In the material handling industry, many people use the terms ‘preventative’ and ‘routine’ interchangeably when in fact they are worlds apart. Everyone needs to know the difference.
The definition of routine maintenance is simple, small-scale activities (usually requiring only minimal skills or training) associated with regular (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) and general upkeep of a building, equipment, machine, plant, or system agai
nst normal wear and tear.
By contrast, the definition of preventative maintenance is systematic inspection, detection, correction, and prevention of incipient failures, before they become actual or major failures.
In short, it is imperative that your forklift service company is performing preventative maintenance AND routine. Ask to see a checklist they are performing or get in writing what will be accomplished during the next scheduled visit. By doing true preventative maintenance, you will decrease the downtime you have in production when forklifts are being repaired and also see a decrease in the amount of higher service rates that sometimes are incurred for breakdown visits. True preventative maintenance should take longer than routine maintenance and there will also be a cost difference, but this minimal difference will be exponentially less than the difference you will pay in the future for breakdowns on problems that could have been prevented.
Protect your fleet! If you have any questions about Preventative Maintenance or would like for Atlantic Forklifts Services to ensure your equipment is being properly maintained please contact Robert Scott at 704-620-0959 or rscott@atlanticforkliftservices.com.