How do we choose the most suitable type of maintenance for our equipment?

When we talk about the most used types of maintenance we find several terminologies: emergency maintenance, corrective maintenance, autonomous maintenance, preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance.

Choosing the most suitable type of maintenance for our equipment is not always an easy and obvious choice, it depends on several factors.

Here are some things to consider:

1. Type of equipment: Different equipment has different needs. Critical or complex equipment may require predictive maintenance, equipment with medium criticality may benefit from preventive maintenance and non-critical equipment from emergency maintenance.
2. 2. The causes or failure modes: if they can be monitored in this case, the most suitable model would be predictive maintenance. If the failure modes can be prevented through maintenance actions, then we can include the respective equipment in a preventive maintenance plan. If we can neither monitor nor prevent the mode of failure, then the most appropriate maintenance mode might be "run to failure" - generally in the case of electronic equipment
3. Data accessibility: Where there is an opportunity to analyze real-time equipment health data, predictive maintenance can be an excellent choice. Otherwise, preventive maintenance may be a better choice.
4. Safety regulations and standards: Safety regulations may require the use of certain types of maintenance.
5. Team expertise and or employee feedback: The expertise of staff trained to carry out analyzes or complex repairs can influence the decision, we can also use user feedback and meet their needs.
6. The cost of maintenance and the organization's strategy - last but not least, the decision must be made based on the cost of each type of maintenance. In general, the cost of predictive maintenance is higher initially, but more effective in the long term. In some situations, emergency maintenance can be the best choice in terms of cost.

The list of factors above can be adapted to the needs of the organization and their analysis can lead to choosing the most suitable type of maintenance for our equipment, thus maximizing efficiency and reducing costs in the long term.

Good luck!