Why We Need to Sanity-Check Manufacturer Recommended Maintenance Tasks

(Video Transcript)

Hi Everyone. I’m in Hartley Wintney, England and the most beautiful cows are behind me. And they’re reminding me about equipment maintenance.

The thing about animals in general, and specifically these cows, is that they live by instinct.  So, they graze, and they eat, and they hang around together, and you can see them washing each other.  And they live by instinct, and they don’t really have a choice as to what they do every day.

But, when it comes to our equipment maintenance, we do.  But a lot of organizations don’t exercise that choice.  For example, a lot of organizations will procure a new piece of equipment and they will take the manufacturer recommendations for proactive maintenance and just implement that on their equipment without sanity-checking it.

Now, the manufacturer recommendations for proactive maintenance are an excellent place to start, but they definitely need to be reviewed by the equipment experts and the people who know the equipment and the operating environment best.

Because, the manufacturer recommendations are just that – they’re recommendations.  But the manufacturer doesn’t know exactly how you plan to use the equipment.  The manufacturer doesn’t know exactly where you’re going to use it and the specific operating environment.  And, they don’t understand your operational tempo – how often you’re going to be using the equipment.  And all of those things can affect the kinds of proactive tasks we do or even just the intervals at which we do those tasks.

So, there you have it. We can learn a lot from these beautiful cows.  And that is, don’t just go with the flow when it comes to manufacturer recommendations for proactive maintenance.  You definitely want to sanity-check them and make sure they’re appropriate for your environment.

I’m Nancy Regan. Thank you for watching.