How to build a preventive maintenance program

A good PM program is less about doing more maintenance and more about doing the right maintenance.

A good PM program is less about doing more maintenance and more about doing the right maintenance.

The classic mistake is writing a PM task for every asset. Instead, rank equipment by the cost of failure — safety, production, repair lead time — and build the programme around the top tier. A PM schedule covering your twenty most critical beats will outperform one that nominally covers everything but never gets done.

• Start from criticality, not completeness

• Write tasks that prevent specific failures
• Every PM should answer: which failure mode does this prevent or detect?
• Manufacturer recommendations are a starting point, not a verdict — your duty cycle is what matters
• Time-based tasks for wear patterns, condition-based tasks for random failures
• If a task has never found anything in two years, challenge its frequency

PM compliance dies when the schedule ignores production windows and staffing. Group tasks into routes, align them with planned stoppages, and protect the time — a PM programme that can be bumped will be bumped.

• Schedule against reality

Revisit the plan quarterly. Failures the PMs were meant to catch still happening? Tasks up. Tasks that never find anything? Interval out or cut. The worksheet is a living document, not a carved tablet.

• Review and retire