All You Need to Know About What is Preventive Maintenance (PM)

In this article, you will learn what is Preventive Maintenance (PM) according to the FDA requirements.

Preventive maintenance is the routine service work to keep equipment up and running at optimum conditions, preventing any unplanned downtime and expensive costs from unanticipated equipment failure.

Preventive maintenance (PM) is also defined as a routine for periodically inspecting with the goal of noticing small problems and fixing them before major ones develop.

The preventive maintenance must be carefully planned and scheduled for each specific piece of equipment before there is an actual problem as well as keeping accurate records of past inspections and servicing reports. It is mandatory for the cGMP regulated industries to comply with the preventive maintenance requirements expected by the FDA and other organizations as ISO, ICH, etc.

The PM schedules must be established ahead to extend the life of each piece of equipment and prevent any failures caused by fatigue, neglect, or normal before they cause a system failure.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE?

Preventive maintenance brings important benefits including, but not limited to:

• Fewer expensive repairs caused by unexpected equipment failure that must be fixed quickly
• Less unplanned downtime caused by equipment failure

• Less unnecessary maintenance and inspections

• Prolonged life of company equipment
• Fewer errors in day-to-day operations
• Improved reliability of equipment
• Reduced risk of injury

In theory, preventive maintenance will prevent equipment failure before it occurs.

It will save time, reduce costs, and keep an operation running efficiently and productively.

Since preventive management can be very challenging, especially for industries with many types of equipment. Therefore, exists different preventive maintenance software to help organize and carry out all preventive maintenance needs.

TYPES OF PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE

• Planned maintenance
• Predictive maintenance
• Condition-based maintenance

WHAT IS PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM? (PMMS)

The Preventive Maintenance Management System is structured and designed to handle the entire preventive maintenance operations.

It will manage the preventive maintenance requirements, activities, spare parts, and preventive maintenance records.  Moreover, it organizes preventive maintenance works, schedules, preventive maintenance delivery, grading, and history.

A preventive maintenance management system is a program either manual or electronic intended for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of equipment preventive maintenance works. Some companies use dedicated software for this purpose, other companies handle their preventive maintenance management system manually.

The preventive maintenance management process includes managing and maintaining preventive maintenance records of the organization’s equipment and instruments. In some cases, they are capable to manage financial aspects, including budget forecasting and cost-tracking.

WHAT KINDS OF PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE MUST YOUR ORGANIZATION ACCOMPLISH?

Even though preventive maintenance is an activity for many industries in general, this article aims more specifically to the GMP Preventive Maintenance necessary and required by the FDA and the QMS Quality Management System. Sometimes initial preventive maintenance is followed by a requirement of additional recurrent re-preventive maintenances based on a lapse of the time or equipment use, cycles, etc.

WHAT IS THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR EQUIPMENT’ PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE?

Many federal regulations and company policies require to comply with specific preventive maintenance schedules, control of preventive maintenance tools and features, view completion dates, test results, and detailed information such as noise, vibration, lubricants, consumable parts, duration of actual preventive maintenance time or frequency, etc.

In some cases, each company establishes its own frequency of equipment preventive maintenance based on a risk assessment.  Based on this information, a recurrent preventive maintenance date or frequency can be generated, and certificates of preventive maintenance completion must be sent and stored in the document control file.

WHEN IS NECESSARY A PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE?

Preventive maintenance shall be done based on the following information and inputs:

1. manufacturer recommendations,
2. whenever a change is introduced to equipment that may affect its operation, etc.
3. risk evaluation of potential failures or FMEA analysis
4. evaluation of the historical data.

More specifically, preventive maintenance must be performed to any equipment or machinery related to the following areas:

• Specification criteria for raw materials, internally/externally manufactured components, or internally/externally finished products
• Packaging or labeling information, process, or materials.
• The shelf life of raw material, components, or finished products
• Process parameters
• Tools or consumables (i.e. wipes, gloves, shoe covers, etc.)
• Equipment or equipment settings
• Qualified cleanrooms
• Cleaning processes of the manufacturing environment or manufacturing equipment
• Facilities or utilities
• Locations for manufacturing, testing, sterilization, or warehousing
• Environmental conditions of manufacturing, testing, or storage,
• Control of monitoring processes for the manufacturing, testing, storage, or distribution environment
• Suppliers or external manufacturers
• Line re-configuration as it relates to operators changing from a seated to standing position, updates to the line and station layouts, or re-sequencing of process steps
• Throughput time as it relates to changes to the material storage time between processes
• Product handling techniques as it relates to material storage and conveyance
• Working with multiple lots at different stations.
• Layouts in areas of product handling like manufacturing and warehouse
• Any change that can potentially impact form, fit or function, and the quality of the product.
• Changes related to supplied items, raw material, components, or finished products in regards to:
  • manufacturing or assembly processes
  • control or monitoring processes
  • cleaning processes
  • product handling
  • inspection or release processes
  • configuration check inspections
  • sample size or sampling plans
  • method of testing (e.g. physical, analytical, microbiological)
  • packaging or labeling processes
  • sterilization process
  • storage, shipment, or distribution processes.

