Tips to create a maintenance schedule
The more love you show your vehicle or machinery, the longer they will love you in return. Read how creating a maintenance schedule can help you care for your vehicle or machinery.
What is a maintenance schedule?
A maintenance schedule is a list of regular maintenance tasks and inspections to keep a vehicle or machinery in optimal working condition.
Even though we understand that servicing our vehicle or machinery is important to reduce failure and unplanned downtime, implementing a preventive maintenance schedule can be challenging.
There are several ways to schedule a maintenance, the most common of them are:
Time-based schedules. Time-based maintenance is centred around the calendar and is performed after a certain period of time (e.g., a week, a month, etc.).
Metre-based schedules. Metre-based maintenance is triggered after a certain metre threshold is met (e.g., number of hours operated, distance driven, etc.).
Why is a maintenance schedule important?
A preventive maintenance schedule provides a company with the structure and guidance to keep operations running smoothly, and thereby, be more successful.
A maintenance schedule helps:
Reduce unplanned downtime of your equipment.
Systemise the maintenance needs.
Increase equipment lifespan.
Increase team efficiency.
What is needed to create a maintenance schedule?
Putting a preventive maintenance schedule in place requires balancing the maintenance needs with the available resources. When putting a maintenance schedule together, include the following:
Instructions to guide technicians performing maintenance and inspections.
Timelines that state how frequently preventive maintenance should be performed.
Sufficient inventory and spare parts in case a repair is needed.
Usually these tasks are run by a director of operations and/or a maintenance manager. However, companies can also benefit from a maintenance management software to keep track of their vehicle or machinery maintenance.
How to create a maintenance schedule?
Take inventory of your assets
Determine which assets need regular maintenance and when. Note down important information of each asset, such as the model, serial number, location, spare parts, and maintenance history. You can store your inventory list on a spreadsheet or use a maintenance management software.
Prioritise your assets
Setting maintenance schedules for assets takes time. It may take seeks or months to set maintenance schedules for some equipment, so it’s important to prioritise your most essential assets first. When prioritising the assets, think what is the likelihood of an asset failing and how serious an asset’s failure would be to your overall operations.
Determine ideal maintenance intervals
Each asset requires different maintenance intervals. Some work on a time-based schedule, whereas others work on metre-based schedule. Use the asset’s manufacturing manual and historical equipment maintenance data to determine the appropriate maintenance interval.
Schedule recurring maintenance tasks
The most important part of setting up an effective maintenance schedule is planning recurring tasks and inspections. Depending on your organisation’s size and maintenance needs, you may have maintenance staff taking care and keeping track of tasks, or you may use a maintenance software, or both. To minimise human error, consider scheduling recurring maintenance tasks with a software.
Monitor and improve your schedule
It is important to revisit your maintenance schedules regularly as it may be necessary to adjust the frequency of maintenance.
With love,
MaintaBook
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