To run a successful business, you’re going to need the right professional equipment.

This is true for every industry. Whether in healthcare, manufacturing, IT, or anything else, every organization relies on commercial and industrial equipment. When cataloging inventory, companies list equipment as an asset on their balance sheets — underscoring its importance in the overall financial health of the business. Equipment is a valuable asset that not only supports daily operations but also contributes to long-term growth, making it a critical factor in assessing the company’s stability and future prospects.

This makes it critical for business owners to be well-versed about the different types of equipment maintenance. This knowledge can help them implement the most efficient strategy for their company.

This article will serve as a guide for business owners looking to create or update their equipment maintenance strategy.
 

What is Equipment Maintenance?

Hospitals use expensive, specialized medical equipment. Auto garages have industrial car lifts as well as handheld tools as part of their equipment inventory. Retailers use packing and sorting equipment in their warehouses. Though these sectors are vastly different, they all share a common need: Ensuring their equipment is in optimal working condition to keep operations running smoothly.

While the type and frequency of maintenance may vary, every professional enterprise needs to dedicate resources to maintaining its equipment. So, in the broadest terms, equipment maintenance refers to activities and operations conducted by an organization to ensure the upkeep of its physical assets. In a survey conducted earlier this year, it was found that 40% of U.S. companies spend up to 20% of their operating budget on equipment maintenance and cleaning.

Equipment maintenance gains even more importance when it comes to critical assets. For instance, a radiology clinic will not be able to function if its X-ray machine stops working. Meanwhile, a frozen computer at the receptionist’s desk will bring the clinic’s work to a stop. Efficient equipment maintenance strategies account for the likelihood of equipment failing as well as a piece of equipment’s importance in the organization’s overall framework.

Why You Need an Equipment Maintenance Strategy

Unscheduled downtime is one of the worst experiences a business owner can face. One of the most frequent triggers for unplanned downtime is equipment failure. This problem gets compounded if equipment fails and you don’t have a strategy to fix it as soon as possible. That’s why it’s so important to have an equipment maintenance strategy in place. Following established protocols in the event of failure reduces the amount of time taken to bring all business processes back online.

Along with being prepared for equipment failure, sticking to a comprehensive equipment management strategy has additional benefits for your organization. These benefits include:
 

Reduced Maintenance Costs

Fixing breakdowns is expensive, especially if you don’t have an equipment maintenance strategy in place. However, following routine maintenance procedures and inspections lets you identify failure-inducing faults in equipment before they have a chance to develop. A study by PwC found that implementing predictive maintenance (which identifies problems before they occur) leads to significant savings of between 30% to 40% compared to reactive maintenance (which fixes problems once they’ve arisen).
 

Increased Safety

The safety of the employees who operate your company’s equipment should always be your first priority. This becomes even more important in workplaces that use heavy machinery or dangerous equipment, like factories and industrial plants. Equipment failure in such high-risk scenarios could endanger the well-being or even the lives of your workers.

Equipment maintenance ensures that your company’s equipment is functioning smoothly, lowering the risk of workplace injuries for your company. Certain types of equipment require mandated maintenance to meet the standards set by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Both worker safety and regulatory compliance are two issues that can be addressed by implementing a regular equipment maintenance schedule.
 

Extended Equipment Lifecycle

Replacing defunct or obsolete equipment adds to your company’s operational costs. Once you’ve invested in equipment, you want it to last long enough to justify the investment. Regular upkeep doesn’t just reduce instances of downtime; it also ensures that the equipment remains in good condition and extends its lifecycle. Think of a lovingly maintained vintage car that remains road-worthy even after other models from its era have been consigned to scrap heaps. That’s the effect that regular and effective maintenance can have on a given piece of machinery.

Two Main Approaches to Equipment Maintenance

Businesses have a wide selection of types of equipment maintenance to choose from. Still, all of these various types can be grouped into just two main categories of equipment maintenance: Preventive Maintenance and Corrective Maintenance. These are the two directions from which all equipment maintenance strategies approach the question of how to best repair equipment and keep it in working condition.
 

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance refers to maintenance activities that take place before failure occurs. In many industries, emerging technology has made it possible to fit sensors onto professional equipment to measure its performance. This has made it much easier to conduct preventive maintenance since technicians can read the sensor data and diagnose exactly what kind of repairs need to be carried out. Preventive maintenance usually follows a preplanned schedule, with limited exceptions.
 

Corrective Maintenance

Meanwhile, corrective maintenance involves carrying out repairs or replacements only when equipment has failed. The goal is to correct a certain problem, rather than preventing it from happening in the first place. In most cases, corrective maintenance is the result of unforeseen breakdowns. More rarely, it can be part of a deliberate maintenance strategy (run-to-failure), which involves using equipment until it breaks down because a replacement or quick fix is readily available.

