Like most business owners, you probably wait until something goes wrong before addressing safety issues in the workplace. Unfortunately, this is a huge mistake. Not only are you putting your employees’ safety at risk, but you’re also spending thousands of dollars each year reacting to crises instead of preventing them from happening in the first place. That’s why it’s important to create a preventive maintenance schedule.
But what exactly is a preventive maintenance schedule, what should it include, and how do you implement it in your organization? This post will answer all of these questions and more!
What is a Preventive Maintenance Plan?
A preventive maintenance plan is a document that involves a series of steps outlining when, how, and by whom maintenance should be performed on a piece of equipment, machinery, or facility. It’s designed to mitigate workplace hazards, machinery malfunctioning, and other untimely delays that could potentially impact the safety of employees or how a business is run. By following these steps, you can prevent small problems from turning into big ones, all while extending the life of your assets.
Benefits of Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance schedules help employers stay updated on their workplace environment, machinery, and equipment. By being proactive, you can avoid potential hazards that could result in costly repairs or downtime. In some cases, preventive maintenance may even be required by law. In addition, putting a preventive maintenance plan in place saves your company resources by:
- Reducing downtime for commonly used machinery
- Helping equipment run smoothly and more efficiently.
- Catching minor problems before they escalate into more serious and expensive ones.
- Extending the lifespan of equipment, machinery, or vehicles.
Tips When Creating a Preventive Maintenance Schedule
An effective preventive maintenance schedule requires careful planning, taking inventory, research, and establishing a maintenance routine that’s easy to understand and facilitate. With that said, here are some key tips to keep in mind when creating a preventive maintenance plan:
Take Inventory
The first step to creating a preventive maintenance plan is carefully inventorying your resources, equipment, machinery, and vehicles that need regular maintenance. This will help you determine how often each item needs serviced and by whom.
Walk through your workspaces, stores, construction sites, and other work areas. List all the equipment that your business uses regularly. Effective preventive maintenance starts with a clear understanding of what needs to be maintained.
Prioritize Maintenance
Once you get a list of all the equipment that requires regular maintenance, you must decide when each will be serviced. Take into account the equipment with the highest return on investment and which you use most often. For example, a construction team uses several hundreds of different machines for any given project.
However, the ones they use the most (e.g., loaders, excavators, bulldozers, etc.) may take precedence when it comes to preventive maintenance. The reason is that they are such a commonly used and essential part of a construction project that if they malfunction, they could cause a significant delay.
Schedule Maintenance Downtime
After you prioritize which equipment needs preventive maintenance and when you’ll need to schedule downtime for the team. This is important because it allows your employees to properly service the equipment without interrupting workflow. Downtime can be scheduled during slow periods or after work hours.
For example, if you have a preventive maintenance plan for your office’s HVAC system, you can schedule maintenance for a weekend or after work hours when the office is empty.
List Specific Maintenance Tasks
To create a preventive maintenance schedule, list specific maintenance tasks and when they need to be performed. This will help ensure that all the preventive maintenance tasks are carried out properly and on time. Then, for each piece of equipment, list all the preventive maintenance tasks that need to be performed.
For example, if you’re creating a preventive maintenance schedule for your delivery trucks, some of the tasks might include checking the engine oil, coolant levels, brakes, and tires.
Tracking and Modifying
A preventive maintenance schedule is a smart and essential business move. Preventive maintenance is an effective way to reduce downtime, improve productivity, and extend the lifespan of company assets. However, it’s important to keep track of how your preventive maintenance schedule is working. This will help you make modifications as needed to ensure that it’s always effective.
What to Include In Your Preventive Maintenance Schedule
Now that you know how to create a preventive maintenance schedule, it’s time to dive into what it should include. Here are some key elements:
- A list of all the equipment that requires preventive maintenance
- The frequency of preventive maintenance (e.g., monthly, quarterly, semi-annually)
- The specific preventive maintenance tasks for each piece of equipment
- Who will be responsible for performing the preventive maintenance tasks
- When the preventive maintenance tasks will be carried out
- How the preventive maintenance schedule will be tracked and modified over time
Use DATAMYTE to Create Your Preventive Maintenance Schedule
If you want to implement preventive maintenance in your organization, DATAMYTE can help you get started. The DataMyte Digital Clipboard can create a workflow for preventive maintenance tasks and track when they’re completed.
The Datamyte Digital Clipboard is a workflow automation software that enables companies to create preventive maintenance schedules and track when they are completed. This ensures that preventive maintenance tasks are carried out properly and on time, every time.
With the DataMyte Digital Clipboard, you can easily create preventive maintenance schedules using our intuitive drag and drop interface. You can also track and monitor preventive maintenance tasks to ensure that they are carried out properly and on time. You can also generate preventive maintenance reports to help improve your preventive maintenance schedule.
Get started with preventive maintenance in your organization today by booking a free demo with the DATAMYTE team. We’re more than willing to show you what our Digital Clipboard can do to help create a preventive maintenance schedule for your organization.
Conclusion
With these elements, you’re well on your way to creating an effective preventive maintenance schedule for your business. A preventive maintenance plan is important in keeping your workplace safe and running smoothly. By following the tips and advice in this article, you can create a preventive maintenance plan that works for your business.
If you need help getting started or want to learn more about preventive maintenance, contact us today. DATAMYTE is always happy to help! Book a demo today, or check out our website to learn more.
