Don’t Forget About Equipment Calibration in Your PM Plans

Why is Tool & Equipment Calibration Important in Industrial Maintenance?
Tool and equipment calibration is the process of verifying and adjusting the accuracy of measuring instruments and machinery used in various industrial applications, especially in manufacturing. For optimum performance, you must schedule calibration regularly as part of a preventive maintenance plan to ensure ongoing precision and reliability.

Why Every Preventative Maintenance Plan Should Include Equipment Calibration

A preventive maintenance plan is critical to minimize costly and time-consuming break-fix or reative maintenance activities. Typically, preventative maintenance plans include routine inspections, servicing, and repairs on equipment and machinery to prevent failures, breakdowns, and unplanned downtime.

In addition to maximizing uptime by ensuring all the equipment is properly maintained, it's also critical to maintain proper calibration of each tool and piece of machinery. Regular calibration checks will identify potential discrepancies before they cause significant problems to the equipment or end product. This type of precision is especially important in industries such as medical devices or food manufacturing.

How to Integrate Equipment Calibration into Preventative Maintenance
Manufacturers can easily integrate equipment calibration into existing or new preventive maintenance plans. Here's how:

Identify critical tools and equipment: Determine which equipment in your manufacturing processes require calibration. This includes measuring and testing instruments, control devices, and any other equipment that directly impacts product quality, safety, or regulatory compliance.

Understand calibration requirements: Review equipment manuals, manufacturer recommendations, and industry standards to understand the calibration requirements for each piece of equipment. Identify the calibration intervals, calibration procedures, and calibration standards specified by the manufacturer.

Develop a preventive maintenance schedule: Calibration maintenance may require a very different frequency from equipment maintenance. To understand how it fits into existing maintenance plans, create a preventive maintenance schedule that includes calibration activities. Determine the frequency of calibrations based on the manufacturer's recommendations, industry best practices, and regulatory requirements. Incorporate calibration tasks into the overall maintenance plan for each piece of equipment.

Document calibration procedures: Develop detailed calibration procedures for each equipment item. These procedures should include step-by-step instructions, necessary calibration tools and standards, and any specific precautions or considerations.

Train maintenance personnel: Provide comprehensive training on calibration procedures, equipment operation, and proper use of calibration standards. Consider documenting training or adding mobile maintenance checklists as part of the process so every member of the maintenance workforce can access the right information at the right time.

Establish accurate calibration records: Each piece of equipment should have up-to-date calibration records. Document calibration dates, calibration results, calibration standards used, and any adjustments made during calibration. Create a way to easily access and update this information.

Monitor equipment performance: Create a method to regularly monitor the performance of calibrated equipment. This will detect any deviations or abnormalities before they impact functionality or quality. Analyze the calibration records and equipment data to identify trends or patterns that may indicate the need for adjustments or further maintenance actions.

How Sigga Enables Regular Equipment Calibration and Maintenance

 Sigga solutions mobilize your maintenance workforce enabling a connected worker environment across the organization. Complete preventive maintenance tasks, including equipment calibration, more quickly and accurately. With Sigga, gain instant access to inspection requirements, forms, and calibration details. You can automatically update quality management records with inspection results for compliance reporting.

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