5 ways to optimize your Time-Based Maintenance (TBM) program

Andy Pritchard | January 3 2022 | 5 min read

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Time-Based Maintenance (TBM)

Time-based maintenance (TBM), as the name suggests, is maintenance performed on equipment based on a schedule. TBM maintenance is planned maintenance, as it must be scheduled in advance, which means it can be used with both predictive maintenance and preventive maintenance.

To execute TBM, a maintenance plan for a part or assembly that includes regularly performed inspections and maintenance is scheduled. Time-based Maintenance plans are an excellent way to manage resources that can be reliably maintained by a time-based schedule, i.e. weekly, monthly or seasonally. A simple example of TBM is an air conditioner, which should occur every year in late spring before summer arrives.

5 ways to optimize your Time-Based Maintenance (TBM) program

1) Add Inspections to your program

Instead of scheduling full-scale maintenance activities, which can involve more time and work, you can schedule a series of simple inspections. Inspections are less complex and take a lot less time. If the inspection “passes”, you have saved time and resources.

2) Inspect different things at different times

It may be beneficial to schedule maintenance only one part or assembly at a time. Inspections can also help you determine what maintenance activities need to happen now and which can wait.

3) Assign your schedule

“If you don’t assign it, it doesn’t happen.” Your staff are busy and things can slip. If TBM schedules are not assigned to staff they are not going to get done. With Weever Inspections, every inspection can be assigned so you can be assured that it's being done by the right technician.

4) Automate inspection failure workflows

If an inspection fails, you can automate and assign next steps to ensure that the process is managed as quickly and efficiently as possible.

5) Gather insights to inform Predictive Maintenance

Regular inspections can be very helpful in predicting when a machine will require maintenance. If you get good at it, you can even begin to predict when assemblies, subassemblies and even individual machine parts will wear down and require replacement.

Weever generates reports that makes it easy for you to understand and reliably predict breakdowns before they happen.