What are Maintenance Checklists?
Maintenance checklists and logbooks are tools used by technicians to document equipment maintenance inspections. Equipment maintenance involves the continuous process of checking, repairing, and servicing operating equipment to ensure businesses can function without interruption. Ultimately, maintenance checklists can be used to efficiently track records of actions performed and implement preventive measures for quality and safety purposes.
Why is it important?
Having a maintenance checklist is fundamental to having a well managed operation. A good maintenance checklist helps your maintenance team do their job efficiently and protects your business from unanticipated breakdowns and costs. Below are some of the key benefits of performing regular maintenance:
- Maintains reliability: ensures operating equipment is always available and in good working condition for the long term.
- Ensures safety: unexpected hazards are avoided such as machine failure and breakdowns which can cause accidents and injuries to surrounding people if left unchecked.
- Improves efficiency: defects are detected before they worsen. Operational downtime is reduced which saves both time and money.
- Provides good recordkeeping: consistent documentation of repairs and diagnostics can help identify broader trends and support future investigations.
How to Create a Maintenance Checklist in 3 Steps
Regular maintenance checks partnered with an effective maintenance checklist can help avoid further equipment failure and prolong their lifespan. Below are the 3 steps to building an effective maintenance checklist.
Step 1: Create a plan.
Establish the specifics of your maintenance management program such as, determining who will be involved in the maintenance project and what the goal is (e.g., decreasing equipment downtime or reducing maintenance costs)
Step 2: Determine items or areas to cover.
Once you’ve determined the specifics of your maintenance program, proceed with identifying the items or areas that will help achieve the goal of your maintenance program. Start assessing your environment, you can use the SWOT analysis as a framework. Having a full understanding of your environment will help you to create a checklist tailored to your work.
Step 3: Draft your checklist.
Having been fully equipped with the information above, you can start building your checklist. Here are some ideas of what you can put in your checklist:
Maintenance checklists typically answer the following questions:
- What is the visual and physical condition of the equipment, machine, or facilities?
- Are there physical defects found?
- What actions need to be performed?
- What is the overall maintenance inspection assessment?
- Who performed the inspection?
FAQs About Maintenance
A maintenance inspection is a process that evaluates the condition of an equipment, machine, or even structures of a building or facility. Maintenance inspections help identify issues before they worsen and result in costly repairs and operational downtime.
Depending on what is being inspected for maintenance, the checklist should cover its aspects and should be evaluated against relevant standards and requirements. It can also include last maintenance work done, repair history, and other information that will be crucial for the inspector.