9 Main Types of Equipment Maintenance

Most companies adopt a blend of preventive and corrective approaches when creating their equipment maintenance strategy. This is because each maintenance type excels in specific situations but may be less effective in others.

For example, a fishing boat requires preventive maintenance while docked in order to be seaworthy, but might also need certain corrective maintenance measures while out at sea. The repairs at the dock might be high-cost but low-risk, while the repairs at sea are usually high-risk but low-cost.

The right type of equipment maintenance method for your company will depend on a set of variables. These include:

• Maintenance costs and total budget
• Number of assets and their performance data
• The expertise of the maintenance technicians and equipment operators

Let’s look at the nine main types of equipment maintenance, which span both the corrective and preventive approaches. The first three types mentioned in the list are forms of corrective maintenance, and the following six types are forms of preventive maintenance.
 

1. Emergency Maintenance

We should cover the most problematic type of equipment maintenance first. Emergency maintenance is also called reactive maintenance, which is a better way of saying it involves reacting to problems rather than planning for their occurrence. In short, it’s nearly the same as having no equipment maintenance strategy at all.

Emergency maintenance involves coming up with solutions to equipment failure on an ad-hoc basis and usually results in high-pressure working environments for the technicians. Because it needs to be arranged on short notice, emergency maintenance is generally the costliest of all the equipment maintenance types.
 

2. Run-to-Fail Maintenance

Not all equipment breakdowns need to lead to downtime. Some companies build their equipment maintenance strategy around the lifecycle of their equipment. In this method, the company uses the asset until it fails because there is already a plan in place to replace or repair it when it happens. Known as run-to-fail maintenance, this is best used for non-critical equipment that is relatively inexpensive compared to other assets or for equipment with a high turnover ratio.
 

3. Planned Corrective Maintenance

Sometimes, equipment can start to degrade but remain in working condition. Deciding to schedule maintenance on a working piece of equipment after noting its degradation is known as planned corrective maintenance. A simple example of this would be replacing the screen on your phone or laptop after noticing a few dead pixels starting to appear.

The three types of equipment maintenance methods mentioned above all fall under the corrective maintenance approach since they only come into effect once problems with the equipment become evident. The remaining items on this list are meant to preclude failures from occurring, which makes them examples of preventive maintenance.
 

4. Time-Based Maintenance

The simplest way to keep your equipment in working order is to set a maintenance schedule. This involves conducting maintenance at regular intervals to prevent failure. The intervals could be once a week, a month, or a year. What’s important is that the performance and durability of the equipment in question are considered when setting a time-based maintenance schedule.
 

5. Usage-Based Maintenance

The alternative to time-based maintenance is usage-based maintenance. It operates on the same principle of scheduling maintenance at fixed points to keep the equipment running and extend its life cycle. However, instead of time, the maintenance processes occur after the equipment crosses a certain usage threshold, such as changing a vehicle’s engine oil after being driven for over 1,500 miles.
 

6. Routine Maintenance

Though they sound similar, routine and time-based maintenance are different. What sets routine maintenance apart is that it is built into the usage protocols of the equipment itself rather than occurring at scheduled intervals. For instance, emptying the waste bin of the office paper shredder at the end of every working day so that it doesn’t overflow is an example of routine maintenance.
 

7. Condition-Based Maintenance

When using equipment with sensors, it is possible to set your maintenance schedule according to established indicators. When using condition-based maintenance, you have to look for evidence that failure is about to occur. It could be a built-in indicator like a warning light or something that has to be noted by an operator, such as overheating during use. If certain conditions are met, then the piece of equipment needs to be serviced in order to restore it to a smooth-functioning state.
 

8. Predictive Maintenance

A more advanced form of condition-based maintenance, predictive maintenance relies on both real-time and historical data gathered from sensors. Using this data, predictive maintenance software can create an accurate virtual model that gives a timeline for how long a certain piece of equipment can remain in use before it needs to go in for maintenance.
 

9. Prescriptive Maintenance

The latest generation of computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) are augmented with artificial intelligence and machine learning programs. Not only does such prescriptive maintenance software diagnose problems with equipment, but it also devises the ideal solution based on available data.

Track Your Equipment Inventory for Better Maintenance Results

Equipment maintenance and inventory management are two business processes that go hand-in-hand. Intelligent inventory management software can also be used to simplify your company’s equipment management protocols.

Nest Egg allows you to add a maintenance log and warranty information to every piece of equipment in your inventory. You can also tag equipment and receive alerts for periodic upkeep through the Nest Egg app. A detailed database of all your inventoried equipment makes it easier than ever to look up serial numbers, vendor registrations, or other important purchasing information.

Using software to assist in your equipment management strategy improves efficiency and eliminates the possibility of human error. Once your equipment is running smoothly, it’s quite likely that your business will follow suit!