Preventive Maintenance Examples

Preventive maintenance is more than just fixing an issue. It’s about preventing that issue from occurring in the first place.

This is why preventive maintenance is often referred to as proactive maintenance. It’s all about knowing that a problem will likely arise in the future and taking steps to ensure that it doesn’t happen.

Of course, you have to know where to begin. The trick with preventive maintenance is that it can apply to almost anything. Here are a few preventive maintenance examples to keep in mind.

Lighting/Electrical

Lighting and electrical are areas that we don’t tend to think about until they stop working. But if your employees are in the middle of an important task and the lighting suddenly fails, you’re going to lose serious money.

Start with the obvious culprit: your lightbulbs.

Check all of your bulbs at regular intervals. If any bulbs are at the end of their life, institute group re-lamping. That way you won’t have to worry about the whole section.

Any transformers, control gear, and accessories should also be routinely checked. Make sure a trained electrician does the rounds, especially if you’ve recently experienced a storm.

Interior and Exterior

Of course, your maintenance should extend well beyond extreme weather conditions, and that applies to your building interior and exterior as well.

For example, your technicians should routinely check the walls and paint. Bubbles in the paint may not seem that important, but they could be a warning signal that the room has too much heat and humidity, which could lead to mold and mildew problems.

You should also check the condition of the roof. Make sure that the shingles are in good condition and that there aren’t any cracks or missing shingles. Remember, the roof is responsible for keeping out the elements, so if the roof is in poor condition, your whole building is in trouble.

Safety Planning

You might not think of it at first, but preventive maintenance can also apply to safety planning.

For example, are your first aid kits well-stocked? What if someone burned their hand tomorrow and you didn’t have supplies to treat them? All it takes is one day of bad luck for things to go sideways.

Similarly, when your technicians are checking machines, have them check that safety signs and warning labels are also in good condition. They’re there for one reason: to keep workers safe. If workers can’t read signs or labels, the signs and labels cannot protect them from hazards.

And before you send a technician on the roof, make sure that someone checks on the status of your fall protection equipment. Do you have the right gear for the task? How old is it? What condition is it in?

After all, a harness won’t do a technician much good if it can barely hold the technician’s weight. And given that falls account for more than 8 million emergency room visits each year, that’s a risk you and your team can’t afford to take.