Preventive maintenance anticipates failures and adopts necessary actions to check failures before they occur. It includes activities like inspection, lubrication, cleaning unkeeps, minor adjustments and replacements found necessary at the time of inspection etc. Its purpose is to minimize breakdowns and excessive depreciation. Neither equipment nor facilities should be allowed to go to the breaking point. In its simplest form, preventive maintenance can be compared to the service schedule for an automobile.
Preventive maintenance can be either: running maintenance or “shut down maintenance”.
- Running maintenance includes maintenance activities e.g. minor adjustments in machines revealed through inspections, lubrication, cleaning and upkeep etc.,