Preventive Maintenance (PM) Optimization:
Control Plant Maintenance; Don’t Let It Control You

Preventive maintenance (PM) is a perpetual “underachiever” in the quest for asset reliability. Like the Owner’s Manual for a truck or car, PM says, “Do this on such and such a schedule without fail.” This method was an acceptable sole solution before the days of computer modeling and sophisticated data analysis, but today there are better approaches that combine PM with other types of asset management.

Companies that engage only in preventive maintenance almost always have outdated processes in place―if they have any, at all. Many also do not effectively track their PM activities, which causes them to be performed too often, or too little. One is just as bad as the other, because equipment failure and shortened life can be as much a function of too much maintenance as not enough.

Through Asset Reliability Optimization, Performance Consulting Associates (PCA) helps enterprises properly plan for and schedule PM activities. After the situational and gap analysis is complete, our consultants:

• Develop a Master Maintenance Schedule of repetitive tasks and establish/modify preventive routines. We supply basic PM templates to illustrate and support the proactive asset care process.
• Set up the firm’s Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) or computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software for accurate tracking and begin collecting and analyzing data for continuous optimization.