Automated preventive maintenance is a plan that watches each machine on its own and creates a service task before the machine breaks down. The trigger can be running hours, units produced or simply an elapsed calendar deadline — once the threshold is reached, the system opens the task, assigns a technician, reserves the spare parts and keeps reminding until the work is done. The idea is simple: planned prevention instead of unplanned downtime.

Why is a breakdown more expensive than prevention?

Prevention has a clear, predictable cost: an hour of labour, a filter, some oil, a planned window in which the machine was not running anyway. A breakdown has no clear cost — it has a chain of hidden ones. A line stops, a part has to be shipped in, the technician rushes, material is scrapped, orders get pushed back, and sometimes one failure damages a neighbouring component too. That is why the same repair, done to plan, almost always costs less than the same repair done as an emergency.

The biggest item is usually not the part itself but the downtime — the hours in which the machine stands idle while the people around it wait. That downtime is exactly what preventive maintenance tries to buy in advance at a lower price: a little planned stop today so there is no big unplanned stop tomorrow.

Running hours or calendar — which and when?

There are two main ways to plan maintenance, and the difference between them matters. A plan by running hours (or by units produced) counts the real work of the machine: an oil change every 500 running hours, a bearing check every 100,000 cycles. A plan by calendar counts time: a quarterly inspection, an annual check, a seasonal filter change, no matter how much the machine has actually run.

The rule is simple. If the wear comes from work — engines, compressors, cutting heads — plan by running hours. If it comes from time and environment — rubber seals that age, lubricants that degrade, humidity — plan by calendar. Most serious plans combine the two: the task is created by whichever comes first. Automation does exactly that counting for you, so nobody has to remember which machine has clocked how many hours.

How does the machine "request" its own service?

An automated plan works in a few clear steps:

1. Each machine has a card — model, commissioning date, maintenance intervals, linked spare parts and history. This card is the foundation; without it, the plan has nothing to count from.

2. The system tracks the counter — running hours from a reader or entered by hand, units produced, calendar days. As the threshold approaches, the task is scheduled in advance rather than at the last moment.

3. The task is created on its own — with a precise checklist of what to do, who is responsible and how long it will take, so the window can be planned when it least disrupts production.

4. The parts are reserved — the system checks whether the filter or bearing is in stock and raises an order if it is not, so the technician is not left in front of a stopped machine with no part.

5. The technician reports from a phone — what was done, what was replaced, what they noticed. The log is filled in on the spot, not from memory at the end of the day.

6. History accumulates — which machine fails how often, which component is the weak spot, how long it really lasts between failures. This is where MTBF (mean time between failures) comes in, showing whether your intervals are right.

How do you count the difference in money?

To convince yourself and your colleagues, you do not need a complicated calculation. Take one frequent failure and break it down. First — how many hours of downtime it causes on average and what one hour of a stopped line costs (wages of those waiting, missed orders, delayed deliveries). Then — how many of those hours disappear if the same work is done to plan, in a window when the machine was not running anyway. The difference is what automated prevention saves you.

Add the quieter effects too: fewer emergency part orders at inflated prices, a more predictable schedule, less material scrapped by a machine running out of tolerance. When these numbers are added up over the past few months — and the system keeps them — planned maintenance almost always comes out cheaper than the "fix it when it breaks" mode. This is the same logic of predictability that sits behind business process automation in general.

Where do you start without buying everything at once?

Do not start by buying a big system, but by getting things in order. First make a list of the machines and their intervals — often the first digital step on the shop floor, which we write about in the article Digitalization in manufacturing. Then connect the plan to the stockroom: prevention is only real if the part is available, and that is a matter of warehouse and inventory automation, so that the task and the spare part arrive together.

When the machines and tasks become too many for a spreadsheet, it is time for a CMMS — a maintenance management system that keeps the cards, plans, history and stock in one place. And how a manufacturing company moves from paper work cards to a digital order is something we tell in the case study on digitalizing work cards in manufacturing. If you want someone to connect the plan, the counter and the stockroom into one working flow, that is exactly what our Automation service is for.

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