Preventative Maintenance
A good preventative maintenance program is essential for ensuring equipment functionality and longevity. Many organizations struggle to design a preventative maintenance plan that suits their equipment and operational needs. This article discusses ways to design preventative maintenance programs using manufacturer recommendations and other factors.
Preventative maintenance protects three things every organization depends on: uptime, quality, and cost control. Equipment that fails without warning halts production, delays customer commitments, and forces teams into reactive work that costs significantly more than scheduled service. Industry studies consistently place reactive repair costs at three to five times the cost of the same work performed on a planned schedule, once labor premiums, expedited parts, and lost production are factored in. Equipment reliability also drives product and measurement quality, since a balance that drifts between calibrations or a chamber that loses temperature uniformity will produce nonconforming results long before the equipment fails outright. Preventative maintenance catches these conditions early, often during a routine function check, before they affect customer deliverables or trigger an out-of-tolerance investigation.
Compliance, safety, and asset value round out the case. ISO/IEC 17025:2017 clause 6.4 requires laboratories to maintain procedures for planned equipment maintenance, and ISO 9001 clause 7.1.3 places a parallel obligation on the broader organization. Manufacturer maintenance intervals also exist to keep equipment hazards within the bounds the original design assumed, and skipping that maintenance transfers risk to the operator and to anyone working nearby. A documented program provides evidence that the organization manages those risks during regulatory inspections, insurance reviews, and incident investigations. Equipment that receives consistent care reaches or exceeds its design life and retains resale value, while equipment that runs to failure rarely does either.
Getting started on a plan is often difficult because labs must determine which preventative maintenance tasks to perform and how often to perform them. A practical starting point is the manufacturer’s recommendations. This should not be the final word on maintenance, but it provides a defensible baseline.
The equipment operating manual is the best place to begin. Most manuals include a section on recommended maintenance. However, many manuals do not specify the frequency at which technicians should perform those tasks. See the example equipment manual below.
Sample Operating Manual for the Eppendorf Research® plus
Setting the frequency of the manufacturer’s recommended maintenance tasks can be one of the harder parts of program design. Two inputs make this decision defensible: historical data, when available, and the equipment’s criticality. When neither input applies, set an arbitrary interval somewhere in the middle of the calibration cycle as a starting point. The program owner can adjust the interval after observing the equipment under that schedule for a reasonable period.
Consider historical data and criticality status whenever available. For example, if the inventory contains both critical and non-critical equipment, the frequency assignment should differ between the two categories. One approach assigns more frequent functional and physical checks to critical equipment. A monthly or weekly function check and inspection often suits this category. The schedule keeps critical equipment under regular technician review, and the checks themselves give technicians and operators a consistent opportunity to flag equipment for preventative maintenance when conditions warrant. Teams can add these as an ad hoc service on top of the scheduled maintenance.
For equipment outside the critical category, a preventative maintenance schedule placed somewhere within the calibration cycle generally works well. Following the manufacturer’s recommendations as a baseline gives non-critical equipment adequate coverage without overcommitting resources.
In addition to criticality, usage data helps determine the frequency of preventative maintenance tasks. The earlier discussion covered weekly or monthly checks as a way to surface ad hoc preventative maintenance for critical equipment. When usage data is available, the program owner can quantify the equipment’s load and assign maintenance and inspection intervals with stronger evidence. An asset management system that captures equipment usage provides the maintenance program with a feedback loop, improving how the organization assigns preventative maintenance cycles over time.
In the sections above, we described using the manufacturer’s recommendations to set the starting point for what preventative maintenance tasks to perform on equipment. But what if the OEM manual doesn’t specify any preventative maintenance? Well, it’s possible that no preventative maintenance is required for some equipment. However, there are many instances where the OEM manual doesn’t specify preventative maintenance, and maintenance should definitely be performed between calibration cycles.
It really depends on the make and model of the equipment. Defining tasks outside the manufacturer’s recommendations requires experienced operators or an experienced company that understands which tasks will extend the equipment’s life.
Take the Next Step Toward Reliable, Audit Ready Equipment
A strong preventative maintenance program does not happen by chance. Bio Calibration Company offers both consulting and full service preventative maintenance to help you reduce downtime, maintain calibration accuracy, and stay compliant.
Reach out today to schedule a consultation or request a service quote.
A preventative maintenance program is one of the highest-leverage investments a laboratory or production environment can make. The program protects uptime, supports product and measurement quality, manages safety risk, and extends the useful life of every asset on the floor. Manufacturer recommendations provide the starting point, but the program only reaches its full value when the organization layers in equipment criticality, historical performance, usage data, and operator feedback.
Designing this program does not require a sophisticated software platform or a large maintenance department. It requires a clear inventory, a defensible method for setting intervals, documented procedures, and a discipline of reviewing the plan against actual performance. Organizations that commit to those fundamentals tend to see fewer unplanned failures, smoother audits, and lower total cost of ownership across their equipment fleet. The next practical step for any reader is straightforward. Select one critical asset, gather the manual and any available service history, and build a comprehensive preventative maintenance package for it. Use that exercise as the template for the rest of the inventory.