What Is Routine Maintenance?

Imagine if a critical piece of equipment broke down today due to a part failure. How much time would it take your maintenance department to fix? Was anyone injured as a result? And how costly will it be to replace this critical (and expensive) piece of equipment?

You’re one asset malfunction away from potentially being in the red financially. Without taking proper precautions, you could wind up facing serious and costly downtime, creating a logistical nightmare. Or, even worse, your employee gets seriously harmed due to a breakdown and needs compensation for current and ongoing medical complications.

Is there a way to prevent this horrific situation from happening? In fact, there is. Routine maintenance is a preventive maintenance method for regularly evaluating your equipment and facilities to catch issues before they get worse. Rather than reacting when a core piece of your infrastructure breaks down, you can be proactive and stop the issue from even occurring in the first place.

Follow along for everything you need to know about routine maintenance and how technology can help you to create an effective maintenance strategy.

Why Is Routine Maintenance Important?

Routine maintenance (sometimes referred to as preventive maintenance or cyclical maintenance) is the coordinated recurring upkeep, repair and optimization of an organization’s infrastructure, including equipment and facilities. Proactively performing preventive maintenance on equipment and physical infrastructure helps to maintain its condition and prevent dangerous and costly issues from arising.  

Rather than waiting for breakdowns to occur before addressing maintenance issues, routine maintenance allows you to mitigate risk by preventing issues with your facilities and equipment from happening in the first place. Common benefits of a routine maintenance schedule include a reduction in downtime, improved safety and an increased lifespan of assets. 

Examples of Routine Maintenance

Any regular maintenance that you perform on an ongoing basis is considered routine, and maintenance teams can increase their equipment lifespan with these common types of routine maintenance:

Lubricating and/or Cleaning Machinery

Protect your assets and limit equipment failure by regularly lubricating and cleaning your machines. Regular lubrication prevents unnecessary friction and wear to maximize the lifespan of your equipment. 

Replacing Deteriorating Parts

Replacing broken parts is essential to maintain operational efficiency and safety standards. Failure to do so could result in more major damage to the equipment, downtime,= or pose a safety hazard. 

Checking and Testing Equipment

Issues with machinery will go unnoticed and can cause safety issues and downtime without regular inspections. Maintenance experts need to consistently evaluate equipment and its parts to predict and prevent major problems from unfolding.

Benefits of Routine Maintenance

Preventive maintenance ensures your facility and equipment continue to function as needed without causing unplanned downtime or safety threats.

Core benefits of performing routine maintenance regularly include:

• Decreasing equipment downtime and preventing emergency maintenance issues from happening: If equipment is left unmaintained and issues like broken parts force a pause in operations, you’re losing precious money and causing logistical delays that can impact the entirety of your supply chain. 

• Reducing maintenance costs: Since proactive maintenance like lubricating machines can prevent issues from arising in the first place, it saves money that might otherwise be spent on replacing a part or an entire piece of equipment. 

• Good training for new maintenance technicians: Build foundational skills for your technicians by teaching them the common issues that arise with various pieces of equipment and what they need to keep an eye out for when it comes to wear and tear. (You can learn more about this process, known as predictive maintenance, in this helpful guide.) This proactive approach to equipment maintenance ensures that your assets will have more uptime in addition to a longer lifespan.

Example of How Routine Maintenance Decreases Downtime

E.ON UK, a large energy company operating in the United Kingdom, oversees several power-generation facilities, including gas-fired power stations. The company implemented a comprehensive routine maintenance program for the gas turbines used in their power stations.

Because these turbines are critical assets that generate electricity, any downtime can lead to significant financial losses and impact on energy supply reliability. The routine maintenance program helped by:

• Increasing reliability: Preventive maintenance ensures the gas turbines (and entire power stations) remain in operating condition on a continual basis.

• Saving costs: Catching small issues with turbines before they turn into major, expensive repairs prevents downtime and saves money on part replacement. 

• Optimizing performance: Gas turbines are essential to the functionality of power stations. Routine maintenance activities on the turbines keeps the power stations fully functional and prevents large, costly issues from happening altogether.

• Maintaining compliance and safety: Issues with the gas turbines can prevent people from getting the electricity they depend on. E.On’s proactive approach to maintenance maintains compliance standards set by the UK government and ensures that their customers will have continued access to electricity.

• Extending asset lifespan: Gas turbines are incredibly expensive. Creating a routine maintenance plan for existing turbines drastically increases the amount of time that they can be used in power stations before needing to be replaced. 

How to Use a CMMS for Routine Maintenance

Computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software makes it much easier to schedule, perform and track progress on preventive maintenance. Here’s how the best CMMS software helps to simplify routine maintenance: 

Stores Maintenance Records in the Cloud

Tracking down existing maintenance records in the form of physical paperwork, digital documents or spreadsheets and then creating new ones when performing routine maintenance is time-consuming. Coast’s maintenance software makes it easy to store every maintenance record in one simple-to-use digital platform.

Determines How Often Routine Maintenance Should Be Performed

Using predictive analysis, manufacturer’s recommendations and insightful historical data from past maintenance reports, Coast can provide a specific timeline for what routine maintenance is needed for a piece of equipment and what time intervals to do it in order to prevent unexpected breakdowns and expand its lifespan. 

Creates a Routine Maintenance Workflow

Don’t let preventive maintenance slip through the cracks. Coast will automatically pull recommended routine tasks into your calendar so that your team is aware of the timelines for performing check-ups on your equipment and receives reminders as notifications from the app. 

Eases Work Order Assignments and Communication With Technicians

Managers can assign designated team members with routine maintenance tasks that include specific maintenance checklists on which equipment they’re working on and the exact steps that should be taken. Once assigned, the technician will be notified on their mobile device, and they can communicate directly with leadership regarding follow-up questions and progress being made. 

Learn more about how a CMMS helps with work order tracking and management.

Get Coast for Free for All Your Routine Maintenance Needs

Don’t let issues with equipment turn into major problems for your business. Preventive maintenance can extend your equipment’s lifespan and ensure that you don’t have unnecessary downtime and expenses.

Sign up for Coast for free today to schedule and manage all your routine maintenance needs.