A preventive maintenance procedure is the written instruction for one task on one asset class: what to isolate, what to check, what to measure, what to replace, and what to record. It is the difference between a task on a schedule and a task that gets done the same way whoever does it. This page says what a procedure contains, gives a maintenance procedure template to copy, explains how a maintenance routine the technicians already follow becomes a task with a checklist on the schedule, and lists the ways procedures go wrong.
What a procedure contains
The asset class it applies to and the task's name. The trigger: the interval or the meter reading. The isolation and lockout steps, which come first because the law puts them first. The tools and parts needed, so the technician arrives with them. The steps, in order, each a single action. The measurements to take and the limits that mean a corrective work order is raised. What to replace regardless. What to record. And the return-to-service steps. A procedure missing the limits produces work orders that say checked, ok.
A template to copy
Title and asset class. Trigger. Safety: isolate, lock out, verify zero energy. Preparation: tools, parts, permits. Steps: numbered, one action each, with the measurement and its limit where there is one. Replace: the parts changed every time. Record: readings, findings, parts used, time. Return to service: remove locks, test run, hand back. Attach it to the task in the CMMS so that it arrives on every work order, or print it with the work order template worksheet on this site for a team not yet on a system.
From routine to scheduled task
Most sites have routines that live in a technician's head: the way the compressor is serviced, the things checked on the Friday walk-round. Writing the routine down as a procedure is how it survives the technician leaving, and putting it on the schedule as a task with the procedure attached is how it gets done when due rather than when remembered. The routine does not change; what changes is that the work order carries it and the history records it.
Where procedures go wrong
Too long, so nobody reads them; a procedure is a checklist with limits, not a manual. No limits, so findings are opinions. No isolation steps, which is the one omission with legal consequences. Written once and never revised from what technicians find. And kept somewhere other than the work order, so the technician at the machine does not have it. The fix for all five is the same: attach the procedure to the task, and revise it when the findings say to.
Questions people ask about preventive maintenance procedure
How detailed should a preventive maintenance procedure be?
Detailed enough that a competent technician who has never seen the asset can do the task the same way. That is usually a page, rarely more.
Who writes the procedure?
The technician who does the task best, with the supervisor checking the limits and the safety steps. Procedures written by people who do not do the work are the long unread kind.
Do I need a procedure for every task?
For every task with a safety step or a measurement, yes. A daily walk-round can be a checklist without a procedure behind it.