Predictive and Preventive Maintenance Procedures

I like to refer to vehicle maintenance procedures for part of this discussion.

When we change the oil at a given time and/or mileage, this is known as preventive maintenance. 

Oil analysis, measures the condition of the oil, this is predictive maintenance.

If we were to measure the wear of our tires, we would be able to identify issues related to misalignment or improper inflation, this is predictive maintenance.

Preventive maintenance is maintenance of equipment in reference to a schedule, it is planned, and it is time-based.

Predictive maintenance is maintenance of equipment that measures existing values to a predetermined values in reference to a baseline and/or original specifications. This is used on equipment and/or maintenance procedures that are expensive to replace and or repair.

Run to fail, is a time-based maintenance application used on equipment, procedures, or components that are not worth the effort of routine inspections.

The term corrective maintenance is used to define returning equipment to original specifications. Sorry, sometimes original specifications are not sufficient. 

Questions and concerns that the maintenance manager should consider:

• Does the equipment need additional cooling?
• Was the correct lubricant used in the mechanism? 
• Was the equipment designed to run at that velocity, pressure, and torque?
• Has the customers demands caused operators to run equipment in a manner that it was not designed to perform?
• Can this equipment handle the acidic level of the chemical process?
• Are you using the correct type of bearings?