Preventive Maintenance By: Neal Stiemert Preventive Maintenance One of the requirements of the ISO 9001:2000 standard is that you have a preventive maintenance process in place. As an auditor, I will share with you some typical audit findings related to the maintenance process. I will also provide you with a sample section from a quality manual and a maintenance procedure. Typical audit findings are: Maintenance schedule was not followed. Maintenance was not performed when scheduled. All equipment was not in the maintenance schedule. Equipment is only serviced during breakdown. ISO Requirement: (Key requirements are in red) 6.3 Infrastructure The organization shall determine, provide and maintain the infrastructure needed to achieve conformity to product requirements. Infrastructure includes, as applicable... a) buildings workspace and associated utilities, b) process equipment (both hardware and software) Section from a typical quality manual 6.3 Infrastructure Acme determines, provides and maintains the infrastructure needed to achieve product conformity. Infrastructure includes: adequate buildings and workspace appropriate process equipment, both hardware and software necessary supporting services Sample Procedure Acme Operating Procedure Title: Equipment Maintenance and Repair No.   6.7       Rev. A Approved By:     Frank Maintenance                   Date:     6-2-03       SCOPE: This procedure applies to Acme manufacturing equipment periodic maintenance and repair. 1.0 CHECK PRODUCTION EQUIPMENT SCHEDULE Daily Maintenance Daily maintenance is performed by Maintenance on each piece of equipment as indicated on the daily checklist. Periodic Maintenance The maintenance schedule is checked daily by Maintenance personnel for equipment due for maintenance. 2.0 PERFORM MAINTENANCE Maintenance is performed on the equipment by maintenance personnel or other designated individuals as indicated on the instructions for each piece of equipment. 3.0 RECORD MAINTENANCE The maintenance is recorded by the person performing the maintenance on the appropriate log or checklist after the work is performed. Notes: If any repair is necessary, the operator records the problem on the maintenance repair log. Any repairs performed on equipment shall be recorded on the appropriate equipment log. Some repairs may be performed by an outside source. These repairs will be documented as the same as above. End of Document Summary As always, the existence of your company is dependent on your ability to deliver quality products and services that get to your customer on time. How well you plan and control your processes are vital if you are to provide quality. A well-planned and well-executed maintenance process will allow you to meet production and delivery schedules by preventing unscheduled machine down time. Here is a copy of the Preventive Maintenance sample procedure in PDF format:   Sample Preventive Maintenance Operating Procedure I hope this information helps you with your transition. Feel free to contact me with any questions at 800-959-0632. Neal Stiemert President Independent Quality Consultants, Inc. About the Author Neal D. Stiemert is President of Independent Quality Consultants, Inc. and holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Indiana University school of business. Neal is an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer, a certified lead auditor and has over 24 years of management, auditing, consulting and training experience in the quality profession. Neal has served as an examiner for the Minnesota Quality Award, an SPC instructor at Purdue University and an officer and committee member in the Chicago and Minnesota sections of ASQ. Neal also conducts registration audits for Smithers Quality Assessments and SAI Global Assurance Services. Comment on this article