Monitoring procedures and maintenance cost analysis
Good organization and management must ensure that resources are matched to needs. The next step is therefore based on the importance of establishing procedures for monitoring and controlling the preventive maintenance program, so that it can be evaluated and brought more into line with the company’s reality and the needs of the people on the floor.
Monitoring and evaluating the program
This stage is divided into two parts: program monitoring and evaluation. Monitoring is carried out by the person in charge of the program at regular intervals, so as not to lose sight of the objectives set, and to avoid falling too far behind schedule. The program’s credibility depends on it.
Program monitoring ensures:
- Verification of schedule compliance;
- Verification of established procedures;
- Quality control of work performed;
- Adjustments to the maintenance system based on experience.
Monitoring involves various tasks for the program manager :
- Verify the information contained in the service reports (work orders), and purchase any spare parts required as a result of these reports.
- Compile the results of these reports in the equipment history file
- Check availability of equipment for preventive maintenance,
- Adjust preventive maintenance periods according to equipment availability.
- Plan repair work based on completed preventive maintenance sheets
- Adjust inspection frequencies according to comments and calculable results from preventive maintenance records;
The figure on the following page illustrates the general operation of the program, with documents exchanged between stakeholders.
Controlling the right costs to ward off the wrong ones
Cost analysis
Follow-up ensures that the program runs smoothly, but it still needs to be evaluated in some way to determine its effectiveness and quantify its impact.
Program evaluation will therefore be based on the objectives set at the outset, and will largely focus on cost analysis. The use of ratios can also bring out interesting interpretations.
Maintenance costs
These are costs directly attributable to the operation of the maintenance department. They can, however, be separated into operating expenses and capital expenditure.
These costs are mainly :
- Labor;
- Spare parts and consumables (oil, grease, etc.);
- Maintenance tools and equipment;
- Maintenance contracts with external companies and subcontracting calls;
- Spare parts inventory carrying costs (stores, overheads….);
- Training;
- The program must be measurable;
- Relationship between maintenance costs and downtime costs;
