Preventive maintenance (PM) is a critical aspect of facility management that can improve an organization’s operational efficiency. Training staff on effective preventive maintenance is the key to executing an effective PM strategy.
This guide explores the objectives of preventive maintenance training, specific courses and certifications you and your staff can take, and some best practices for continual on-site training.
What is preventive maintenance training?
Preventive maintenance training is the process of educating maintenance professionals on the development, implementation, and continuous improvement of a strategic preventive maintenance program. With the right training, your team will gain specific insights into improving your operations and productivity through preventive maintenance.
While preventive maintenance training varies across providers, some of the main objectives employees should take away from PM training include:
- Understanding why preventive maintenance is important
- Better knowledge of equipment and systems within your organization
- Proficiency in maintenance techniques like inspections, adjustments, and minor repairs
- Improved skills in equipment monitoring and data analysis to better recognize potential issues and areas for improvement
- How to best adhere to maintenance schedules and procedures
- Safety and environmental awareness to understand the potential hazards of the equipment and materials they’re working with
- Familiarity with continuous improvement and ongoing skills development
Why prioritize preventive maintenance training?
A PM program is only as good as the staff who run it. Preventive maintenance training is essential for ensuring that your organization’s maintenance operations run smoothly and efficiently.
Having a well-trained preventive maintenance team results in several advantages for the company:
- Better equipment reliability: As maintenance teams learn how to best execute asset management and related tasks, your equipment directly benefits, resulting in improved operational efficiency and asset longevity.
- Cost savings: When staff understand and effectively implement PM activities, it prevents equipment breakdowns, reducing unplanned downtime and costly repairs.
- Improved safety: PM training raises awareness of equipment and workplace safety, ensuring your staff understands how to operate and maintain machinery safely.
- Better compliance adherence: With an understanding of safety and environmental concerns and regulations, employees can ensure they are working in compliance with local and industry laws.
Internal training methods vs external training opportunities
Both internal and external training methods hold value when it comes to preventive maintenance training. Let’s break down the advantages of each of these methods.
Internal preventive maintenance training advantages
Internal training programs for preventive maintenance teams are great because they can be easily customized to your organization’s unique needs, processes, and equipment. Additional advantages include:
- Cost-effective: Internal training incurs lower costs as it doesn’t require course fees or travel and accommodation. It also utilizes existing resources, like in-house trainers and facilities.
- Team building: Training your team on-site builds a sense of purpose and unity as they learn together and work towards the same organizational goals.
- Convenience: Internal maintenance training can be conducted on-site, making it easy for all necessary team members to attend without the need to travel or take time away from work or home life.
External preventive maintenance training advantages
External preventive maintenance training programs and courses offer benefits that are difficult to achieve with internal training. These include:
- Specialized expertise: External training programs are led by specialized instructors and industry experts who share deeper insights into preventive maintenance techniques, best practices, and technologies.
- Diverse learning opportunities: External educational offerings include a wide array of courses, workshops, and certifications catered to different skill levels and areas of specialization. It can be hard to accommodate all of this with an entire team during an on-site training. External training allows each maintenance team member to find specialized courses related directly to their department or responsibilities.
- Networking: External training provides opportunities for collaboration and networking with peers in the industry, encouraging knowledge sharing and professional development.
- Certifications: Employees can enhance career development by achieving specific benchmarks and receiving maintenance certifications through external training programs.
Internal training is an efficient way to foster a sense of unity and continuous improvement among your maintenance team. External training is excellent for more advanced and specialized training that employees can use to enhance their skills, knowledge, and career development.
Both of these training methods are valuable for creating a well-rounded preventive maintenance team and should be applied based on the goals of your training program.
Best sources for preventive maintenance training
There are many online resources for external preventive maintenance training courses. Here are a few that we’ve found and recommend looking into as you get started.
Life Cycle Institute
Life Cycle Institute offers a variety of in-person and online maintenance training courses. Each facilitator completes rigorous development and certification processes to create engaging and active learning environments.
Life Cycle Institute preventive maintenance courses:
- Maintenance Planning and Scheduling: This course applies preventive and predictive maintenance practices and is intended for maintenance supervisors, managers, planners and schedulers, and plant management engineers.
- Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM): This online course benefits those responsible for equipment asset lifecycle management, like reliability engineers, project engineers, and maintenance managers.
TPC
TPC provides industrial training and workforce management solutions. To optimize learning, they offer in-person and virtual training with more than 30 field-experienced instructors. They also offer over 1,000 hours of additional digital courses for industrial maintenance personnel.
