Maintenance is defined as activities that are done to restore an asset or some machine equipment to the normal working condition. It aims at prolonging the lifetime of a machine. Since machines can be expensive to acquire, this necessitates the need to maintain them in reasonable working conditions in order to save resources that would otherwise be used to purchase new ones. Maintenance cannot therefore be ignored or done away with owing to its importance to the functioning of machines or equipment.
One of the various types of maintenance is reactive maintenance. This is termed, “˜run it till it breaks down’. It is aimed at realizing the life of a machine or equipment. It is done once an equipment has reached its useful life and therefore repairs are only made to ensure that it is realized. This type is reliable since it guarantees the use of an asset till it’s useful economic life has been effectively achieved. Thereby it helps to save resources. For example, where the costs involved doing repairs are high, then there may be no need to carry out repairs. In cases where the initial cost of the equipment is high, there is also need for repairs to extend the life of the equipment.
The second type of maintenance is preventive maintenance. In this case, repairs are done with an aim of preventing failures or breakdowns that may hinder a machine from working. Examples of this can be the regular servicing of engines to ensure any defects are detected and corrected. Such may also include the normal replacements of parts or components of a machine with an aim of preventing future failures.
Predictive maintenance is another type of maintenance. Such maintenance is done in anticipation of a failure. It could be after some period of operations when a need arises to check for defects in order to correct them. If it is a vehicle, after long distances of mileage, there arises need to check the engine. This can also be done after realization of some unusual sign like change of sound or response to some engagement.