A look at how preventative maintenance software can help you predict repairs & reduce downtime.
Preventive Maintenance is defined as maintaining equipment assets on a regular scheduled basis in order to mitigate future breakdowns and equipment failures which would otherwise result in unnecessary production interruptions and unexpected repair costs. Preventative maintenance can be either time-based or condition monitored.
Advantages of preventative maintenance
- Preventative maintenance is planned whereas reactive maintenance has many overhead costs, more equipment downtime, higher costs for parts and shipping, and more time lost responding and diagnosing the equipment.
- Preventative maintenance can be planned during production downtime and any required parts can be pre ordered and ready when the maintenance takes place
- Market benchmarks indicate that unplanned maintenance typically costs three to five time more than when it is planned
- Safety improves because equipment brakes down less
- Preventative maintenance extends the useful lifecycle of assets
- Contributes positively to the reputation of companies
Advantages of preventative maintenance software
Preventative maintenance software stores a company’s equipment data on a computer to keep track of all inspections and repairs. Ideally, using a tablet in the field for doing inspections keeps all the data you need at your fingertips. After the inspection is complete it can be synchronized to a computer back at head office. Data collected while performing inspections can be used to create preventative maintenance schedules and monitor the condition of equipment. Preventative maintenance software includes these features to facilitate preventative maintenance:
- Warranty information – warranty details can be attached to the asset and viewed on the tablet.
- Emergency Repairs – with preventative maintenance software, a serious defect notice can be assigned to the equipment so that an emergency work order can be created.
- Categories & Hierarchies – This type of software will allow you to set up types of categories and hierarchies for assets, parts, labour, fluids, etc. Using categories and hierarchies make equipment management easier.
- Detailed reporting – detailed reports will highlight criticalities of the item so that maintenance tasks can be prioritized. Reporting is done within seconds improving operational efficiencies. You can easily view several maintenance tasks to be done in one view.
- Asset History – View previous inspection details of an asset to know its history.
- Asset Templates – Create templates to enter similar assets and avoid the time-consuming job of entering the same information repeatedly. You can even use an existing assets as templates.
Because the performance of company equipment is related to profits, the more efficient and smoothly equipment performs, the more profit there is to be made. Tracking and planning maintenance using an Excel paper trail makes it impossible to evaluate maintenance scenarios, plan budgets, or manage costs of execution. Performance maintenance software allows you to properly monitor enterprise equipment and the costs and compliance involved in maintenance.
Field Eagle is one of the best examples of Preventative Maintenance Software, it includes features ranging from Field Inspection, Asset Management, and Risk Management.
