Preventive Maintenance

Preventive Maintenance (PM) is a measure of the risk you can afford, or are allowed (by regulation), to take when it comes to the need for a reliable operating facility or production.

​PM is the backbone of dependable operation. A well-defined and optimized PM Program ensures high production availabilities and minimizes unplanned, so called forced, shutdowns. It is common practice in our days to apply a risk-informed maintenance method i.e. Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM), which considers foremost the importance of the equipment function regarding the safety and availability.

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The results of the PM must be documented and evaluated to reach an optimum of reliability. In general, these evaluations should be done by the person responsible of the equipment or system function. There are several methods to implement and perform these assessments. The target is to discover early any changes in the equipment conditions and to perform specific works during a planned and suitable time window to minimize the effect on the production of the facility.

 

The various project or facility phases require different considerations in planning, preparation, and performance of the preventive measures. But whether a project in execution or a facility in operation, both cases have in common that preventive maintenance starts with the finalization of the equipment and components at the manufacturer workshops. Depending on the type of the equipment or spare part specific preventive maintenance need to be applied already during the storage phase in the warehouse before it is even in use.

 

The warehouse is in general an area that can be easily controlled, supervised, and managed with regard to PM. This situation changes once the equipment or spare part is installed at its designated location. When equipment is installed in the construction phase of a project or a long-term shutdown of a facility, the environmental conditions require new considerations and thus additional protective and preventive measures. In general, pre-operational PM is called preservation. The preservation measures need to be in force until the start of the commissioning or restart of the operation. There are further works required to de-preserve the equipment and systems prior to any operation or testing.

 

With the start of the operation, the PM to be applied changes, and is supported also by dedicated and designed system monitoring and periodic testing. A smart planning and scheduling of PM is required to minimize the system downtime and unavailability.

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Topics / Keywords:

• Risk-informed Maintenance, Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM)

• Preservation Program, De-preservation, Requalification

• Preventive Maintenance Program

• Maintenance Planning and Scheduling

• PM standards, procedures, instructions, reporting

• Post-Maintenance Testing

• Periodic Testing

 

If you are interested in any of the topics or related, we are happy to discuss your needs further.

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