Annual closure: 5 tips for effective maintenance

For many businesses, the summer period is synonymous with annual closures or the stopping of production lines. This is an opportunity for maintenance teams to carry out work that they cannot do all year round.

For this period to be as profitable as possible, it must be anticipated and planned, and allow maintenance to be improved throughout the year, including after the resumption of activity. The use of a CMMS software is therefore recommended, and for businesses that do not have one, the period is ideal to adopt one. Specifications can help you choose the CMMS software you need:

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By choosing a maintenance management solution modern, efficient and ergonomic, factories can even prepare to do without annual shutdowns in the future, as more and more businesses are doing, especially during periods of renewed activity.

Maintenance activities during the annual closure

For most industrial sites, the summer break is synonymous with maintenance work. This break, which generally varies from one to four weeks, is an opportunity toperform maintenance activities that cannot be carried out in normal times. These activities can be very varied: cleaning and maintaining floors, maintaining equipment, replacing faulty machines or spare parts, etc. Production lines are revised and mechanical problems are resolved. Some companies also take the opportunity to bring equipment up to standards or modernize them.

In certain sectors of activity such as the automotive industry or heavy industry (metallurgy, foundry, etc.), maintenance teams are particularly active during the annual closure. Businesses even use external service providers to carry out all the necessary work.

The more numerous and important the maintenance operations to be carried out, the better organizing And a good scheduling are necessary for them to be carried out within the specified time.

5 tips for effective maintenance during the summer break

For the maintenance be as effective as possible during annual closure, here are the 5 essential tips to follow :

• Do some checkups ;
• prepare for future constraints ;
• prepare a Scheduling maintenance operations;
• develop the preventive maintenance ;
• adopt a CMMS.

Mobility Work CMMS dashboard performance indicators

Make balance sheets

The process of carrying out assessments and diagnoses must be followed in the preparation phase for the summer break but also throughout the year. It allows you to erect the List of maintenance interventions which must be carried out during the closure of the factory but also to assess the effectiveness and relevance of production stoppages.

Preparing for future constraints

Preparing for the constraints of the coming year is particularly important in periods of fluctuating activity. When a resumption or increase in activity is expected, maintenance teams must prepare equipment to cope with more sustained speeds so that the factory can fulfill future orders.

Prepare the maintenance schedule during the annual closure in your CMMS

Prepare a schedule

Preparing a planning of maintenance operations is essential for them to be effective and to meet all plant maintenance needs. The planning stage consists in defining the work to be done according to certain criteria and requirements:

• the duration of the tasks;
• the manpower required;
• the necessary materials, tools and equipment;
• risk assessment.

It is therefore important to carry out this schedule prior to the stop of production, in particular by developing a logistical plan for the reception, storage and protection of spare parts that will be required. In addition, each task must be estimated in terms of costs and evaluated in terms of risk and security requirements. Emergency procedures should also be developed or verified in the event of an incident.

The development of the schedule of maintenance activities during the summer production stoppage therefore requires a great deal of organization, and the use of good planning tools. A CMMS software is therefore particularly useful during this stage.

Develop preventive maintenance plans in your CMMS

Develop preventive maintenance

The summer break is an opportunity for maintenance teams to carry out preventive maintenance actions that they do not have the time or the opportunity to do during the year. But it must also be used to set up preventive maintenance plans that will be followed throughout the year, in order to reduce unplanned production shutdowns that are particularly harmful to factory productivity. Preventive maintenance is also very useful for businesses that no longer wish to close annually in the future.

Again, CMMS software is the essential tool to facilitate the development of preventive maintenance plans and their application by maintenance teams.

Adopting a CMMS

For companies that do not yet use a CMMS solution to manage their maintenance, stopping production can be a good time to adopt one, especially if the maintenance activities to be carried out are not too numerous. Freed from the usual daily pressure of urgent corrective maintenance operations, teams can be trained in the use of a CMMS, especially when it is easy to understand and use.

Making maintenance more effective during the annual closure thanks to a CMMS

The use of CMMS software makes maintenance more efficient throughout the year, but also particularly during the annual closure of the plant and to prepare for the recovery. Indeed, thanks to a new generation CMMS, it is much easier to:

• Do a annual maintenance report thanks to analytics dashboard ;
• anticipate maintenance needs of the coming year depending on the planned activity;
• Develop the Plannings teams as needed during the annual closure;
• set up preventive maintenance plans.