Safety over Speculation
Effective inspections begin way before systems show signs of damage.
Preventive maintenance checklists help companies organize recurring inspections. They’re used to determine upkeep schedules, cleanings, servicing, and overall equipment condition. But what actually determines what tasks belong, and at what frequency should they be performed? Is it solely based on manufacturer recommendations, current company management, or warehouse climate?
All of these factors have some part to play when it comes to creating and maintaining effective repair schedules. Executing this process takes diligence, and without knowing exactly what makes a successful plan, it can seem confusing and redundant. In this blog, we’ll discuss how to determine your service period and how to form this into a useful and routine habit. By doing this, you can understand how your conveyors operate and get a better grasp on managing equipment reliability, resources, and time.
First Steps Towards Efficiency
The first thing we need to discuss is determining how often these tasks should be performed. There are several different types of preventive maintenance that are involved in this decision. Each one plays a specific part in the foundation of building an effective plan, but they all have distinct applications. The main forms include:
- Usage-based
- Condition-based
- Time-based
- Predictive
To learn more about these topics, click here to visit our all-inclusive guide to preventive maintenance.
These types can be used to determine the baseline for your schedule. Lots of people use a combination of these variations to create a personalized plan. While this is an efficient solution, it’s helpful to spend at least a year or less operating on time-based or usage-based if you haven’t done so. When you operate on time or usage based, you can learn more about your unit. Some of the most useful insights you can gather are:
- What causes the issue
- What determines which tasks belong on schedules
- How often should repairs occur
- Why certain diagnostic systems work
- Who should be responsible for inspection
After continuing these routine checks on your equipment, you may see some common items that keep recurring. This may indicate several different challenges concerning checklist integrity, environmental issues, machine condition, etc. It’s important to keep note of these issues and try to find the root cause of the problems. In order to maintain safety and cash flow, here are some common list items you might find:
- Belt damage or fraying
- Roller wear or poor rotation
- Motors and drives
- Debris buildup
Forming Habits
After establishing how large the scope of these schedules can be, it may seem overwhelming. In the process of this, some items on the checklist may be overlooked due to constraints or unexpected events. But once these incidents happen, it’s easy to get out of the loop and operate without returning to regular upkeep. Missing an inspection may not cause an immediate breakdown, but repeated omissions can allow developing problems to go unnoticed.
Even if budget requirements or other daunting tasks seem to take priority, the importance of having consistent repairs cannot be overstated. That’s why making this into a habit will greatly benefit both your company and your wallet. When preventive maintenance becomes routine, then no matter what unexpected events happen, you know that no small issues will be left to develop further. Below are some of the ways to help form this into a habit:
- Build it into a schedule
- Track completions
- Assign job responsibility
- Celebrate catching problems early
How can Russell Conveyor Help?
At Russell Conveyor, we offer professional care from our technicians to help you configure your upkeep plan. Through the Russell+ program, we can help you not only with your plan but also provide our tech repair service to you. This allows you to focus your valuable time on the more important things but also get the quality service that your company needs. Our dedicated staff makes sure that whatever problem is at hand, we get it fixed the right way.
Are you ready to see how Russell Conveyor can help with your repairs? Call us today at (336) 526-3014.
If you’re curious about how our financing options work, visit our page on equipment financing or read this blog.
If you want to learn more about how predictive analytics can catch problems early, check out our blog post about predictive maintenance.
FAQs about Preventive Maintenance Checklists
Have any questions about checklists? Here are some of the most common questions answered.
No, not every different machine requires a fresh checklist. It’s totally acceptable to just adapt your current checklist.
Employees should know the basics like the purpose, frequency, acceptable versus unacceptable conditions, and the safety procedures that follow.
There is no definitive answer, but records should be kept long enough to identify recurring problems.
It varies for everyone, but as long as you can keep track and organize the reports, any system should work. This includes paper, digital spreadsheets, or CMMS platforms.
Sensors and predictive maintenance strategies allow you to monitor temperature, speed, motor current, and other items that may slip through a simple visual inspection.