Simple Tips on Preventive Maintenance - Economic Crisis Series

By Ricky Smith, CMRP

Many PM’s are highly invasive procedures which can disrupt and disturb stable systems.

Take a pump, for example. Here are the five most common mistakes that can happen whenever a pump is taken apart and put back together again for the purpose of preventive maintenance:

Bearings get damaged
Shaft is not properly aligned
Pump is not bolted down properly
Seals are not properly installed and adjusted
Lubricants get contaminated

As a result, when the pump is turned back on, bad things can happen. The dirty little secret in maintenance is that a significant number of equipment problems are caused by maintenance itself.

Stated a little differently, preventive maintenance can trigger the very same failures it’s intended to prevent.

That’s why it’s important to avoid excessive tinkering. More…
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The purpose of maintenance policy
by Angelo Agresti

The purpose of the Maintenance Policy is to provide a common focus for all maintenance personnel based on a common operational purpose. The policy can be given to others, if the maintenance function is unloved and misunderstood, so they understand what is trying to be achieved and how.

The policy needs to be developed with involvement from a cross section of people from the operation. It must be integrated with and complementary to a Production Policy so that, in combination, these policies are directed at achievement of operational objectives. Application of systems thinking will help people realize that production and maintenance are subsystems of the operating system and that this is a subsystem of the enterprise system. More…

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