Repairs often take place as a siloed activity. A piece of equipment fails, there’s a repair and replace action, and the system is running again.
The typical repair restores the equipment to its “normal” operating condition prior to the failure. A broken part is replaced, an adjustment is made, or some other action is taken to correct the defect that stopped operation.
Generally speaking, equipment will fail. You’re going to fix a surprise failure during unscheduled downtime, or you’re going to schedule time to correct a probable failure before it can happen.
The typical equipment (or software) upgrade requires downtime. When a repair situation gives you that downtime, is there coordination with planned upgrades?
By coordinating repairs (whether preventive or reactive) with planned improvements, you will increase total uptime. You can use your computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) to identify assets that are on the upgrade path and if the upgrade materials are on hand or readily available, perform the upgrade during the repair downtime window. In some cases, the upgrade will be done instead of the intended repair; for example, you were going to upgrade to an energy-efficient motor next month but today the existing one failed.
