What is Maintenance and Types of Maintenance

In this article, we will discuss What is Maintenance and the Types of Maintenance. Maintenance is defined as keeping something in proper condition. It simply means that maintenance are the actions taken to prevent equipments or equipments from failing and to repair the equipment to keep it in proper working condition.

Many companies do not give much importance to maintenance. They only take action when there are equipment failures and resources are required to repair or replace the equipment. As you all know that there is a life of everything and it is necessary to do maintenance at proper time intervals to extend the life of the equipment and to keep it in good running condition.

Objectives of Maintenance

The objective of the maintenance is to keep the equipment in the best operating condition. Otherwise, there will be e a lot of downtime and the production lines will also stop. Moreover, if there is no good working condition of equipment then it will lead to problems related to the quality. If there is a problem related to the quality and then the finished goods or products are not of that good quality and customers will definitely face some issues with the product.

Hence it is absolutely necessary to maintain the equipment in good operating conditions with Economic cost. In some cases, the equipment will be obsolete after a given period of time so it will be in management’s decision to replace it with new equipment or to have this equipment with a higher maintenance cost.

Different Types of Maintenance

As we know that there are some equipment for which we have to replace the spares that got wear out and some rotating equipment required lubrication and greasing, belts and sprockets need alignment, etc. We do this during the maintenance or during the failure of the equipment. These all are the types of maintenance. There are following types of maintenance.

1.) Planned maintenance (Proactive Maintenance)

• Preventive maintenance
• Predictive maintenance
• Improvement maintenance
• Corrective maintenance

2.) Unplanned maintenance (Reactive Maintenance)

• Emergency
• Breakdown maintenance

All these types of maintenance one by one in the following paragraphs

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance is defined as maintenance that is carried out at a predetermined interval of time. Preventive maintenance is intended to reduce the chances of failure of the equipment. The life of the equipment increases and its reliability is also increased. While implementing preventive maintenance, the cost of maintenance is also reduced as we all know that in case of breakdown or reactive maintenance, the cost is very high. Some studies reveal that if you do preventive maintenance, then the cost-saving will be as much as 12 % to 18% on average.

Predictive Maintenance

Predictive Maintenance is defined as maintenance that is done on the basis of the condition of the equipment in order to carry out the maintenance to enhance the life of the equipment. There are many tools that are used to detect the condition of the equipment for example if we are having a compressor that is delivering the air in the plant. Then we have a tool that is used to calculate the SPM of the bearing. If the SPM value is high then we plan to change the bearing and if the SPM value is under the limit then we can run the compressor with these bearings.

Difference between preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance

As we understood now, what are preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance? Still, there is some confusion between these two types of maintenance. Let us understand it by an example.

Preventive maintenance is time-based. For example, if it is written in the manual that we have to change the filter after 300 hours, whether the condition is good or bad, we have to change the filter because it is time-based and it is time to change it.

However, in the case of predictive maintenance, we first check the condition of the equipment. We will take an example to understand. Suppose the bike has Run 3000 km and we know that now the oil is to change but if we check the condition of the coil and all the values are coming within the limit, then we can run the bike with the same oil. The cost will be decreased because when we are going to change the oil at 3000 km but now we are going to changes after more time because at that time the condition of the oil is good and there is no problem using that oil.

Planned Maintenance

Planned maintenance is the type of maintenance that is planned, scheduled and documented. It is specifically defined as the preventive maintenance that has been carried out according to the set plan. Basically, preventive maintenance is a type of planned maintenance. There is also some unscheduled maintenance that has been planned and comes under repair and maintenance.

Corrective Maintenance

Corrective maintenance is described as the action that targets and fixes a system malfunction so that equipment can be restored to proper normal working condition. It is different from reactive maintenance as it is an action that targets a particular piece of equipment. For example, suppose there is a machine and we got to know that there is some noise in the bearing while the machine was running. In that case, we can change that bearing in the break time for that there is no unscheduled breakdown.

Breakdown Maintenance

Breakdown maintenance is a kind of maintenance in which a person fix a failed machine that needs repair. Properties on restoring the save button to the normal operating condition. Prepare the machines that have been broken technician should be having sound knowledge of the machine so that they can be repaired in the minimum possible time. Sometimes the breakdown cost is very higher as compared to the cost involved in preventive and predictive maintenance.

Let us understand the breakdown maintenance with the help of an example. Suppose you are working in a company and there is equipment that has got failed. Due to this, the production line stops as that machine was very critical. So to fix that machine we need a technician and that person repair the machine and put it back to the normal operating condition. This is how the breakdown maintenance occurs.

Emergency Maintenance

Maintenance is also a kind of reactive maintenance. However in that case there are some threats to the health and safety of plants and persons. For example, suppose there is some chemical spillage in the manufacturing plant and the employees need to acquire the premises and information also to given to the appropriate authorities.

FAQ

Also Read, A Day in the Life of a Maintenance Engineer