Generally, repairs are done in response to equipment failure and PM work is done on a preset schedule. That makes sense as far as it goes, but does the following make sense? A machine is down for four hours due to a mechanical failure. Two days later, it’s down again to permit the scheduled PM work.
Would it have made more sense for the PM work to have been done while the equipment was already down? One argument against this is you would have a repair crew and a PM crew getting in each other’s way.
That argument fails to account for several factors, such as the time the repair crew spends waiting for parts (a window in which PM work could be done) and the time it takes to conduct lockout/tagout. On the latter, you could do it only once even if the PM crew must wait until the repair crew is completely done. And in many facilities, it’s the same crew.
If your facility has a good CMMS and wireless connectivity, it’s easy for the crew (or supervisor) to see what PM work is coming up for that particular asset.
