Electrical Maintenance Program
Implementing an electrical maintenance program can save you many headaches. In other words, catch a problem BEFORE it happens! Today, we see an increase in management attention in efforts to reduce maintenance costs without affecting the operations of the facility. We will demonstrate good practices and how working with individuals with technical expertise can create a high class maintenance program. For instance, to have significant reductions in maintenance costs in addition to savings associated with unplanned outages and equipment failures.
Teamwork
Firstly, applying the best electrical maintenance program is having the entire organization thinking in harmony. The management, maintenance and production departments must be in accord to the changes in organization and their use of technology. Therefore, this requires to commit to change the way you perform maintenance. A disciplined and committed plan for re-engineering the electrical maintenance function must be developed. Plant operation and support personnel should participate in the process. As a result, a personnel in agreement with a process, are more willing to cooperate and less likely to create difficulties later. Teamwork throughout the organization realignment process is critical to achieve success.
Preventive Maintenance
Some preventative maintenance actions can be invasive to the production process. Therefore, the equipment can only be verified during scheduled outages when equipment is idle or de-energized. Most importantly, the outages can fall into production hours. Cleaning, inspecting, and lubricating electrical equipment along with periodic performance testing are essential to an effective electrical preventative maintenance program. The key to a successful preventative maintenance program is efficiency and should be limited to activities which are necessary. The people performing this evaluation are knowledgeable of the equipment and experienced in recognizing potential problems.
Predictive Maintenance
Predictive maintenance activities involve a non-invasive approach to the production and are performed while equipment is operating. For example, potential failures can be identified and used to effectively predict eventual failure with some accuracy over time. Common predictive tools available for electrical maintenance include insulating fluid analysis, infrared thermographic surveys, partial discharge monitoring, and walk-through inspections. Read an article on preventing electrical injuries.
Proactive Maintenance
Proactive maintenance is the third step in a maintenance program. Combining both the preventive and predictive maintenance measures using operating and maintenance history. Using these failure reports to refine the preventive and predictive processes, activities, and schedules. Moreover, proactive maintenance should provide managers with an oversight on production uptime and downtime. As a result to effectively reduce total maintenance costs while maximizing equipment production reliability and useful life.
Constantly Improving
A corporate mindset supporting improvements is essential to achieve a high maintenance status. This concept of continuous improvement in maintenance activities integrates preventive, predictive, and proactive maintenance with corrective action. Improvement initiatives can be established with essential maintenance scheduling, decreasing production downtime, purchasing more efficient and reliable equipment and having a good inventory of spare parts.
In conclusion, achieving a high-class maintenance program involves a commitment from management to the production staff. Making these measures necessary so that safety can be assessed and reassured for all personnel in the facility. In addition to reducing operating costs in the production.