Preventive maintenance is the leading method for maintenance management, but not all PMs are perfect. An optimization process can streamline your program by reducing redundant work and adding work that prevents failure. Here, we outline the basic steps of PM optimization.

1. 3 Steps for Preventive
Maintenance Optimization
to Reduce Machine Downtime
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2. Recent studies show that nearly 90 percent of plant maintenance managers use
preventative maintenance (PM), schedules that indicate when repairs should be
performed to keep machinery and other assets running smoothly.
However, not all PM plans are as effective as they could be, and a PM
optimization process can help in a few steps:
1. Choosing what assets should be tracked and monitored.
2. Identifying the most effective maintenance plan for each type of machine
and failure, eliminating redundant work and adding missing work.
3. Implementing the new maintenance plan.
Abstract

3. Essentially, a PM optimization process is a way to identify and prioritize
maintenance work by determining the most critical assets, finding out how they
can fail, introducing PMs that address those failures, removing PMs that add no
value and re-entering the plan into a computerized maintenance management
system (CMMS).
Ed Stanek of engineering consulting company Predictive Service, says businesses
can often reduce machine downtime by about 35 percent, saving potentially
thousands of dollars.
What is PM Optimization?

4. This first step includes reviewing PMs for assets that need consistent
maintenance as well as the most numerous assets; Doing this, companies can
extract labor hours by eliminating useless PMs, which can be used for more
critical work.
Secondly, it’s important to move to a component-based maintenance plan,
whereby technicians address the problems that lead to a failure. Instead of fixing
an AC unit, they’re fixing bearings inside the asset that leads to a failure. This
way, the company can better anticipate failures and prevent them when the time
comes.
Step 1: Asset Selection

5. As mentioned before, several PMs can be removed from the plan because they
don’t actually prevent a failure. These may be tasks that were assigned to non-
critical machines—ones the company doesn’t depend on for normal operations.
This can unlock capacity for workers to perform maintenance on more important
assets.
These also may be tasks that were planned based on specific dates, but may
actually be redundant. “People are changing parts on a machine because it’s
October, not because they’re worn out,” Stanek says.
Step 2.1: Task Removal

6. Next, the tasks that survived the last step are vetted to ensure they are the most
effective maintenance procedures for the associated machines. This can include:
• Is the right worker assigned to the job?
• Are the instructions for the task clear and distinct?
Instructions for work should be specific enough so that different workers still end
up with the same result.
Step 2.2: Task Cleanup and 2.3: Task Addition

7. An optimized PM plan should be automated for maximum efficiency, so a CMMS is
crucial to keep the plan going smoothly into the future. Whichever system you
choose, it should contain:
• Work orders with detailed information about assets and task instructions
• Automated alerts
• A search function to find assets with pre-determined codes
Step 3: Implementation

8. Stanek says companies that undergo PM optimization often see the following
benefits:
• Fifteen percent elimination of tasks that provide no value;
• 80 percent increase in objective, data-driven PM actions;
• 40 percent reduction of maintenance labor hours;
• 50 percent increase in required PM task coverage; and
• 35 percent reduction in scheduled downtime hours.
Reduce Labor Hour and Downtime

9. Software Advice™ is a trusted resource for software buyers. The company's
website, www.softwareadvice.com, provides detailed reviews, comparisons and
research to help organizations choose the right software. Meanwhile, the company’s
team of software analysts provide free telephone consultations to help each
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Advice connects software buyers and sellers, generating high-quality opportunities
for software vendors.
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