preventive maintenance

preventive maintenance

a planned MAINTENANCE programme aimed at minimizing or eliminating breakdowns to buildings, plant, machinery and equipment with their consequent disruption to production, or inconsistent machine operation which might affect product quality. A preventive maintenance programme would involve keeping an up-to-date PLANT REGISTER which notes the maintenance requirements of each machine; scheduling the frequency of inspections, lubrication and overhauls for each machine; GROUP REPLACEMENT of parts, where appropriate, or replacement of parts as they fail (see CONDITION-BASED MAINTENANCE); making modifications and improvements which increase reliability and at the same time bring the plant, machinery or equipment up to date.