TPC’s course on Implementing Preventive Maintenance provides the fundamentals for understanding and setting up an industrial PM program.
EdApp
EdApp is a learning management system (LMS) that allows maintenance teams to bring external training in-house. It gamifies training with easily consumable, app-based courses built across several industries.
EdApp’s specialized preventive maintenance training courses cover numerous topics including:
- Machine Guarding
- Crane and Host Operator Training
- Controlling Hazardous Energy
- High-Pressure Systems
- Quality Control
- Working Safely with Machinery
- Industrial Hygiene
- Good Manufacturing Practices for the Manufacturing Industry
- Conveyor Safety
Reliability Academy
Erik Hupjé, the founder of Reliability Academy, worked in asset management for over 20 years and saw a need in the industry to reduce reactive maintenance. His solution was to provide resources and training to help organizations implement reliability and preventive maintenance programs.
Reliability Academy’s courses on Developing and Improving Preventive Maintenance Programs provide team members and organizations with the tools, knowledge, and techniques they need to improve their preventive maintenance programs and eliminate up to 60% of unnecessary maintenance tasks.
Common preventive maintenance certifications
As you look for preventive maintenance training programs for yourself or your team, pay attention to the certifications that they offer. These certifications not only benefit your organization but provide a lasting benefit to your staff as they can serve as tools for further career development.
Here are some of the common preventive maintenance certifications that maintenance employees should strive for:
- Certified Maintenance and Reliability Technician (CMRT): This certification from the Society for Maintenance & Reliability Professionals (SMRP) tests you on predictive and preventative maintenance skills, troubleshooting, and corrective maintenance.
- Certified Maintenance & Reliability Professional (CMRP): This SMRP certification looks at the managerial side of maintenance work, including equipment reliability and work order management.
- CMMS Certifications: Software vendors typically offer certifications for computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), which provide additional expertise in using the system to enhance preventive maintenance programs.
Best practices for internal training on preventive maintenance
Effective preventive maintenance programs require thorough training of all team members involved in facility and equipment maintenance and operation. To get it right, follow these tried and true best practices:
- Assess training needs: Consider the skills and expertise needed to execute preventive maintenance tasks while building your PM plan and evaluate your current employee skill levels. This will help identify skills and knowledge gaps to highlight areas where additional training or development is needed.
- Customize the training: Tailor training content to align with the organization’s specific needs, goals, processes, and equipment. Incorporate real-life examples, case studies, and scenarios that are relevant to employees’ daily maintenance tasks and challenges.
- Use a variety of training methods: Mix classroom instruction with hands-on practical exercises, demonstrations, simulations, and multimedia presentations to accommodate different learning styles and preferences.
- Engage subject matter experts: Tap into the expertise of internal subject matter experts, experienced technicians, and maintenance supervisors to lead training sessions and share practical insights and best practices.
- Ensure a sufficient support structure: Offer ongoing support and resources to employees throughout the training process. Provide access to reference materials, job aids, online resources, SOPs, and mentoring opportunities to reinforce learning and address questions or concerns that arise during training.
- Promote active engagement and participation: Create a supportive learning environment with different group sizes and settings where employees feel comfortable asking questions, sharing experiences, and experimenting with new techniques and procedures.
- Measure learning outcomes: Implement mechanisms to assess learning outcomes and evaluate the effectiveness of the training program. Use quizzes, assessments, practical evaluations, and feedback surveys to gauge employees’ comprehension, skills acquisition, and confidence in applying preventive maintenance concepts.
- Provide oversight, feedback, and recognition: Offer constructive feedback and recognition to employees as they progress through the training program. Acknowledge achievements, milestones, and improvements in performance to motivate continued learning and engagement.
- Build in continuous learning: Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement within the organization. Encourage employees to pursue additional training opportunities, certifications, and professional development initiatives to enhance their expertise in preventive maintenance over time.
By following these best practices, organizations can develop and deliver internal training programs that empower employees with the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to perform preventive maintenance tasks effectively and contribute to the overall success of the organization.
Improve Preventive Maintenance Training with Preventive Maintenance Software
When engaging in preventive maintenance training, it’s important to ensure that your team is familiar with any tools and technologies the organization uses for preventive maintenance. A common tool for streamlining preventive maintenance activities is a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS).
A CMMS can help your organization streamline work orders, optimize asset management, and create a centralized hub for communication with your preventive maintenance team.
Want to learn more? Try Limble CMMS’ free demo today, or contact our team with questions.