WHY IS MANDATORY A PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE PROGRAM?

Government regulations require that regulated companies bring preventive maintenance to their instruments and equipment.

Some industries work under stricter preventive maintenance requirements due to the type of process and product.

Failing to comply with the preventive maintenance requirements, can cause fines, loss of business, or damage to a business’s reputation.

Moreover, the cGMP and the QSR Quality System Regulations mandate to establish a reliable preventive maintenance program.

In addition, the preventive maintenance management system serves as a logbook and tracking system of all preventive maintenance in the chronological order that was done. It helps to bring the evidence that preventive maintenance has been done to each equipment by date during its life cycle.

REGULATORY CONSEQUENCES TO NOT PERFORM AN ADEQUATE PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE ON-TIME?

Failure to adhere to proper preventive maintenance program and schedule is considered a violation of US Federal Regulations on good manufacturing practices. As a consequence, medicine or medical device can be termed as adulterated or substandard if the company has failed to bring preventive maintenance actions, and failed to design and implement an effective preventive maintenance control program or management system either manual or electronic.  In some cases, it may result in an FDA warning observation, product hold, product recall, etc.

HOW TO FILL A PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE RECORD FORM?

The preventive maintenance record may include, but, is not limited to complete the following sections and information related to the preventive maintenance work performed to the equipment, (as applicable)

• Preventive Maintenance number:
• Version
• Reason and Description of Preventive Maintenance.
• Related Topics, Documents, or Procedures.
• What is included in the Preventive Maintenance?
• Why is the Preventive Maintenance provided / justification?
• How was the Preventive Maintenance performed?
• Where was the Preventive Maintenance done?
• When was the Preventive Maintenance done?
• Preventive Maintenance Duration
• Preventive Maintenance Type categorization
• Impacted areas of the machine, materials, and parts used.
• Preventive Maintenance Testing Requirements
• Preventive Maintenance Execution.
• Actual test results, functional testing, adjustments & completion
• Preventive Maintenance status, pass, or fail.
• Preventive Maintenance performed by name and signature, date
• Preventive Maintenance reviewer name and signature, date
• Closure and approval

CIQA is a quality and regulatory consultant with 25 years of experience developing products and managing projects in the medical device supply chain, and pharmaceutical industries. His experience includes research, product development, operations management, manufacturing engineering, equipment design, regulatory affairs, and quality assurance. Specific questions about Document Control Management DCM or quality system training can be directed to CIQA at ramon.cayuela@ciqa.net.

SUBSCRIBE AND FOLLOW US TO LEARN MORE.

For more details about what is preventive maintenance, follow us.

Three (3) Options to Create Document Control Management DCM Procedures:

Bronze Option. You Can Create Your Own Quality Procedures, using a Template.

You can download samples of the Document Control Management DCM procedure templates in .pdf format. 

To see the complete list of the most popular quality procedures templates, click here.

In addition, you can request a quotation to buy online a full SOP template document in MS Word format that is completely editable, ready to fill, and adapt to your specific needs.

Silver Option. We Can Bring You Formal Training about what is Preventive Maintenance (PM).

This option is recommended if you want to learn more about how to build robust quality system procedures. One of our expert(s) can provide online step-by-step training to your team (unlimited assistance) on how to build reliable SOPs using our template(s). Also, you can improve your corporate quality procedures and policies by incorporating our template(s) and tools.  It includes a fully editable template from the Bronze option, plus training, exams, and a training certificate for each assistant.  Request a quote now.

Gold Option. We Can Create Customized Quality Procedures.

One of our expert(s) will create and prepare your customized SOPs with the inputs and specific information of your company. It includes a fully editable template from the Bronze option, plus online support in document creation, implementation, and training. Request a quote online.

Get in compliance today, CONTACT US (Hablamos Español)

REFERENCES:

STATUTORY AND REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS – 

TITLE 21–FOOD AND DRUGS

PART 211 — CURRENT GOOD MANUFACTURING PRACTICE FOR FINISHED PHARMACEUTICALS

Subpart D–Equipment

Sec. 211.67 Equipment cleaning and maintenance.

httpss://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?fr=211.67

TITLE 21–FOOD AND DRUGS

PART 820 Medical Devices

Subpart G–Production and Process Controls

Sec. 820.70(g) Production and process controls.

httpss://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/cdrh/cfdocs/cfcfr/CFRSearch.cfm?CFRPart=820&showFR=1

For more information about what is Preventive Maintenance, refer to:

httpss://www.fda.gov/media/73942/download

httpss://www.fda.gov/media/94076/download

httpss://www.fda.gov/media/70106/download

httpss://www.fda.gov/media/102633/download