What is Breakdown maintenance | Causes and Disadvantages

Plant Maintenance

Introduction
In modern industries , equipment and machinery are very important parts of the production activity. A large amount of money is invested in machineries and equipments. Special purpose and modern machineries cost a lot of money. If those machineries and equipments are kept idle then it will be a great loss to that company. So they have to be kept always in good working condition. Then only they will work efficiently for more number of years. They should not breakdown or stop production . So it is very important that machineries and equipments in plants are properly maintained. In order to take smooth production of finished goods from the factory, machinery and equipment, should be in proper conditions and with breakdown free. The damage caused to plant and machineries due to normal wear and tear , improper use, under and over utilization ,mis-operation etc can be viewed seriously and can hamper the smooth production of goods and services and machine down time. Keeping the productive resources of plant , machinery, equipment etc in good working condition is an important responsibility of management to achieve specified level of quality and reliability of operation.

Read More : What is Plant Maintenance | Objective of plant maintenance

BREAK DOWN MAINTENANCE

In this method the machines are allowed to run without carrying out any maintenance activities. Only when it becomes out of order (Stops working) it is repaired and set right. Next maintenance is done only when it breaks down again.
This type of maintenance is applicable to machines which are not important i.e Breakdown of these machines will not affect the production process.

Causes of Breakdown

i) Failure to replace the wornout parts
ii) Non application of lubricants
iii) Neglected cooling system
iv) Carelessness towards minor repairs

Disadvantages of Break down maintenance

i) Production is affected (Delayed or Stoped)
ii) Leads to hurried maintenance -which in turn leads to poor quality maintenance
iii) The plant depreciates very fast
iv) Plant life is very much reduced.
v) Increase cost due to overtime payment
vi) Cost of maintenance is high – as down time cost and replacement cost will be high
vii) Leads to direct loss of profit
viii) Leads to increased accidents
ix) More wastage of material
x) Not suitable for equipments like cranes, boilers, lifts, hoists etc

Example of Breakdown Maintenance 

However this type of maintenance is used for ordinary equipments like vises, bench grinders etc.

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