WHY ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE IS IMPORTANT FOR COMMERCIAL PROPERTIES

Electricity is one of the most important resources that we have in the modern world, and no matter what kind of business or commercial property you run, electricity is almost certainly an integral part of your daily operations. Because electricity is such an essential part of daily life, it can be easy to take it for granted/ It’s important to remember, however, that electricity and commercial electrical systems can be extremely dangerous—and as a commercial property owner, safety is one of your biggest concerns.

Any business or property owner needs to be able to ensure that their electrical system are maintained properly so that they can be safe and reliable. At Custom Touch Electric, our Oceanside electricians recommend that you have regular electrical inspections and maintenance services performed in order to keep your commercial electrical system in excellent condition.

Here are a few reasons that we recommend regular commercial electrical maintenance services:

1. It Keeps Your Property Safe

When you own or operate any commercial property, you have a responsibility to keep it safe for your employees, customers, and/or tenants. One of the best ways to ensure the safety of your Oceanside commercial property is to have regular electrical maintenance performed. Even the smallest problems with an electrical system can be extremely unsafe, and you may be held accountable for any injuries that occur that on the property.

2. It Keeps Your Electrical Equipment Reliable

No matter what kind of business you own or property you manage, you rely on your electrical system and electrical equipment every day. That’s why it’s so important to keep your electrical equipment, machines, appliances, and outlets well maintained. Our commercial electrical maintenance services are designed to prevent safety mishaps and keep every part of your electrical system functioning well at all times.

Regular maintenance might even extent the lifespan of aging appliances.

3. It Prevents Major Electrical Problems

Even if your Oceanside commercial property’s electrical system and appliances seem to be working just fine, there could be serious problems that are developing with any part of it. Our maintenance services will help to identify these problems and repair them before they turn into major issues. Our professional electricians will be able to diagnose and repair problems that would most likely otherwise go unnoticed until they became critical issues.

 

Types of maintenance

Traditionally, 5 types of maintenance have been distinguished, which are differentiated by the nature of the tasks that they include:

1. Corrective maintenance

The set of tasks is destined to correct the defects to be found in the different equipment and that are communicated to the maintenance department by users of the same equipment.

2. Preventive Maintenance

Its mission is to maintain a level of certain service on equipment, programming the interventions of their vulnerabilities in the most opportune time. It is used to be a systematic character, that is, the equipment is inspected even if it has not given any symptoms of having a problem.

3. Predictive Maintenance

It pursues constantly know and report the status and operational capacity of the installations by knowing the values of certain variables, which represent such state and operational ability. To apply this maintenance, it is necessary to identify physical variables (temperature, vibration, power consumption, etc.). Which variation is indicative of problems that may be appearing on the equipment. This maintenance it is the most technical, since it requires advanced technical resources, and at times of strong mathematical, physical and / or technical knowledge.

4. Zero Hours Maintenance (Overhaul)

The set of tasks whose goal is to review the equipment at scheduled intervals before appearing any failure, either when the reliability of the equipment has decreased considerably so it is risky to make forecasts of production capacity . This review is based on leaving the equipment to zero hours of operation, that is, as if the equipment were new. These reviews will replace or repair all items subject to wear. The aim is to ensure, with high probability, a good working time fixed in advance.

5. Periodic maintenance (Time Based Maintenance TBM)

The basic maintenance of equipment made by the users of it. It consists of a series of elementary tasks (data collections, visual inspections, cleaning, lubrication, retightening screws,…) for which no extensive training is necessary, but perhaps only a brief training. This type of maintenance is the based on TPM (Total Productive Maintenance).

 

Scheduled Maintenance

• What is scheduled maintenance?

Scheduled maintenance is any repair and upkeep work performed within a set timeframe. It details when given maintenance tasks are performed and by whom. Scheduled maintenance may occur at repeating intervals or in response to a work request.

• Overview

Scheduled maintenance often occurs at repeating intervals, such as changing an air filter every March and September, or conducting a performance inspection at the start of each year. Maintenance may also be scheduled to fulfill a work order. Once a problem is discovered, a maintenance scheduler works with a maintenance planner to resolve the problem. A time is then scheduled to conduct necessary repairs.

In addition to managing the time at which maintenance tasks should occur, scheduled maintenance also deals with who performs those tasks. The time it takes for the job to be completed is compared with available work hours, which are factored into the schedule. The key here is to make sure those who should perform a given task are available to do so. Without coordinating a set time with maintenance workers and contractors, there is no guarantee that necessary work will be completed on time. This inevitably damages schedule compliance.

• Scheduled maintenance vs planned maintenance

Scheduled maintenance is often lumped together with planned maintenance, but the two are actually two separate endeavors. Planned maintenance deals with the processes and materials required to successfully complete needed work, whereas scheduled maintenance handles who performs the work and when.

The two go hand in hand, and they rely on one another to make sure maintenance tasks are completed in an efficient manner.

• How scheduled maintenance decreases downtimes

One of the goals of scheduled maintenance is to make sure time is used as efficiently as possible. It takes planned maintenance and determines when it should be conducted based on priority, available personnel, the systems that require maintenance, and system locations. If multiple tasks are needed for a single piece of equipment, those are scheduled together.

