We all know that Preventive Maintenance (PM) is the foundation of any equipment/asset maintenance process improvement strategy. All plant equipment must be covered by a complete, cost-effective preventive maintenance program. The program must be designed must be designed to eliminate all unplanned equipment failures. However, experience tells us that the majority of Preventive Maintenance programs do not yield the benefit we had intended. If we are truly intellectually honest, the vast majority of PMs add little or no value and more often than not were created in a vacuum after the plant has experienced an unplanned failure.

We must remember the First Rule of Holes – when in one stop digging! A recent evaluation of multiple plants PM programs revealed that their current PM programs were yielding less than .5% correct work being identified from the PMs being completed. A common industry best practice is for every 6 PMs completed if a Corrective Work Order is not generated the PM is being conducted too often and the PM frequency should be adjusted accordingly.

If you have not reviewed your PM program since its inception or at least in the past year, it is highly recommended that a review is conducted. You may be surprised at what you find.

*Note – regulatory PMs do not apply in this scenario