5 Short Questions Used to Measure Effectiveness of a PM Program

You will find that 5 short questions will help you measure the effectiveness of your PM program and if your company experiences problems with it’s PM Program then I suggest you answer the questions honestly follow the suggestions at the end of each question.  I always say, “If you are performing Preventive Maintenance on equipment that continues to break down something is wrong.

1. When your maintenance staff performs Preventive Maintenance on a piece of equipment can you measure the effectiveness of that specific PM? ( I like to measure the effectiveness of PMs through a couple of measurements, PM labor hours vs Emergency Labor Hours, and (NBBP) Number of Breakdowns Between PMs of an asset)

2. Can you correlate a reduction in emergency labor hours to your Preventive Maintenance program?  (if PM hours continue at the same level or increase then your Emergency Labor hours must go down unless equipment reliability is extremely high)

3. Do you provide your maintenance staff with a copy of equipment history for the past 30 - 60 days when they are actually performing Preventive Maintenance on equipment? (I recommend giving your maintenance staff a copy of the equipment history for the past 30-60 days when performing Preventive Maintenance)

4. Do you have a formula or rule of thumb that tells you if the time frequency is accurate for a Preventive Maintenance Inspection? (I always used the 6:1 Rule, inspect a piece of equipment 6 times to one deficiency noted which requires an action such as a parts change-out, ex: chain drive worn out)

5. Do you measure PM Compliance and if so what are the standards you follow? (I recommend on time based PMs you apply what I call the “10% rule” on critical assets. Simply stated, on time based PM routines they must be completed within 10% of the time frequency or they are out of compliance).

By following the suggestions made after each question you will find equipment reliability increasing rapidly.  I hope my questions helped you and your organization.

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