For the proper and continuous running of operations for one’s business, maintenance is key. Maintenance is the set of operational procedures that are put in place to help ensure efficient operations and running of assets in any company. One thing about maintenance is that it can be applied to any sought of business, and depending on what the business entails different approaches to maintenance are used.
With proper maintenance management put in place, the company resources are well maintained leading to great massive benefits for the business. Failure to incorporate maintenance then be sure that rather than you getting profit if your business, you will incur a great loss.
For today’s article, we are going to see what unscheduled maintenance is, types of unscheduled maintenance and is advantages and disadvantages.
Just as the name suggests, this is basically maintenance that was not scheduled. Unscheduled maintenance means that when the maintenance planning was being made, it was also put into thought but was not given a specific time or assigned to a maintenance technician. Unscheduled maintenance happens abruptly and requires immediate attention.
The good thing about this type of maintenance is that although it gets you by surprise, the required spares needed for its fixing are available. A good type of example of unscheduled maintenance is a company’s track gets a flat worn-out tire while transporting goods. This incident has of course gotten the driver or transportation team by surprise and will lead to some delays but the good thing is the truck already had a spare tire only that the present tire has worn out too soon.
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TYPES OF UNSCHEDULED MAINTENANCE.
Here we are going to discuss the three types of unscheduled maintenance and their examples,
Breakdown maintenance.
This is the most obvious one whereby, equipment or something you never thought will breakdown breaks down without a warning and requires immediate attention to fix it and get it back again running. In such a case this was something that was not put in thought and no plan was put in place, just in case it happens. When this happens it leads to an increase in downtime and also clients might start complaining.
Corrective maintenance.
Here is whereby a preventive maintenance program has been put in place, that oversees and ensures fixation of minor issues before they grow or develop into major issues. So this means immediately after the asset starts to show signs of any issue or problem, the maintenance team is notified and they perform corrective maintenance to ensure the efficient running of the business.
Opportunistic maintenance.
This is whereby, for example, an inspection by the maintenance managers was scheduled to take place. During the inspection, the technicians come across an asset with a pending problem that was not known and immediately fix it this is what is referred to as opportunistic maintenance. It was never planned for but before it became a major issue by chance it was found and immediately was sorted out.
Disadvantages of Unscheduled maintenance.
Reduce asset life
As we have earlier stated, maintenance ensures that their equipment or asset last longer. If equipment operates in bad optimal condition it will result in the failure of the asset earlier than expected hence leading to shorter asset life.
Safety problems.
Unscheduled maintenance happens abruptly and requires immediate attention, this results in maintenance being done hurriedly and under a lot of pressure. This might result in unwarranted risks or accidents happening. For example, Leak Detection and Quantification (LDAR). In this context LDAR meaning denotes the identification of unplanned emissions from machinery in a chemical, gas, or oil installation.
Unplanned expenses.
One thing is for sure, if something was not planned for, its repair will be out of the fixed budget and this might be expensive. Unscheduled maintenance calls for emergency buying of equipment and call-outs, this is expensive and may lead the company to incur loss rather than gain profit.
Client complaints.
If an unscheduled breakdown occurs, the business will run very slowly and this will result in a lot of delays. For example, if a client was expecting to have their product on a specific day and it gets delayed, they will register their complaints and this might result in them withdrawing from your company resulting in the company’s loss.
Is unscheduled maintenance always disadvantageous?
We have just stated the disadvantages of unscheduled maintenance and now one may be asking themselves if there are any advantages linked to it. Yes, in very few cases unscheduled maintenance can work but in most or plenty of cases, it’s the worst type of maintenance approach to use. For example, in a manufacturing company, one may use unscheduled maintenance for assets that don’t immediately break down or if they do after a few certain numbers of cycles.
The maintenance managers have the required knowledge about the different machines and they certainly do know the machines which don’t break down at once. Although the worst part is yes, the machine might break down after a few cycles but it is uncertain which is the last cycle that will lead to its ultimate damage.
To date, there is no way to eliminate unscheduled maintenance, but it can be reduced by either implementing the preventive program maintenance that we have mentioned earlier or incorporating the Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS).
What is CMMS software, and how can it help with unscheduled maintenance?
A Computerized Maintenance Management System is an automated system that is put in place to help the maintenance management team operate all their work from one place. With it being put in place, it will be easier for the management team to oversee that all equipment and assets are running well and smoothly. Since it is the right software solution, the technicians will be able to know which asset to look after using unscheduled maintenance, and also the operational team will be immediately notified when any of the assets start showing any problems, enabling quick fixation.
In conclusion,
We can conclude that unscheduled maintenance is not proper for business, since it poses more disadvantages rather than advantages. A good CMMS is very essential to avoid these issues and will be able to streamline better work order management.
