A Futuristic Approach To Machine Maintenance and Improved productivity.

With the emergence of machine maintenance management practices within organizations the level of awareness about machine performance has likewise risen. There is a significant trend emerging in maintenance perspective to think ahead before the breakdown occurs, it can be termed as proactivity. Maintenance activities implemented to prevent a failure from occurring through routine and predictive maintenance practices are a part of the proactive approach. Actions taken in advance before machine fails can save a lot of downtime, directly increasing the productivity, efficiency as well as profit. Such elaborate practices in the business allows safe, more productive and quality-output manufacturing leading to operational excellence.

Reactive or Corrective maintenance is defined as maintenance of the machine after a failure has occurred. The problem with reactive maintenance is that it results in unplanned downtime but the cost of implementation is rather less than proactive maintenance.

Proactive Maintenance v/s Corrective Maintenance Which is Better?

Proactive maintenance has so many proven benefits, although it is more capital intensive than reactive maintenance. In a maintenance strategy, cost is considered as an important factor. Some businesses have a Run-to-Fail strategy of machine maintenance. This strategy explains that in certain cases the equipment can be run till failure to reduce costs over the long term. In such situations, the reduced cost of maintenance compensates for the downtime of the machine. It is a practical method because the cost effectiveness has a major impact on the business.

But in the absence of proactive approach Run-to-fail system definitely gets the machine repaired faster but it could sometimes be more expensive. Corrective maintenance has a more damaging after effect by reducing the life of the machine and quality of output also gets affected negatively.

Proactivity is a TPM Initiative which gives a futuristic approach to machine management. It appears to be a complex process but if the core of an organization has proactive perspective it can do wonders in the maintenance department for that organization.