Working in the maritime industry, we all know that planning and carrying out regular equipment maintenanceis better than no-maintenance at all. But does that mean we would have to only rely on the planned or the periodic maintenance system that has been followed commonly by the whole fraternity.

Equipment and machinery especially the sea based ones are, more often than not, susceptible to failures, defects and the uncalled-for repairs. Maintaining them is hard work and particularly repairing the failed ones.

Thinking proactively, how would it seem if we try and eliminate unplanned failures and eventually the inflated repair costs by a method of early failure detection of the machinery while the equipment is still functioning normally. The question is whether the industry would follow a relatively less understood methodology called ‘Predictive maintenance‘ for all the ship’s running critical equipment and machinery.

Let us understand various types of maintenance programs used on ships that differ considerably from condition based monitoring –

Periodic or Planned Maintenance System: This time based monitoring system is commonly employed on board ships that includes periodic inspection, overhauling, replacing components of a particular machine. It is costly and involves considerable man power

Preventive Maintenance: In preventive maintenance, regular inspections, cleaning, lubrication, re-assembly is carried out as per the equipment’s maintenance schedule and conditional analysis which helps in retaining the equipment’s healthy working condition so as to prevent any further deterioration to the equipment.

Breakdown Maintenance: Whenever a shipboard machinery fails or an equipment breaks down, the repairs that follow are known as Breakdown Maintenance. Generally a breakdown maintenance is avoided when at sea due to limited availability of resources unless the equipment is critical and in-use.