What Does Asset Maintenance Involve? (Examples & Benefits)

Effective asset maintenance is the key to success for countless companies that rely on equipment, vehicles and other physical assets to help their business survive. 

In this overview, we’ll look at the basics of asset maintenance, exactly why it’s so crucial, industries that benefit most from smart asset maintenance, some of its main types and — perhaps most importantly — how to create an optimal asset maintenance strategy.

What Is Asset Maintenance?

Asset maintenance is essentially any task that helps keep a company’s physical assets, particularly equipment, in good working order. It’s all about ensuring that an organization’s assets remain functional, efficient and safe throughout their lifespan. 

Any company relying strongly on equipment within its operations needs seamless asset maintenance, but a great example might be a snack food purveyor with a processing plant that also delivers its products to retailers. They must not only maintain the machinery that helps produce their offerings but also the fleet of vehicles delivering the product, not to mention the ancillary equipment such as forklifts and loaders that bring the items from the production line to the loading bay. Unplanned downtime as a result of asset failures in any of these areas could negatively impact their operations and thus their bottom line.

Why Is Asset Maintenance Important?

It’s hard to know where to begin or end with the countless factors that highlight the importance of asset maintenance, so we’ll focus here on four key considerations. 

Increases Asset Lifespan

Strategic maintenance will increase asset lifespan, saving untold sums and preventing the need to spend company funds unnecessarily. Imagine how much money a large factory might save simply by extending the asset lifecycle of its main production equipment for a few years.

Saves on Maintenance Costs

Properly maintaining critical assets can result in significant cost savings by ensuring equipment runs properly and avoids sudden breakdowns that can also wreak havoc on production. It might be an old cliché to say that “a stitch in time saves nine,” but it certainly rings true in this case.

Decreases Asset Downtime

A thoughtful asset maintenance plan will also decrease asset downtime, which results in better production, timely completion of goals and increased customer satisfaction. 

Improves Overall Safety

Last but far from least, a good asset maintenance strategy will improve overall safety since well-running machinery and equipment definitely adds up to a safer workplace. After all, many employee injuries and even fatalities occur every year due to equipment failure or malfunction. 

Industries That Benefit from Asset Maintenance

While effective asset maintenance strategies are invaluable in a number of sectors, they’re particularly vital in these specific fields. 

Manufacturing 

Manufacturing is all about consistent production to meet ongoing customer demand. This standard is almost impossible to uphold without a vigilant maintenance program for the equipment and machinery that companies count upon to produce their goods.

Oil & Gas 

Here’s another industry in which maintenance operations are paramount. The oil and gas sector not only includes the processing of potentially volatile and hazardous materials, but it also comprises complicated large-scale assets ranging from pipelines to drilling equipment and refineries. So, the importance of a quality asset maintenance process can’t be overstated, given the safety considerations and challenges of the industry’s sophisticated assets. 

Transportation & Logistics 

This is a sector where timing is everything, whether it’s buses that must stay on a tight schedule or goods that need to be delivered promptly. Overseeing the operational efficiency for assets like fleet vehicles or warehouse equipment is crucial to circumvent substantial equipment downtime and showcase top-notch reliability.                                                                                                                       

Energy & Utilities 

Effective equipment maintenance is not only critical to an energy company’s bottom line,  but it also greatly impacts the safety and daily functions of its employees. Thorough and regular inspections and upkeep of such physical assets as power plants and electrical grids lead to minimizing disruptions for customers’ service delivery.

Healthcare

A healthcare facility’s reliance on smart maintenance can be of life-or-death importance, as hospitals rely daily on countless types of medical equipment, pharmaceutical supplies and even mobility devices.

4 Types of Asset Maintenance

When deciding which maintenance strategy is best for you, it’s important to understand the four key types of asset maintenance to inform your decision-making.

Reactive Maintenance 

Reactive maintenance refers to a responsive approach to repairing or replacing equipment and other assets only after a breakdown has occurred. For a company overseeing a fleet of vehicles, for example, it might involve fixing a punctured tire or replacing worn-out brake pads. While this is a very common type of asset maintenance, it can be less effective than a proactive maintenance approach that tries to address or avoid issues before they even occur.

Preventive Maintenance 

If you want a proactive approach, preventive maintenance is where you should start. This approach involves regularly scheduled inspections and upkeep, keeping ahead of the game by engaging in minor fix-its or machinery adjustments before they evolve into major problems. During preventive maintenance activities, workers also record an asset’s status, so they can determine when future maintenance may be necessary.

