{"id":14967,"date":"2024-06-27T12:02:27","date_gmt":"2024-06-27T16:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eptura.wpengine.com\/?p=14967"},"modified":"2024-10-08T12:51:26","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T16:51:26","slug":"reducing-unplanned-maintenance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eptura.com\/discover-more\/blog\/reducing-unplanned-maintenance\/","title":{"rendered":"Reducing unplanned maintenance: How to avoid expensive surprises \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unplanned maintenance is more than just unexpected. The team doesn\u2019t see the problem coming and they don\u2019t have a plan in place for dealing with it. The maintenance department must re-prioritize the entire schedule, quickly source inventory and move technicians off existing projects. It\u2019s disruptive and expensive. With the right facility management platform, you can implement the right combinations of maintenance strategies to avoid it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But does that mean you always should?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What is unplanned maintenance?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Unlike planned maintenance<\/a>, unplanned maintenance is the \u201cwe didn\u2019t see that coming\u201d of repairs. It\u2019s not just that the team didn\u2019t expect it. It\u2019s also that they didn\u2019t have a plan in place to deal with it, even as an unlikely possibility.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What would a plan have looked like? Solid maintenance planning includes an idea of the parts you need, an established process for using them, a sense of how long it would all take, and how much it would cost. You might even know who on the team would do the work.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the differences between unplanned maintenance and unscheduled maintenance?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

In both cases, you don\u2019t know when the breakdown is going to happen, so you don\u2019t know when the repairs are going to happen. But with unscheduled maintenance, there is a plan in place for the repairs.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a manufacturing setting, you might use unscheduled maintenance to look after assets that tend to break down after a certain number of cycles. You might know that a press tends to break down around roughly every 10,000 cycles, but what you can\u2019t predict is when it hits that number. Because of all the variables in the production runs, that press might get to 10,000 this week or next month.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What are examples of unplanned maintenance?\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

There are three general types of unplanned maintenance, and the first is the most obvious: breakdown maintenance. Something just stops working without warning, and the team needs to jump into action to get it back up and running. In most cases, it\u2019s something you never really thought would ever break down, which is why you don\u2019t have a plan in place to fix it if it does.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Another type is corrective unplanned maintenance. Here, you have a preventive maintenance program in place to find and fix small issues before they have a chance of developing into big problems. Usually, that means having a set schedule of inspections and tasks for your assets. So, for a hydraulic press, you might inspect the worktable and control panel every X number of days, while checking for leaks every Y number of days. In terms of maintenance tasks, those might include changing the oil and various filters.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But as soon as the asset starts to show early signs of problems, regardless of the existing schedule, the maintenance team performs corrective maintenance to get everything running smoothly again.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The third type of unplanned maintenance is opportunistic. If during a routine inspection, the maintenance team stumbles across and then fixes another issue, it\u2019s opportunistic unplanned maintenance. No one knew they were going to do that work, and there was never a set plan in place for how to do it, but once the team discovered the brewing problem, they were able to nip it in the bud.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, when a tech is underneath the forklift changing the oil, they might glance over only to discover the brake pads are dangerously worn. Or a tech could be adding lubricant to a press only to find a crack in one of the lines.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Is unplanned maintenance always the wrong strategy?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

There are plenty of cases where it\u2019s the worst strategy possible.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re managing a fleet of small delivery trucks, unplanned maintenance is a poor choice for flat tires. Without a reliable spare and the right tools, drivers can only hope the tow truck doesn\u2019t take too long to come rescue them from the side of the road.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But what about that little light that comes on when you open a truck\u2019s door? Do you need a schedule of inspections to keep out ahead of dome light maintenance? If one of them burns out, do you need a plan to fix it? Should you be stocking all the vehicles across the fleet with emergency dome lights?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, for some assets, equipment, and parts, it can make more sense to go with unplanned maintenance. But which assets, equipment, and parts?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Think about using unplanned maintenance when something is:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n