In a sentence, maintenance is carried out on all types of equipment for three main reasons, a) because prevention is better than aiding, b) to ensure any fault is corrected efficiently and effectively and c) to make sure that the equipment is working to its maximum capacity. As such, it’s easy to understand why manufacturing companies carry out routinely planned maintenance checks on all of their equipment because, well, not only does it ensure best safety practices, it also ensures better efficiency, which tends to mean higher profits. However, this isn’t a topic that can just be summed up with a short paragraph about the importance of it. As such, we are going to advise you on how to best initiate and maintain and programme to aid you on this front.
Before The Work Begins
Before you embark on any maintenance work, you must determine whether you can safely and effectively complete the work yourselves, and to the high-standard required by law, or if you need to employ a special contractor to take on the work instead. This is a critical first thought to have. It is illegal and unadvisable for you to take on maintenance work that you are not prepared for or competent with. Let’s say it is a seal or bearing issues; it may seem like a simple task, but it could be safer and cheaper for you to bring in a specialist , like Eclipse Engineering to complete the job.
Once you have ascertained whether or not it is something you can complete, it is imperative that you plan the work using the manufacturer’s maintenance instructions, you should produce a safe system of work. This should include ensuring that all those due to carry out the work are competent, qualified and have been supplied with the right equipment for the job. As a rule of thumb, always schedule maintenance work in shutdown hours as a way of ensuring no cross over with the production team. This will reduce any chance of injury or accidents dramatically.
Creating A Safe Environment
It is important that you don’t simply focus all of your attention on those staff carrying out the maintenance work. It is your responsibility to ensure that you take all the necessary precautions to ensure everyone else in the vicinity is protected; this includes full-time, part-time and contracted employees, as well as anyone else that may be on your site that day. An effective way of doing this is to pre-warn people of the planned work, as well as strategically placing warning signs at every entrance to the area you will be working. These will serve as a reminder and warn people to either keep out or act with caution.
Whilst it could be that the top priority of the procedure is to carry out schedule repairs or fix a fault, all maintenance exercises should be thorough and ensure that every aspect of the equipment is in a safe working condition before being signed off. This will reduce the chances of harm, malfunction and wasted time from happening in the future.