Distinguish between the different types of industrial maintenance to manage your work with a master's hand

Do you know all the different types of maintenance, what specific needs they meet and which software solutions are best suited to boosting productivity?

As a prudent and proactive company, you need to deploy a maintenance strategy to ensure that your equipment is well looked after and operating at optimum levels, so as to ensure the continuity of your business. Your productivity is at stake, as is customer satisfaction!

Can you tell the difference between preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance and predictive maintenance? What are they used for? Here's a quick overview of the different types of maintenance and the software used to manage them.

See all software Maintenance Management

1. Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance is : carried out at predetermined intervals or in accordance with prescribed criteria and intended to reduce the probability of failure or degradation of the operation of an asset or the degradation of a service rendered" (AFNOR).to reduce the probability of failure or deterioration in the operation of an asset or the degradation of a service rendered" (AFNOR).

In a proactive approach, it takes several criteria into account to anticipate malfunctions in an asset or a service:

• regulations affecting certain equipment and infrastructures in order to comply with standards (in the pharmaceutical or aeronautical industries, for example),
• feedback from users and machine reports,
• manufacturers' recommendations, to be taken into account in particular with a view to applying the warranty or quality assurance in the event of a breakdown.
  
  In the latter case, we sometimes talk about pre-determined maintenance, which does not depend on the actual state of the machines, but on statistical programmes supplied by the manufacturers (based on the mean time to failure [MTTF], for example).

There are two sub-categories of preventive maintenance: systematic maintenance and conditional maintenance.

2. Systematic maintenance

This is carried out according to a schedule or a periodicity of use (every month, every 500 products manufactured, every 10,000 kilometres, etc.). Because it is carried out at fixed intervals, it is relatively easy to manage, facilitates organisation and considerably reduces the risk of serious damage or deterioration.

It is particularly useful when :

• restarting takes a long time
• the shutdown has been going on for some time
• the failure causes significant costs
• the problem threatens safety.

3. Conditional maintenance

This is based on the condition, i.e. the actual state of the equipment, via continuous or regular monitoring and a direct connection.

The deterioration of the asset is measured by means of self-diagnosis, sensor information, wear measurement, etc. It is very economical, as it does not require extensive stock management, purchases or unnecessary interventions.

4. Corrective maintenance

As opposed to preventive maintenance, which anticipates malfunctions, corrective maintenance is carried out after the failure or breakdown of an asset or production line.
It involves repairing, restoring or replacing a part or piece of equipment, or correcting a bug or faulty computer programming.

There are two sub-categories of corrective maintenance: palliative maintenance and curative maintenance.

5. Palliative maintenance

Palliative maintenance is used to temporarily repair a fault, rather like a band-aid, so that the equipment can continue to function relatively normally.

It is a great help in avoiding stopping the activity in progress. However, it is important not to let the temporary situation drag on for too long, and to ensure that safety is maintained until a more permanent solution is found.

6. Corrective maintenance

The aim of corrective maintenance is to permanently repair the sources of breakdowns (as opposed to palliative maintenance). The equipment will therefore be replaced, in whole or in part, depending on whether the breakdown is major or minor, total or partial.

Some people use the term "curative maintenance" as a synonym for "corrective maintenance", but it is only a sub-category of the latter.

7. Predictive maintenance

Some people consider it to be part of preventive and condition-based maintenance, since it tends to monitor machines and the crossing of thresholds (wear, etc.) to avoid breakdowns.

But it should be classified separately. According to standard NF EN 13 306 X 60-319, predictive maintenance (the term predictive is an anglicism) is carried out by following forecasts extrapolated from theanalysis and evaluation of significant parameters of the deterioration of the asset, in particular thanks to sensors installed on the machines and connected (IoT, Internet of Things).

Maintenance management solutions

These respond to the major challenges of maintenance operations, in particular :

• optimising work scheduling,
• equipment reliability and efficiency, for optimum productivity,
• fewer breakdowns,
• reducing maintenance costs,
• maintaining contractual or regulatory quality of service,
• staff safety,
• stock management and replacement parts purchasing,
• customer satisfaction,
• optimising working conditions.

Service and route management solutions

These are platforms for planning and organising the logistics of service providers, availability, locations, material and immaterial resources, and invoicing for services.
In SaaS mode, they enable effective coordination of human resources and good communication between customers and maintenance service providers.

