Maintenance is an essential part of any industrial operation. It refers to the spare parts, components, and machinery and equipment that are used to reduce the risk of failure. With the digitalization of industrial companies, many IT and technological solutions have been developed to help technicians effectively perform, monitor, track, and plan preventive maintenance. When it comes to maintenance strategies, there are five main types: Figure Maintenance, Time-Based Maintenance (TBM), Predictive Maintenance (PDM), Fault Detection Maintenance (FFM), and Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM).
Each type has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it's important to understand them in order to choose the best option for your business. Time-Based Maintenance (TBM) is a type of preventive maintenance that is carried out by technicians before any failure or malfunction occurs. It is based on regular inspections at well-defined time intervals in advance. This allows components and spare parts to be replaced regularly, improving machine productivity.
Predictive Maintenance (PDM) is a type of preventive maintenance that uses data processing and analysis solutions, as well as artificial intelligence, to predict faults and breakdowns. This allows companies to anticipate problems by planning the necessary interventions and maintenance operations based on forecasts. Fault Detection Maintenance (FFM) is a type of preventive maintenance that consists of monitoring the parameters and key indicators of the operation of the property and implementing the necessary corrective actions to anticipate any failure or malfunction. There are many emerging IT tools available to automate this type of industrial maintenance.
Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM) is a type of preventive maintenance that relies on sensors and special software to collect and analyze data from sensors installed directly on or near your assets. The software looks for readings outside the preset parameters in order to detect potential failures early. Risk-Based Maintenance (RBM) is a type of maintenance policy that is triggered by an unscheduled equipment failure event. It involves analyzing both functional failures and component failures in order to identify potential problems before they occur.
When it comes to choosing a maintenance strategy, it's important to understand your options, advantages, and disadvantages. Default maintenance follows the manufacturer's recommendations for maintenance, while preventive maintenance helps you detect problems early by scheduling inspections and tasks. Execution to failure should be used when things are difficult or impossible to maintain, cheap to carry in inventory, easy to replace, or not essential to your operations. Condition-based maintenance is the most complicated type of maintenance to implement. It requires a next-generation CMMS such as Mobility Work in order to collect all the data entered by the maintenance teams themselves.
This will enable subject matter experts in design, manufacturing, maintenance planning, maintenance execution, procurement, support equipment, and staff training. Regardless of the decision you make, you must provide maintenance teams with maintenance management software in order to ensure adequate supervision of interventions as well as smooth communication between technicians and other professionals.
