29 Nov Preventative Maintenance
A stitch in time saves nine.
This simple proverb says that it is better to spend time to plan and to deal with problems as soon as possible, than wait for things to bust, especially when you are in full production. If you wait until you have time, things will get worse, more expensive, and may take much longer to deal with – costing unplanned down time, loss of production, and dissatisfied customers.
That’s what preventative maintenance is all about. Does your business have a preventative program in place?
What the Health and Safety at Work Act says
Under section 36 of the new Health and Safety legislation, the PCBU has not only the primary duty of care and responsibility to keep their employees and others safe in the work environment, but also to have systems in place for the maintenance of the facilities and any equipment and machinery used or associated with the place of work. A good example of this is the maintenance of vehicles. The recent spate of bus crashes that have resulted in fatalities is an important reminder of just how important planned and ongoing maintenance is.
The topic of preventative maintenance was brought to our attention recently by a Hasmate client who asked “Can this be done in the Hasmate program?”
Because Hasmate is flexible for the user, here is how it can be achieved:
- It can be managed in the “Assets” module;
- Enter your machinery, equipment, vehicles, tools, building or any other asset that has a maintenance or compliance check into the “Assets” module;
- Treat the preventative maintenance as an internal compliance issue and record the planned/scheduled maintenance in the “Asset Compliance” section of the asset;
- Treat the preventative maintenance date as the expiry date and this will add this to your “Alerts” for action;
- By clicking “Email” beside this alert, you can send the appropriate employee or contractor the alert for their action;
- When the maintenance has been completed, add a new “Asset Maintenance” record (note – you can also use this as your alerting method for the maintenance);
- Make sure you include the cost of the maintenance, as this will enable you to produce a report to your manager or board of directors, showing the cost of the maintenance of the individual asset or all the assets over a given time period.
Note – do not delete the compliance/maintenance alert until you have been informed that the preventative maintenance has been completed and recorded by the person who was assigned the maintenance.
If you have any questions regarding this article, please contact Hasmate today.