What is Breakdown Maintenance?
Breakdown maintenance, also known as reactive maintenance, is a type of corrective maintenance carried out upon unexpected machine failure that needs to be repaired or replaced to resume business operation. It is commonly performed when materials or machine parts are disposable, cannot be restored, or are easily available.
The Advantages
Breakdown maintenance can provide convenience when safety is not at risk due to equipment failure. It is effective for facility management into which non-critical equipment and short-life assets including batteries, fuse, light bulb, and other disposable items are to be replaced. Also, the company would benefit from the following:
- minimally demanded workforce;
- greatly reduced maintenance costs; and
- easily detected replacement needs.
Having efficient stock and inventory management procedures is necessary to determine which materials or components should be kept on-premises in case of machine failure.
2 Main Types
Applying the appropriate corrective maintenance plan to your business can greatly affect the organization in maintaining a sustainable operation. It is best to apply breakdown maintenance if an asset shows signs of wear and tear without negatively impacting the system performance. Breakdown maintenance can be classified into two main types.
- Run-to-Failure Maintenance
Run-to-failure maintenance is an example of planned maintenance into which an asset is expected to deteriorate at any time. It is an approach that can lower maintenance costs by delaying maintenance until an asset breaks down. - Emergency Maintenance
Emergency maintenance is performed when equipment fails or stops working unexpectedly and needs to be repaired or replaced immediately. This is crucial when equipment failure threatens the safety of the business and disrupts business operations.
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Breakdown Maintenance | SafetyCulture
How to Perform Breakdown Maintenance
The breakdown maintenance plan may depend on the equipment or system failure. When disruption occurs you have to check which type of breakdown maintenance should be performed, whether an emergency or run-to-failure maintenance.
To give you a clearer picture, here is an example of how to perform breakdown maintenance in the hotel industry.
- Identify the issue
Get the details and other needed information about the situation from the requesting personnel. Identify the issue and check the level of call out to fix the problem. - Inspect the area
Go to the area of the incident and investigate the issue. Look for sources of the problem or check the relevant equipment as found on site. - Take action
Once the problem has been identified, in this case, there is a busted fuse that needs replacement. Execute the process of maintenance works and replace the busted fuse. Once completed, check if further action is still required. - Do an operational functional test
Check the safety of the site and ensure the problem has been fixed and everything is back to its normal operation. Otherwise, if the maintenance procedure from the previous step didn’t fix the problem, inform the reporting personnel on how long it would affect the operation. - Create maintenance report
Document the site status and completed tasks. This would help to keep a record of maintenance works under breakdown conditions and monitor the inventory of materials. This can easily be generated through SafetyCulture (formerly iAuditor).
Create your own Breakdown Maintenance Report
What is SafetyCulture and How It Can Help You?
SafetyCulture is a mobile and web platform app that can guide you and your teams to their maintenance inspections and generate breakdown reports on the spot anytime, anywhere. Take advantage of the following features:
- real-time monitoring updates;
- paperless inspection processes and reporting;
- capture photo evidence in-app;
- store unlimited maintenance data in a cloud; and
- create your own or customize our ready-to-use maintenance templates according to your business needs.
FAQs About Breakdown Maintenance
The main difference between the two is the frequency of performing the task. For preventive maintenance, it is a routine inspection of the facility or equipment at a set time, while breakdown maintenance is performed every time equipment or short-life assets encounter machine failure or disruption.
Yes, if the system failure won’t affect the health and safety of the organization. However, if the equipment frequently breaks down, it is advisable to use a preventive maintenance plan to reduce maintenance costs.
Yes, but with caution. This approach works well when all equipment is new and within the manufacturers’ recommended equipment lifespan. It is reasonable to set high expectations and sound performance in the early stage of the equipment lifecycle.
Yes, provided the equipment parts are always available, inexpensive, and meant to be replaced at the end of its lifespan.
Yes. According to Schneider Electric’s case study, there are 55% in the United States alone rely on reactive maintenance programs to care for their equipment.
Jona Tarlengco
