EVOLUTION OF INDUSTRIAL MAINTENANCE: FROM ORIGIN TO PRESENT - TECHNOLOGY - 2025

The evolution of industrial maintenance began to be more significant as a result of the First World War, a stage in which the machinery had to work at its maximum capacity and without interruptions. Previously, the workforce was the one that carried out almost 90% of the work, compared to the 10% estimated by the first machines.

Industrial maintenance originates from the same time that machines began to be implemented for the production of goods and services, at the beginning of the 19th century. As a common characteristic to all its development phases, there is the need to make it increasingly specialized.

Source: AA.VV.

Industrial maintenance is that set of measures of a technical-organizational nature, which may or may not be previously elaborated, whose purpose is to maintain the functionality of the equipment and guarantee an optimal state of the machines over time.

Among the objectives of industrial maintenance can be mentioned: preserve the working capacity of the machines, reduce unplanned stops, contribute to increased productivity, keep the means of production in perfect condition at a minimum cost.

Through industrial maintenance plans, the aim is to raise the level of use of production capacities, preserve or restore equipment and facilities to fulfill their productive function, achieve maximum machine efficiency with minimal wear and tear and achieve maximum of its useful life.

Industrial maintenance tasks are not exclusive to equipment and machinery, but to all fixed or mobile installations, industrial, commercial or specific service buildings, that is, any type of productive asset.

Stages from its origin to the present

First generation: from the Industrial Revolution to 1950

Corresponds to total corrective maintenance, in which it is expected that a fault occurs in order to proceed with the respective repair. This phase is usually identified before the year 1950 and is the longest stage since it begins with the industrial revolution. Maintenance costs used to be quite high and downtime to fix problems was long.

With the implementation of series production, as a result of the First World War, factories began to establish minimum production programs and the need arose to form a team that concentrated on maintaining the machines on the production lines and reducing the shortest possible stop time.

Parallel to the production area, the maintenance area emerged, which was focused on repairing corrective or emergency faults. In addition, prevention tasks were assigned to avoid failures.

Corrective maintenance was characterized by high labor costs and high opportunity costs, since the availability of the spare part had to be immediate to be able to address any damage that was registered.

Among the most obvious disadvantages are the impact on quality due to the progressive wear and tear of the equipment, the risk of not having spare parts available which meant high costs, downtime due to sudden failures and the risk that other problems could be generated in parallel..

Second generation: from 1950 to 1970

Preventive maintenance work was already systematized by the advent of World War II. And a few years later the American Society for Quality Control emerged, which helped to carry out the statistical study of the work, also improving the quality of the products obtained.

The second generation focuses on preventive maintenance of breakdowns, for which cyclical and repetitive work is carried out with a determined frequency to achieve this objective. This phase lasts until the end of the 70s.

In it, preventive substitutions begin to be made, since the relationship between the life time of the equipment and its probability of failure is discovered.

Preventive maintenance has several modalities: it can be a process to be carried out periodically, generally with a time interval of 6 to 12 months. It can also be programmed according to manufacturers' specifications or by engineering standards.

Another modality may have the intention of implementing improvements in the process and although it does not have a set frequency, it involves a redesign to optimize the process. Finally there is autonomous maintenance, carried out by the operator with simple or routine activities.

Third generation: from 1980 to 1990

Source: Debbie Turner / Inside Burslem Pottery

Conditioned maintenance is implemented, that is, maintenance that depends on the monitoring of parameters according to which replacement or reconditioning work will be carried out on the machines.

This work is made possible thanks to the availability of reliable electronic inspection and control equipment, which makes it possible to know the real status of the equipment through periodic measurements.

It is the era of predictive maintenance, which consisted of the early detection of incipient symptoms of future problems. Cause-effect studies are usually carried out to find out the origin of failures. A differentiating element at this stage is that the production areas begin to get involved in the detection of problems.

One of the great benefits of predictive maintenance is the ability to track and record failures, making it easier to schedule future repairs and fewer interventions by maintenance personnel.

Fourth generation: from 1990 to the present day

The beginnings of this phase are usually identified in the 90's when American companies had already incorporated into their dynamics the concept of Total Quality that Japanese industries had been promoting since the 60's. Total Quality Management (TQM for its acronym in English)) sought to create awareness of quality in all the processes of the organization and the people who worked in it.

The fourth generation corresponds to the total productive maintenance which is inspired by that philosophy of Japanese origin that seeks excellence or in one sentence: obtain the maximum with acceptable quality, at the least possible cost, permanently and with an integral sense. For this, small maintenance tasks such as adjustment, inspection, replacement of parts are carried out, and a continuous interaction is maintained with the maintenance manager.

The program focused on the human factor of the entire company that is assigned preventive maintenance tasks to maximize the effectiveness of assets. It involves three principles: always keep facilities in good condition, focus on increasing productivity, and involve all staff.

This is the phase of continuous improvement systems and is characterized by the implementation of improvement groups and monitoring of actions. Maintenance is now considered a benefit, rather than a necessary evil, and is assumed as a commitment by all departments of the organization.

The objective is to achieve the total effectiveness of the equipment that implies economic efficiency through availability, maximum performance and quality products.

Additionally, three other tools are usually implemented: Risk engineering that involves determining the consequences of failures that are or are not acceptable; reliability analysis that refers to identifying feasible and profitable preventive tasks; improving maintainability which consists in reducing maintenance times and costs.

At this stage, important changes have been made in the legislation on Safety and Hygiene at Work, as well as more environmentally friendly practices. For this reason, they began to implement purification devices, extraction plants, noise attenuation, detection, control and alarm equipment.

Today, experts in the field estimate that maintenance costs will suffer a progressive increase that will lead industries to generate more reliable and easy-to-maintain products.

Importance of maintenance

Industrial maintenance went from being a necessary evil to a benefit in which various departments of an organization are committed and involved. This is basically because the true importance of the effective management of equipment and facility failures or problems that may affect any of the stages of production of goods or services has been recognized.

It should be noted that the importance of industrial maintenance lies in the following:

- Prevents work accidents and increases safety for people.

- Reduces losses due to production stoppages.

- It reduces the severity of failures that cannot be avoided.

- Prevents irreparable damage to equipment or facilities.

- Guarantees the acceptable performance of the equipment.

- It allows documenting the maintenance processes necessary for each machine.

- Extends the useful life of equipment or goods.

- Preserves productive assets in safe and pre-established operating conditions.

- Improves the quality of the activity.

- It allows the adequate preparation of the budget, adjusted to the needs of the company.

References

1. Muñoz Abella, M. (2003) Industrial maintenance. Madrid: Carlos III University of Madrid. Mechanical Engineering Area.
2. Mora Gutiérrez, A. (2009). Maintenance: planning, execution and control. Mexico: Alfaomega Grupo Editor.
3. Industrial maintenance. (sf). Recovered from ecured.cu
4. Nieto, S. History of maintenance. (2009, May 27). Recovered from industrial maintenance2009.blogspot
5. Villada, «Maintenance as a competitive strategy», Rev. Fac. Ing. Univ. Antioquia, no. 17, pp. 7-13, 1998.
6. The Evolution of Industrial Maintenance: Blog: ATS. (2019, July 26). Recovered from advancedtech.com