Choosing a service management solution: 10 questions to ask yourself. Download the free practical guide offered by Praxedo:

Ermeo

Ermeo is a SaaS solution that facilitates and optimises maintenance operations. During rounds and interventions, operatives enter their observations directly into the application and record any non-conformities using intuitive, intelligent and comprehensive forms. Team leaders can then access the data on the Ermeo web platform in real time, and plan any corrective action required. As a result, you can improve the efficiency of your agents by up to 20%, and reduce re-interventions by 70%.

Key features include

• Digitalisation of maintenance procedures,
• database of all forms and equipment, with a system of attributes to facilitate monitoring and analysis,
• data history (equipment, intervention, etc.),
• technical and business documentation that can be consulted on the move via the application,
• forms can be previewed as they are being designed,
• offline mode for operation even without a network,
• automatic generation of customisable reports,
• interconnection with other business software (CMMS, EDM, etc.) via the API,
• connection to leading BI tools (PowerBI, Qlik Sense, etc.) to optimise data analysis.

Kizeo Forms

Kizeo Forms makes it easier to manage rounds, manage teams in the field and, above all, dematerialise and standardise all your monitoring forms, such as work orders, for corrective or preventive maintenance operations.

Key features include

• customer geolocation,
• electronic signatures
• time-stamping of photos of work sites, parts, etc,
• connected or disconnected mode,
• employee management (timesheets, expense reports),
• management of maintenance contracts,
• machine data collection,
• stock management,
• personalised quotes and invoices, etc.

Praxedo

Praxedo also specialises in the management of interventions and maintenance, for employees in the field such as technicians, auditors and inspectors.

Its key features include

• a mobile application for real-time communication with the field,
• a web interface for planning and monitoring,
• history of interventions,
• prepared forms,
• disconnected mode for sites in white zones or underground,
• synchronisation with the diary,
• remote stock management,
• electronic signature,
• Document management (work orders and reports),
• the SmartScheduler module for intelligent planning based on geolocation, technician skills, etc.

Computer-aided maintenance management solutions (CMMS)

This organisation and planning software is designed to maintain a specific level of service. In IT maintenance, they can be used to monitor the performance of a department; in industrial maintenance, they can be used to detect problems with equipment, track changes and programme interventions. They are therefore particularly well suited to preventive maintenance.

Twimm

Twimm offers all the tools you need to digitise and improve the quality of your maintenance services, making you more productive and profitable. You can manage your equipment and operations from A to Z, and track the profitability of your projects. An optional energy management module helps you optimise building consumption and energy billing.

Key features include

• creation of an asset database (sites, customers, equipment, contracts),
• equipment management
• management and control of maintenance and works,
• management of regulatory controls,
• publishing and managing maintenance contracts,
• manage the quotation - order - invoice flow in the office and in the field,
• a mobile technician application,
• stock management,
• fluid management,
• customised activity reports, etc.

Yuman

Yuman is a CMMS solution that enables technicians and their managers to communicate in real time. The mapping system enables work to be planned, giving visibility of the progress of tasks and the management of working time. The tool therefore manages not only maintenance, but also the work to be carried out (labour, invoicing).

Its key functions include

• scheduling and logging of maintenance operations,
• construction of maintenance ranges
• Document management (maintenance plans, preventive work orders),
• automatic generation of performance indicators for your dashboards,
• task scheduling and prioritisation,
• industrial data analysis,
• machine data collection,
• employee management
• invoicing management, etc.

Connected maintenance and predictive analysis solutions

Data analysis software enables data to be collected and used to optimise machine operation and improve maintenance operations by digitalising the expertise of production technicians. These predictive maintenance tools are adapted to a highly productive industrial environment.

InUse

In the field of smart industrial maintenance, InUse makes your machines "talk" thanks to predictive maintenance algorithms. Machine data is collected and transcribed so that technicians can trigger the appropriate maintenance operations. Breakdowns are anticipated, but if they do occur, they are correctly interpreted.

Its key functions include

• analysis of temporal data,
• identification of correlations,
• dashboards with key performance indicators,
• diagnostic assistance,
• maintenance alerts and recommendations,
• analysis of industrial data,
• machine data collection,
• production monitoring,
• synthetic rate of return (SRR), etc.

See all software Maintenance Management

What's next?

Obviously, prevention is better than cure!
The solutions presented here enable you to programme and monitor your work, and also to monitor your equipment remotely.

Planning and monitoring maintenance operations is made easier thanks to a global view of risk factors and the material, human and technical resources available.

Maintenance is no longer a restrictive cost item, but a strategic one that saves time and money. In short, the answer to the profitability + productivity equation.