Plant Engineering 2018 Maintenance Study

7 key findings on facility maintenance

By Amanda Pelliccione, Research Director March 1, 2018

Respondents to the Plant Engineering 2018 Maintenance Study identified seven important, high-level findings impacting the manufacturing industries today:

  1. Maintenance strategies: Eight in 10 manufacturing facilities follow a preventive maintenance strategy; 57% use a run-to-failure method and 51% practice a predictive maintenance (PdM) approach using analytical tools.
  2. Scheduled maintenance: Fifty-two percent of facilities allocate up to 10% of their annual operating costs to maintenance processes; 35% devote more than 10% of this budget on maintenance. The average facility spends 19 hours each week on schedule maintenance.
  3. Attention to systems: Rotating equipment (motors, power transmission, etc.) and plant automation systems are the two areas where facilities dedicate the most maintenance support, followed by fluid power systems, internal electrical distribution systems, and material handling equipment.
  4. Unscheduled downtime: The leading cause of unscheduled downtime within respondents’ facilities remains aging equipment (44%), followed by operator error (16%) and lack of time (15%). Half of facilities plan to upgrade their equipment and improve/increase training.
  5. Training: Maintenance teams are mostly trained on safety (84%) and basic electrical (68%) and mechanical skills (67%). Other types of training include preventive maintenance (58%) and lubrication (57%).
  6. Technologies: The most common technologies facilities use to monitor/manage maintenance are in-house spreadsheets/schedules (55%), computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS, 53%), and paper records of maintenance reports (44%).
  7. Outsourcing: The average facility outsources 20% of their maintenance operations, and the leading causes are lack of time/manpower and lack of skills among current staff.

Access the full 2018 Maintenance report to view additional findings.

Original content can be found at Oil and Gas Engineering.