Preventive Maintenance Made Easy: Build a Checklist (Infographic)

Many unexpected and uncontrollable events occur and can lead to additional costs that a company cannot estimate in advance. These events are closely related to maintenance activities.

Maintenance processes are reactive, preventive maintenance or other, an organization is always ready to bear what is estimated on their profitability and productivity which turns the table if any big unusual event occurs.

Therefore, organizations these days try to implement a well-thought and optimized strategy to make sure that their assets and equipment work in the most productive manner.

Hence, this concludes that strategic steps always influence the overall productivity of a business. It is difficult to pre-determine the frequency of service that the equipment will need. But through proper strategy and regular maintenance (depending on use and workload on equipment), there will be no loss of time or production due to a breakdown.

The preventive maintenance plan should be tailored according to your organization's facility, looking over all the common fundamental elements across the board. The simple way to plan and carry out preventive maintenance steps is to form its checklist. However, preventive maintenance is used uniquely in different industries.

Preventive Maintenance Pre-Check

The pre-checklist of preventive maintenance includes some basic information that should be considered as core to prevent hazardous incidents. The pre-check involves:

1. Assess and Inventory to Show the Current State of Your Business Facility

Understanding of current performance of assets and equipment for efficiency, quality, uptime, maintenance, and more and be sure in every aspect that your facility will undergo preventive maintenance.

2. Location of Documentation

In the case of machines, preventive maintenance is done in accordance with manufacturer recommendations and specifications.

3. Create Documentation of Your Own

Start with a comprehensive document to begin your preventive maintenance plan and for easy access and review by every employee.

Preventive Maintenance Checklist

When pre-check is done and the decision is taken for what assets and equipment are required to be inspected; now it turns to create a preventive maintenance checklist. This checklist is organized by your team considering their comfort categories and the site's work environment.

Then these activities of inspection and maintenance are scheduled (monthly, quarterly, or yearly as needed). Check and get everyone into the habit of completing preventive maintenance inspections regularly, this will help you to keep your building and equipment n the best working position.

Having a preventive maintenance checklist and procedures makes regular maintenance easy, irrelevant of limitations such as staff, time, or budget. It includes planned repairs in your budget and through a schedule that avoids higher costs of an emergency repair.

Buildings' Preventive Maintenance Checklist

To ensure the smooth running of building items and equipment, routine inspection is necessary for which buildings' preventive maintenance checklist is formed.

1. General Building Interior

• Checking of floor conditions, ceilings and walls.
• Look for any leakage in bathrooms and ceilings or any kind of water damage.
• Checking of doors easy locking and unlocking.
• Ensure the tightening of stairs and railings.
• Check and ensure that all the exits are clearly marked with proper highlighted signs marked on them.
• Testing of smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and change of batteries (once a year).
• Check on the working of all interior and exterior lights and replacing bulbs, if required.
• Routine pest inspections and treatments.
• Ensure hallways to be free of trash or fire-prone items to avoid the hazardous incident.

2. Building Exterior

• Checking of windows condition, look for any broken part and repair.
• Checking of roof condition and repair, if required.
• Clean up debris from roof and gutters, building ground, floors, etc.
• Check the condition of sidewalks and parking lots for any potholes.
• Check the condition of paint or siding.

Building Systems

• Routine tests of fire alarm system and sprinkler system.
• Routine tests of building alarm system to be sure.
• Check for any loose wires or fixtures in and out of the building, schedule a comprehensive inspection with an electrician.
• Need to Check any leakage or signs of water damage, schedule a comprehensive inspection with a plumber
• Check the HVAC system for its proper heating and cooling.
• Check elevators.

When the team has completed their inspection activities, ensure that the collected data gets sent to the right place.

Equipment Preventive Maintenance Checklist

An equipment preventive maintenance checklist is important to improve equipment operation, its parts' quality, and reduce its downtime, which requires investment of time and effort to create and execute a proper plan.

1. Preventive Maintenance for Machines

• Check the machine for any debris, before and after every shift and its proper cleaning.
• Wipe off machine surfaces in case of any lubricant, dirt, and other debris is found.
• Regular inspection of tools for their sharpness.
• Check for worn and damaged tools and replace them immediately.
• Routine check for all machinery fluids (their levels and air filters, replace as required).
• Calibrate machines regularly.

2. Preventive Maintenance for Material Handling Equipment

• Regular check on belts for their damage.
• Review calibration and programming for gantry machines to identify inefficiencies.
• Routine cleaning of belts and other equipment that are directly in contact with materials and inventory.
• Check on motors and other power sources for maintenance (twice a year).

3. Preventive Maintenance for Facility Infrastructure

• Ensure adequate space between each machine and equipment.
• Ensure the safety and caution areas and mark them precisely.
• Check walkways and other areas to be clear of debris or any other material.
• Ensure that wires are properly secured to avoid any hazard.
• A routine check on stairway and walkway railings.
• Regular check on external grounds, parking facilities.

4. Preventive Maintenance for Network and Data Systems

• Check all your network security practices.
• Regularly check and identify the threats to your network security such as data breaches.
• Assure that employees work with safe practices such as password security.
• Regularly change Wi-Fi and other network passwords (twice a year).

Note: Connected systems become increasingly common these days, therefore maintaining good data hygiene is also as important as equipment maintenance for an organization, as they also hold a crucial place.

Conclusion

As time passes, equipment starts to wear out, and regular maintenance is needed. Therefore, before beginning to implement a preventive maintenance program, start by creating a detailed list of what needs to be checked (preventive maintenance checklist).

The maintenance program should include major building systems such as plumbing, electrical, HVAC, as well as the general building condition and cleanliness.

Having a preventive maintenance software and preventive maintenance plan with regular maintenance and repairs will assist to keep assets and equipment in good operating condition, avoiding hazardous events and reducing costly repairs.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. What is a preventive maintenance checklist?‍

A preventive maintenance checklist is an itemized list of individual maintenance tasks that are prepared by the manufacturers of the asset or other subject matter experts present in the organization. Checklists are basically the building blocks of a preventive maintenance program.

2. How do you prepare a preventive maintenance schedule?‍

Following are the steps to execute a preventive maintenance plan:
1. Get the right people associated with tasks.
2. Set goals for a preventive maintenance plan.
3. Inspect the equipment and assets.
4. Make informed decisions.
5. Get to know the manufacturer's manuals.
6. Schedule for long-term preventive maintenance.
7. Schedule for short-term preventive maintenance.
8. Proper Training.

3. What Does Preventive Maintenance Include?‍

A preventive maintenance schedule of any equipment may include things such as cleaning, lubrication, oil changes, adjustments, repairs, inspecting and replacing parts, and partial or complete overhauls that are regularly scheduled.