Maintenance Strategy

The maintenance strategy for each piece of equipment should be documented and communicated to the workers who will be performing the maintenance. Although it is difficult to do, facility managers should balance the risk of equipment failure with the cost of maintenance. If the failure consequence of a component is minimal, inspections need not be as frequent as those for a component whose failure could lead to a fatality.

• Written guidelines clearly outlining procedures to be done should be provided to the maintenance personnel.
• Vague instructions such as "check" or "inspect" should not be the only descriptions of inspections in a preventive maintenance program. Instructions should provide clear guidance and state performance requirements. For example, "Check relief valve" is a bad instruction. Better instructions are "Verify proper set point" or "Verify that relief valve operates within tolerance of set pressure".
• Preventive maintenance should be arranged on a time-based schedule that makes sense for the particular organization.
• Maintenance results should be tracked (written) and stewarded, including documentation and monitoring of follow-up actions and who is responsible.

References

IDCON: Preventative Maintenance/Essential Care and Condition Monitoring (PM/ECCM)

Operations & Maintenance Best Practices Release 2.0, PNNL, July 2004. (pdf, 2.2 MB)