ERP Functions - Maintenance 2

Last week we have briefly seen about the Plant Maintenance. This week we shall elaborate on each of them and the data collected.

Preventive Maintenance:  It is obvious that, we should do certain tasks and inspection in order to prevent machines from failure. These tasks are to be carried in regular intervals of time, like monthly, weekly, fortnightly etc. The set of tasks or inspection activities are called as check list. the intervals are called as frequency. So preventive maintenance of a machine will have Check List and Frequency defined. Along with that certain spares parts may have to be replaced. Some industries also define the number of man power required and the time required for the completion of activities. With all these the preventive maintenance is carried out and records of carried out preventive maintenance with observation will also be maintained.

Break Down Maintenance: Machines are prone to get failed to perform the desired activity due to various reasons. So when the machine fails or its break down happens the maintenance activities done are called as break down maintenance. Usually the machine operating department will inform to maintenance department about the break down of the machine. Maintenance department will first analysis on immediate cause of nature of breakdown and starts the activities to make the machine running normally. The activities involved will be noted down also any spare part replacements. Once the machine starts running the machine is handed over to the operator. All the timings are noted i.e. Reporting Time, Break Down Activity Time, Handing Over time. If the similar nature of breakdown is repeating then maintenance department will do the root cause analysis. From the root cause analysis certain preventive maintenance activities may be added to prevent the breakdown. 

Predictive Maintenance: This type of maintenance activities are generally carried out in a well established industry with experienced maintenance department staffs. Experienced maintenance engineers can sense the upcoming trouble to the machine by the current performance or noises, vibration etc. Based on these observation they will plan certain maintenance activities to be carried out after certain time or immediately. This is almost similar to preventive maintenance with the difference that it is carried only once and only when sensed. 

Apart from these planned to activities there are many activities which maintenance department will do in their day to day activities. All these are also recorded.

This about the activities of maintenance department. Further we shall see the material procurement for maintenance and types of cost involved with maintenance.

Keep watching