Elements of Maintenance Planning for Laboratory Equipment (Part 1)

Troubleshooting vs Maintenance

Troubleshooting:

Maintenance:

Activities carried out in order to preserve the operational status and life of an asset (equipment)
Does not necessarily extend the life of an asset; but lack of it can reduce the asset’s life
Basically two types: Preventive and Corrective Maintenance
Preventive Maintenance: Activities that help to detect and prevent failures before they occur or before they develop into major defects.
Corrective Maintenance: carried out to correct a fault so that a failed equipment can be restored to normal operational status

Maintenance Planning

Starts before instrument purchase
Critical factor in the choice of instrument model to be purchased are the instrument configuration and the instrument vendor
Overall goal is ease of maintenance and low cost of ownership without compromising the quality of data required from the instrument

Maintenance Planning: Before Instrument Purchase

Instrument type, model, and configuration
Stage of instrument model in manufacturer’s support’s life span
Availability of adequate and responsive local technical support
Ease of access to critical instrument parts and consumables
Local availability/ease of access to high quality reagents, gases etc mandatory for instrument’s operation
User Training : local or overseas
Environmental Conditions: Power, temperature, humidity, bench availability, location in the lab

Maintenance Planning: During Installation & Commissioning