Down time on your equipment eats into your profits, to reduce downtime on your equipment you should start a regular preventative maintenance program. Your maintenance program should be simple, consistent and most of all applied and understood by all concerned. A good maintenance program will add years of service to your equipment, remember to consult the machine manual for proper specifications on the type of lubricants to use.

Each piece of equipment should have its own work card, detailing manufacturer, model, serial number and lubrication information. There also should be a checklist of maintenance items which can be checked off as and when performed. There also should be a section detailing repairs or adjustments, how long the repair took and what parts if any were replaced.

Preventative maintenance tasks can be broken down into daily weekly monthly and quarterly tasks.