The Benefits of Planned Maintenance
Although sometimes overlooked, a planned maintenance strategy is the best way to ensure your equipment is in good working order. It’s not the best use of your qualified employees’ time to perform tasks like cleaning or fluid evaluations. Or worse, doing repairs when the maintenance team is too busy.
Why Planned Maintenance?
You want your staff to focus on the job they’re trained to do. Outsourcing these tasks can help you assess your machinery and determine if any upkeep is required. This enables you to stay ahead of any coolant or machine failure before it happens.
With regular checks and evaluations of your machinery, you can minimize wear and tear on your equipment, reducing the risk of costly repairs down the line.
Planned maintenance is a plan of action that allows for inspections, preventive and predictive machine maintenance along with repairs to occur before a machine fails. Emergency repairs are costly. Unplanned downtime means you’re not getting things done and your employees aren’t able to properly do their jobs.
And, with the supply chain issues so many of us are facing, who knows how long it may take to get the parts needed to get the machine going again. By regularly having equipment inspected and evaluated you can reduce the likelihood of emergency repairs.
Increase Efficiency
One of the biggest benefits of having planned maintenance in place is efficiency. All of us want increased Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF). Better MTBF means your production resources stay focused on making product, your maintenance resources stay focused on the critical work that drives productivity and machinery in general runs longer.
Of course, before you begin any form of a planned maintenance program, it’s important to ensure that everyone involved understands their role in keeping the machines running safely and efficiently. This alone will go a long way to preventing costly downtime events and total equipment failures.
If you have a sump, you know how difficult it can be to properly manage it. But managing the sump is exactly what is needed to identify any potential coolant issues and getting rid of downtime. Lube-Tech technicians will check and adjust coolant concentration to ensure longer tool life, improve performance and keep parts working properly.
Plus, it removes that burden from the operator and allows them to do the job they were trained to do, instead of running reactive maintenance.
Keep Machines Clean 24/7
A key part of Lube-Tech’s preventive maintenance is cleaning machines. By removing chips and contaminants as part of a regular maintenance schedule, the coolant in your sump can help optimally machine parts. This, in turn, helps the coolant maintain lubricity and heat transfer protocols. Just as importantly, cleaning reduces odor from bacteria and fungus and reduces dermatitis and other health-related concerns.
Preventive maintenance, sometimes called preventative maintenance also features our Uptime Clean approach. Our new method allows techs to remove chips from the coolant while the machine is running. This dramatically reduces air entrapment and particles in the cut zone while maximizing machine uptime and minimizing down time.
As Mike Jordan, Lube-Tech Sales Manager, said:
“The idea that machines can be cleaned while running is such a game-changer. Cleaning is so important to prevent bacterial and fungus growth, eliminating foaming and making the coolant last longer. But doing it without shutting down equipment lets us do a much more complete job in removing dirt that can impact machine performance. It’s this type of preventative maintenance plan that sets us apart.”
By starting a planned maintenance program at your facility, you can rest easy knowing all your machines are running safely and efficiently. The plan will also reduce the risk of breakdowns due to a lack of upkeep or carelessness issues.
Invest in a good maintenance plan now by contacting our Maintenance 360® team. We will save you time and money by helping you avoid costly repairs or replacement costs later down the line!
