely and consistent manner.

Preventive maintenance (PM) is maintenance that is carried out (often at fixed time intervals) on a piece of equipment to reduce the risks involved with equipment failure. As mentioned earlier, in order to keep your equipment performing at peak performance and reduce risks of equipment failure, “watering” regularly, otherwise known as plant maintenance, is key. You can read more about the basic principles of preventive maintenance here.

Benefits of Preventive Maintenance

• Improves equipment reliability
• Increased life expectancy of important assets
• Reduces unplanned downtime due to sudden equipment failure
• Minimizes the number of major repairs
• Improves the safety and efficiency of a manufacturing workplace

Too Much Maintenance?

Is it possible to have too much maintenance? Water is good for plants, but too much water may actually kill the plant. There is such thing as too much of a good thing. This is especially true when it comes to too much maintenance. Your problems likely won’t be improved by simply scheduling more frequent maintenance.

Here are some negative effects of having too much maintenance:

• Strains on time and resources
• Affects performance of machine
• Maintenance is not optimized

Finding a Balance…

Just like a computerized hydroponic system that controls temperatures, pH and watering frequency; your preventive maintenance strategy needs to be optimized and automated to help reduce the likelihood of equipment breakdowns. While it is important to schedule PMs at timely intervals, ensuring there is a good balance is imperative as well. It is possible to “over-water” your plants by scheduling too many PMs. Gathering accurate data and understanding your equipment will help you optimize your maintenance schedule.

How We Can Help

NRX AssetHub is an EAM software solution that helps asset-intensive companies organize, cleanse and migrate their data. NRX AssetHub can help your company deal with planning and maintenance challenges. We can help you reduce your unplanned downtime, optimize maintenance plans, and extend asset life.