plant maintenance methods and its importance

Manufacturers are very averse to down time . Any downtime in plant is direct production loss which nobody want .Every factory manager wants the downtime to minimum .To acheive this you require skilled manpower in your maintenance deptt.Normally a gang of four to five people including a foreman , an electrician , a fitter and one or two helpers are minimum requirement for shift coverage .

Plant manager along with his engineer schedules a maintenance plan which can be implemented on weekly/fortnightly/monthly basis

Main method of plant and machine maintenance are

Preventive :

This kind of maintenance methods have regular maintenance programm say weekly where jobs are planned out during the weeks with all spares planned .Based on the observations and breakdown the machines are attended with regular cleaning ,oiling and tightening operations.Gear oil are replaced , worn out bearings to be replaced .Similiarly worn ot switch gear to be replaced .

Predictive:

With advent of microprocessors and computers datas can be collected for of each machine . Predictive maintenance rely on data and many tools are available for analysing the health of machinery like vibration analysis ,tribology , thermal sensing , lube oil testing etc .

Break down maintenance or Run to failure

Maintenance is done only when machine or equipment fails or there is a break down . Normally the availability of spares is must in this kind of maintenance and vendor response should be very swift . This kind of maintenance is done in all seasonal plants like cold drinks or ice cream or sugar plant s where they have complete one month or two month shut down and complete ooverhauling of equipments is done during this period

Annual overhauling:

Annual overhauling is must for any manufacturing plant . O/h plans are made in advance and date fixed normally these are on holidays or any plant shut down .Machines completely overhauled .so that It runs for longer period .

Tools

Maintenance personnel have to be equipped with latest tools which are available in market for quick and timely break down attendance and regular maintenance.eg power wrenches , box spanners , pullers ,drill machines etc

Training

Technicians have to be trained about handling of tools , functions of machnery and operations and handling . Dismantling techniques to be learned .

Spares management

Conventional wisdom of keeping critical stocks still hold goods. We should have one or two nearby vendors who can deliver spares in time .Small workshop with basic workshop machine is a critical requirement.