Why is it important not to wait for equipment failure to optimize maintenance strategies? Have you ever stopped to think about the negative impact of unpredictability in asset management? Proactive maintenance involves a series of practices aimed at understanding the origin of failures and identifying potential issues in advance. Thus, promoting greater efficiency and safety in processes.
In this article, you will read about the concept of proactive maintenance, the strategies involved, how predictive maintenance relates to it, and much more.
What is proactive maintenance?
Proactive maintenance is an approach that combines strategies to track the origin of failures and solve them before compromising the asset or the operation of the entire industrial plant.
In proactive maintenance, equipment failures are seen as events that can be anticipated and solved before they become a problem. By identifying the root causes of failures, it is possible to take coordinated action and plan for repairs, and component replacements, among other actions. This planning ensures the reliability of asset plants, increases the equipment life cycle, and optimizes production flow.
In this context, concepts of predictive maintenance and preventive maintenance positively influence proactive maintenance. One of the foundations of proactive maintenance is the use of maintenance data to perform interventions before they become a failure. This means that, by implementing proactive maintenance, industries rely on systematic elements of a maintenance program, rather than analyzing the asset in isolation. This system view enables industries to identify the root causes of failures, solve the problem before it becomes a catastrophic failure, and also extend the life of assets while reducing downtime.
Proactive Maintenance vs Reactive Maintenance
Reactive maintenance is the antithesis of proactive maintenance. In this approach, maintenance actions are taken only after the asset shows malfunction or failure. It is crucial to emphasize that reactive maintenance represents many risks to industrial workflow. Besides being more costly, as it requires more time and resources from maintenance teams, it also affects quality, productivity, and compromises the safety of professionals.
Predictive Maintenance as a Method of Proactive Maintenance
The strategy of predictive maintenance contributes to the context of proactive maintenance. Additionally, its main differentiator and basic premise involve regular monitoring of asset condition and the production process. Some of its main techniques include Vibration Monitoring, Process Parameter Monitoring, Thermography, Tribology, and Visual Inspection. In general, predictive maintenance requires an initial investment and requires some maturity to deliver value. However, when matured, the value delivery and good results to the company tend to surpass other maintenance strategies.
Through predictive maintenance, it’s possible to act at the ideal moment of failure, mitigating the effects of early failures not anticipated by the preventive cycle. At the same time, it allows extending the useful life of assets that have exceeded the time for preventive replacement but still exhibit good condition.
Are you looking for arguments to raise awareness among leadership about the importance of proactive maintenance and the benefits of implementing a predictive maintenance program? Check out the advantages that a predictive maintenance program will deliver when implemented:
Cost Reduction in Maintenance
By relying on predictive maintenance, the company will be working on identifying issues with its assets before they become catastrophic failures, thus reducing significant costs associated with emergency corrective maintenance.
Improved Productivity and Operational Efficiency
Constant monitoring ensures that equipment is operating under ideal conditions. The entire production process is optimized and can deliver better results, avoiding lost profits due to unexpected production shutdowns and promoting a more effective work environment.
Workplace Safety
Predictive maintenance reduces the risks of workplace accidents by avoiding unexpected failures. Furthermore, by adopting modern techniques such as predictive maintenance with wireless sensors, the exposure of professionals to risky situations is even lower.
Thus, with predictive maintenance, not only does employee safety increase, but material damage is also minimized, and potential environmental impacts are reduced, depending on the location of the assets.
Increased Asset Lifespan
By identifying wear and failures early on, the company takes preventive measures that prolong the lifespan of its equipment, avoiding premature replacements. Moreover, predictive maintenance enables the operational continuity of equipment that has surpassed traditional maintenance schedules but are still in good condition.
Improved Planning and Decision Making
Continuous data collection and analysis allow for more strategic decision-making for technical teams, whether regarding investments, upgrades, or equipment replacements.
Better Organization for Spare Parts Inventory
With predictive maintenance, it’s possible to predict when parts may fail, thus allowing for more efficient management of spare parts inventories, reducing costs associated with excessive storage.
Success Cases
Last but not least, use the argument that proves the effectiveness of the predictive maintenance program. Show company leadership success cases of those who are already using and making their maintenance processes more efficient. Highlight the significant positive impacts, both operationally and financially, as well as in terms of satisfaction.
Implementing Proactive Maintenance
Although proactive maintenance involves detailed planning and investment, it is the best way to manage maintenance activities, providing cost balance while increasing asset reliability, availability, and health.
Considering the competitiveness of today’s market, it is important for companies to recognize the impact of maintenance on the business. With a program that focuses on establishing, tracking, and analyzing data about critical assets, greater gains become possible.
The unpredictability of reactive maintenance and breakdowns does not allow for improvements in key performance indicators, business drivers, or the needs of a maintenance department.
Clarify to leadership the positive impact of proactive maintenance on the production process. Because when failures occur, especially in assets critical to the plant, downtime and repair costs exceed any maintenance budget.
Asset Management Solution for Proactive Maintenance Programs
Now that you have arguments to support the implementation of a proactive and predictive maintenance program, it’s time to explore solutions that can improve these activities in your industry.
Wireless asset monitoring sensors
With data collected by these sensors, it is possible to monitor equipment operation and anticipate potential failures. Dynamox offers sensors that perform triaxial collection, certified for explosive atmospheres, in addition to IP66, IP68, and IP69 protection ratings.
Platforms for Data Analysis
These platforms automate analysis and prognosis so that preventive or corrective actions can occur. Count on an intuitive platform that generates alarms according to the criticality of failures and has all the necessary tools for assertive decision-making.
Digitized routes and integrated maintenance management panels
Control panels and management of maintenance activities help synchronize and visualize what needs to be done, according to the priority set by the team, or the business risk that a failure may represent.
On Dynamox’s blog, you can find cases of large companies that rely on the DynaPredict solution. Click and check it out.