The Different Types of Plant Maintenance

Keeping your facility running smoothly and efficiently is vital for industries such as food, pharmaceutical, and energy production to ensure the process and product are both safe and don’t cost you time and money whenever a machine breaks down. To this end, you should learn the different types of plant maintenance so you can take appropriate action whenever necessary or, in some cases, before it’s necessary.

Preventive Maintenance

With the goal of catching and addressing problems before they even become problems, preventive maintenance is important for any industry. For example, wear and tear are inevitable. Industries like food or pharmaceuticals need to prevent this wear and tear from forming into rust and corrosion that would contaminate their final products. Preventive measures, in this context, would include using sanitary steel to make machinery and equipment easier to clean and better resist corrosion and decay. Consider what issues you may see in the future rather than simply thinking about what issues you may see today.

Corrective Maintenance

Of course, moment-to-moment problems are important to attend to as well. Many times, while you’re busy with one aspect of your facility, you’ll notice an issue occur elsewhere in the facility or within a machine. This is called corrective maintenance, where you catch and fix a problem just in time before it becomes a real issue that interferes with the operation of your facility. This includes issues such as damaged pipes, mechanical malfunctions, or wear and tear.

Predetermined Maintenance

This is one of the different types of plant maintenance that is not based on your facility’s own inspection and maintenance schedules. Instead, the manufacturer of a machine or pieces of equipment will use their expertise to predict the best practices for maintaining equipment. These predictions are based on experiments and testing done by the manufacturer to gain expertise over their own product. Statistics or guidelines will be provided for you to reference, and it’s always a good idea to adhere to the advice of the manufacturer for the best results.

May 14th 2021