When you run a manufacturing facility, maintenance is very important. Unplanned downtime can take a huge hit in your facility’s production, which directly impacts your business’ profits.

In a study done by Plant Engineering, 59 percent of manufacturing engineers, managers, and other professionals claimed that their facility spent 20 hours or more per week on scheduled maintenance. However, there are several different maintenance strategies that these professionals use to keep their facility running smoothly. Here’s a quick breakdown of three different types of maintenance for bearings and applications.

PERIODIC MAINTENANCE

Over time, your applications and equipment will begin to wear down and fail. In fact, the Plant Engineering study cites that 45 percent of unscheduled downtime is a direct result of aging equipment.

Periodic preventative maintenance sets up a regular schedule for you to clean, inspect, and fix up your applications and parts to maintain the health of your equipment. A well-planned maintenance schedule can save your business a lot of money and allow you to have more control over downtime instead of waiting for an issue.

PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE

A predictive maintenance schedule is like periodic maintenance, except that it’s based on signs of necessary maintenance instead of time. In this scenario, professionals will set times to check up on equipment to see if there are any indications that they may need to shut down an application for repair, part replacement, or any other preventative measure. Maintenance Connection lists the following as potential warning signs for aging or failing applications:

Excessive vibration
Overheating
Steam, air, or gas leaks
Contamination
Electrical imbalances
Misalignment
These check-ins can be performed through manual inspection or through monitoring technology. If no signs are spotted, it means that you should be set until the next inspection.

RUN-TO-FAIL/BREAKDOWN MAINTENANCE

This type of maintenance isn’t so much a strategy as much as the choice not to conduct any maintenance work until something stops working. While this usually isn’t the most cost-effective solution for businesses that can’t afford unexpected downtime, there are some situations where it can be an advantageous approach.

One such example is if equipment failure won’t affect production and can be quickly and easily repaired. However, this approach likely is a bad choice for parts like bearings.