Condition-Based Maintenance 

Condition-based maintenance CbM emphasizes — typically through the use of sensors and internet of things (IoT) devices — real-time asset performance and conditions. These technologies immediately inform management when monitored limitations are exceeded. One solid example of CbM would be the use of infrared cameras to identify when electrical system components are overheating.

Predictive Maintenance 

Predictive maintenance performs periodic (offline) or continuous (online) equipment condition monitoring to evaluate equipment status and react or plan upkeep or repairs accordingly. The approach then uses data analytics and machine learning to pinpoint at what future point maintenance work will be optimal.

How to Set Up an Asset Maintenance Management Strategy

Creating an asset management strategy can be as simple as following these steps.

1. Identify your asset maintenance goals: A first move should be to identify your asset maintenance goals, which generally includes elevating asset reliability and function by increasing uptime; avoiding breakdowns via proactive maintenance and minimizing maintenance costs by implementing preventive maintenance.
2. Prioritize assets: To start, you’ll want to prioritize your most crucial assets, taking into account factors like their value to operations, possible fallout of failure (such as safety issues or operational malfunction), asset condition, the cost of repair compared to replacement and the prospect of imminent failure. It can be wise to assign top priority to assets that have the most impact on operations or ones that are approaching the end of their useful life.
3. Create standard operating procedures: It’s also key to create standard operating procedures (SOPs) and checklists for maintenance work to ensure consistency. An SOP normally includes an objective for the procedure, the scope of procedure, clear step-by-step guidelines for completing a specific task and the necessary resources needed to perform the task, including all necessary spare parts, tools and materials.
4. Train your maintenance team: This ensures everyone is on the same page with your priorities and operating procedures. With new technologies evolving more than ever in the world of asset maintenance, such as highly effective equipment maintenance software, it’s also crucial to ensure that everyone is up to speed on how to optimize them. The old saying “you’re only as strong as your weakest link” strongly applies here since one major oversight could lead to an operational breakdown impacting production and/or causing unnecessary equipment downtime.
5. Schedule preventive maintenance: Create a preventive maintenance schedule that establishes a frequency for each maintenance task, clearly delineates which team member is responsible for every duty, employs a calendar that reminds staff when tasks are needed and tracks completed work and any possible issues encountered.
6. Use a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS): A CMMS will help with everything from asset tracking to work order assignments. This type of asset management software has numerous benefits that include enhancing team communication, centralizing all your key maintenance data and employing mobile devices that give you on-the-go access to asset metrics.
7. Review at regular intervals: Make sure to review your game plan thoroughly, not only before implementation but at regular intervals to see what’s working perfectly and what could be improved.

Examples of Asset Maintenance

For some real-world takes on asset maintenance in action, here are three examples from a trio of different industries.

• Manufacturing: Inspecting and cleaning components of Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines includes frequent visual inspections, cleaning the machine meticulously, checking coolant levels and filters, inspecting cutting tools for wear, ensuring proper lubrication and monitoring for any unusual sounds or vibrations, all while following the manufacturer’s specific maintenance guidelines.
• Oil & Gas: Corrosion monitoring of pipelines is essential for maintaining the physical integrity of these assets, and it typically includes regular visual assessments and real-time technology tools such as sensors furnishing immediate corrosion. Another key step here is identifying high-risk areas such as bends and low points for intense monitoring and integrating procedures like cathodic protection to moderate corrosion.
• Healthcare: Calibration of ultrasound machines consists of qualified maintenance technicians regularly conducting checks and modifications, adhering to manufacturer parameters to ensure the machine yields precise and reliable data, and regular cleaning of the machine to prevent buildup of debris.

Using a CMMS to Improve Asset Maintenance

While asset maintenance can seem like a highly detailed and daunting endeavor, Coast’s CMMS can streamline your maintenance strategy in countless ways. By keeping all your assets organized in one place, technicians can instantly access all the key information from their mobile devices to make informed decisions such as whether an important piece of equipment should be replaced or just repaired. Our equipment maintenance software can also be a huge help with asset utilization, which gauges the effectiveness with which organizations are optimizing their assets, and asset inventory management, which studies show that nearly half of all organizations oversee ineffectively.

Coast stands out from other CMMS software solutions by not only letting you get started for free but also offering cost-effective pricing plans that provide more features than the competition and at a lower cost. This is reflected in our online ratings and reviews but also proven through a free and easy-to-use comparison tool on our website. 

Sign up for Coast today to help automate your maintenance process.