2016 Maintenance Study: Seven key findings

Respondents to the Plant Engineering 2016 Maintenance Study identified seven important, high-level findings impacting the manufacturing industries.

By Amanda Pelliccione April 11, 2016

Respondents to the Plant Engineering 2016 Maintenance Study identified seven important, high-level findings impacting the manufacturing industries:

  1. Maintenance strategies: Seventy-six percent of manufacturing facilities follow a preventive maintenance strategy; 61% use a run-to-failure method and 51% use a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).
    • Strategy advantages: Preventive maintenance, reactive maintenance, and predictive maintenance are three strategies that most reduce the probability of failure.
  2. Shutdown schedule: Specialized production machinery and packaging systems are generally shutdown only once or twice each year for scheduled maintenance, while material handling equipment is typically shutdown four to six times each year.
  3. Maintenance support: Six in 10 survey respondents indicated that their facilities’ rotating equipment receives the most maintenance support, followed by plant automation and fluid power systems.
  4. Unscheduled downtime: The most popular cause of unscheduled downtime within respondents’ facilities remains aging equipment (50%), followed by operator error (15%) and lack of time (14%). Some facilities plan to upgrade their equipment and implement preventive maintenance strategies in an effort to decrease downtime.
  5. Training: Three in five  respondents indicated that their maintenance teams receive basic mechanical and electrical skills training. Other types of training include motors, gearboxes, bearings (54%) and lubrication (53%).
  6. Technologies: The top three types of technologies facilities use to monitor/manage maintenance are CMMS (62%), in-house spreadsheets/schedules (52%), and paper records of maintenance reports (39%).
  7. Outsourcing: The average facility outsources 22% of their maintenance operations.

Access the full 2016 Maintenance report to view additional key findings.


Author Bio: Amanda is the Marketing Research Manager for WTWH Media.