Scheduled maintenance tasks such as routine inspections help detect minor problems before they develop into system failures. By adhering to a regular, well-designed maintenance schedule, maintenance technicians can detect problems early. This prevents lengthy unscheduled downtime and allows repair work to be conducted at optimal times. If these downtimes ever do occur, they are corrected without unnecessary delays.

In short, when repairs are necessary, careful maintenance scheduling makes sure they occur at a time that causes minimal disruption to the company’s operations.

• Example of scheduled maintenance

Most facilities have a heating, cooling, and ventilation (HVAC) system running throughout their buildings. This system requires regular inspections and tune-ups in order to keep running at optimum efficiency. Much of the work is fairly simple, such as keeping registers clean and replacing air filters at regular intervals.

Scheduled maintenance ensures those tasks are handled at specific times. When creating the schedule, either the maintenance planner or a designated scheduler determines when their technicians are available. If they are using the services of a third-party HVAC specialist, the specialist’s availability is also taken into account.

Scheduling may be complicated by additional work orders. For instance, if a piece of equipment near the facility’s heating system needs repairs, that work should be scheduled at a time either before or after the HVAC inspection, depending on priority. If the two tasks are scheduled for the same block of time, one could impede the other. This results in wasted hours and delayed maintenance work.

In many ways, scheduled maintenance may prevent future HVAC breakdowns. Suppose that while performing the HVAC inspection, the assigned personnel discovers a faulty blower fan. A work order is created, and the repairs are then scheduled for a time in the near future before the issue causes further damage to the unit.

• Benefits of scheduled maintenance

In addition to minimizing downtime, scheduled maintenance serves a variety of other purposes.

1. Higher personnel utilization since maintenance workers spend more time working
2. Increased asset life expectancy as breakdowns are prevented
3. Lower maintenance costs as time is utilized efficiently and costly problems are prevented
4. Culture of proactive efficiency as personnel perform needed tasks
5. Reduced liability as assets are kept in safe working condition

The improved work culture, high cost-savings on asset maintenance, and increased workplace safety all speak for the efficacy of scheduled maintenance—at least when it’s handled properly. Scheduled maintenance is facilitated by the use of CMMS software and careful coordination with maintenance planning, both of which are well worth the investments of time and resources.

 

What is preventive maintenance (PM)?

Preventive maintenance (or preventative maintenance) is maintenance that is regularly performed on a piece of equipment to lessen the likelihood of it failing. It is performed while the equipment is still working so that it does not break down unexpectedly. In terms of the complexity of this maintenance strategy, it falls between reactive (or run-to-failure) maintenance and predictive maintenance.

Types of preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance can be scheduled on a time or usage based trigger. Let’s look at an example for each.

• Time-based preventive maintenance

A typical example of a time-based preventive maintenance trigger is a regular inspection on a critical piece of equipment that would severely impact production in the event of a breakdown.

• Usage-based preventive maintenance

Usage-based triggers fire after a certain amount of kilometres, hours, or production cycles. An example of this trigger is a motor-vehicle which might be scheduled for service every 10,000km.

 

MaintenanceWhat Is the Difference Between Predictive and Preventive Maintenance?

It is not uncommon for people to use the terms Preventive Maintenance and Predictive Maintenance interchangeably. Although they are similar in that they describe maintenance measures that are designed to address failures or operating problems from occurring, the ways with which these steps are planned and then executed are very different. Read on to find out what the differences are.

First of all, what is preventive maintenance?

Preventive maintenance measures are planned and performed on equipment with the purpose of ensuring that failures do not occur and to mitigate the consequences of breakdowns. These are routine measures that are completed regardless of the current operating condition, i.e. whether it is working well or not.

These measures are usually determined by time (e.g. every 6 months), events (e.g. every 500 uses) or meter readings (e.g.every 3,000 miles) with parameters that are based on statistics gathered on the expected or average life of the equipment.

This type of maintenance has many advantages compared with Corrective Maintenance which is only performed after equipment failures or breakdowns are reported. Check out our article on the advantages of Preventive vs. Corrective Maintenance for more information.

One problem with Preventive Maintenance is that reports are not based on the actual condition of the equipment. This can lead to some unnecessary maintenance steps being organised which can cost time and money.

What about Predictive Maintenance?

Contrary to Preventive Maintenance, this approach, also known as condition-based maintenance, is based on the current operating condition of an asset at the given tie of maintenance rather than on statistics and previously defined schedules.

The idea is to predict the occurrence of a failure before it ever even happens. This is done by constantly monitoring and testing the condition and performance of the asset in question using techniques such as vibration analysis or oil analysis. When unwanted conditions such as general wear are detected,  a repair is scheduled before any actual failure occur. By doing this, you can guarantee that the repairs are both required and on-time which isn’t always the case with Preventive or Corrective Maintenance.

However, the implementation of a Predictive Maintenance strategy is usually more costly than Preventive as there is a need to invest in specific monitoring equipment and to train staff to use it and to interpret the data collected.

So which strategy should you use?

The best strategy is to have a maintenance program incorporating both of these types of maintenance according to each scenario. Remember that considering Corrective Maintenance is still (albeit less) necessary when adopting these strategies.

Maintenance Management Software tools, such as Infraspeak, exist precisely to help you define, perform and monitor your maintenance strategy