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Ensure Safety with Preventive Maintenance
October 24, 2018
What preventive maintenance procedures should you take note of?
- Purchasing or renting high-quality heavy equipment
- Operational and technical training
- Initiative with repairs and replacements
When working with heavy equipment in the Philippines, you should keep in mind that each one of them must be in good, working condition from one planned service to another. They should not experience any failures by fatigue, neglect, or normal wear-and-tear. In essence, a preventive measure is the caring and servicing of heavy equipment and material handling machines by personnel for the purpose of maintaining satisfactory operating conditions. This is usually done by systematic inspection, detection, and correction of probable failures before they even occur.
The work put into preventive maintenance is done in order to stop equipment from breaking down completely or malfunctioning. It can be sorted out between pre-use practices (what you should do before you use the heavy equipment) and regular maintenance protocols (what you do in between jobs and projects). In this article, the focus will be more on the pre-use practices—particularly the preparations and the planning that’s needed to ensure your heavy equipment are both safe and efficient in your work!
Purchasing or Renting High-Quality Heavy Equipment
Preventive maintenance starts all the way from the purchasing/renting of heavy equipment. Choosing a machine that is both productive and full of service packages is the ideal situation that you’ll get. A good place to start when looking for heavy equipment is a spreadsheet. List down everything that you want out of a machine and all the things you want to get from its service department. Use that list when looking at heavy equipment. Compare what they have and can provide to what you want. If you have experiences with these dealers, you can incorporate that in your decision-making as well. Remember, the better and more productive your machines are, the better preventive maintenance you’ve done!
You should also take note of other considerations apart from what you want and need. Factors such as geographical location, cost of operations, and fuel are critical elements.
Operational and Technical Training
You need all the people who are certified to use a heavy equipment to receive proper training. Not only is this required for the people who will operate the machines, but it will also ensure that they know what to do in case problems arise. The same goes for the technicians who will be in charge of fixing things when the time comes around. Though they won’t be rigorously taught how to maneuver the heavy equipment, they will learn the basics (or as much as they are required to know) in order to fix things when they occur.
The operators and the technicians are the people who will have to deal with the heavy equipment on a daily basis, that’s why they should know the ins and outs of the whole machine. For the technician, they should fully understand how the machine operates. The more the personnel knows about the machine, the more they can do in the case that something goes wrong. They will also be able to quickly identify signs of wear and tear, and get it serviced right away!
Initiative with Repairs and Replacements
Keeping a machine clean from outside forces can be a hassle to do regularly, however, this is required if you want to keep your machine as effective as it can be throughout a number of projects. Keep the machine clean and ensure that your heavy equipment is fine for the next time you use them.
Aside from regular cleaning and maintenance, you should also keep construction sites as clear and organized as possible. Keep places well lit during the night by installing a number of tower lights all over the site. With that being said, you should make sure that you have your own generator set to power them up as well.
Multico offers great generator sets that are both compact and very fuel efficient. They are powered by the renowned Cummins engine, further ensuring the quality that it provides!
Checking every equipment that you have before and after your projects is important particularly in looking for parts that are showing signs of needing to be replaced. This is where the technicians and their know-hows shine the most. When there are parts that need repairs or worse, needs replacing, you should immediately do so before you use the machine again.
Take note that you should replace or repair things as soon as you see that they’re not up to standards. Doing this might take time and effort, particularly when you have to work with a lot of material handling equipment. But it will ensure that you have clean and effective machines for your projects!
Key Takeaway
Preventive maintenance is done to ensure that your equipment is at the best possible condition every after your projects. Heavy equipment in the Philippines is always used for projects that go down and dirty. Making sure that they’re effective will not only increase productivity, but it will also increase the overall safety of the project!