For an agricultural company to be fully operational it requires equipment, vehicles, and machinery, among others.

Maintenance consists of carrying out activities to make repairs, adjustments, or necessary updates so that everything in the company works properly.

In its case, maintenance is divided into two parts, preventive and corrective maintenance.

Preventive maintenance

This is identified with activities of revision and cleaning of equipment and facilities, which allow anticipating any failure or inconvenience through the conservation of its optimal state of operation, often recommended by the equipment manufacturer or on the advice of specialists and experts in the field.

There are three possible types of preventive maintenance:

– Scheduled maintenance. These activities are carried out when a milestone or limit is reached in the operation of the equipment. For example, monthly, every 100 kilometers, or every 500 hours.

– Predictive maintenance. This is dedicated to evaluating the condition of the parts or components of equipment, to determine when and how preventive maintenance work should be carried out. For example, computer overhaul and maintenance programs.

– Opportunity maintenance. This occurs when the equipment is not in use or functioning.

Corrective maintenance

This is a set of technical tasks for correcting equipment failures that demonstrate the need for repair or replacement. This type of maintenance corrects equipment failures that depend on intervention to return to their initial function.

Although unavoidable in some cases, corrective maintenance has a large financial impact on companies, as it usually involves the prolonged unavailability of equipment.

The fact is that a significant percentage of these failures can be avoided if preventive maintenance plans are implemented.

Corrective maintenance is usually divided into two types:

– Unplanned corrective maintenance Occurs when equipment suffers a failure that often results in downtime; it can cause premature parts failure or failure to monitor equipment performance. Either way, it tends to be chaotic, because repair procedures are an emergency.

– Planned corrective maintenance

Planned, or predicted, correction is the type that occurs when a failure in equipment performance is detected. Interventions are non-emergency and can be scheduled.

Planned corrective maintenance can also occur by choice, i.e., after analysis, it is agreed to operate the equipment until failure, most of the time it is the best alternative.

In addition, the companies must have personnel in charge of supervising that the tools and waste generated in the maintenance activities are properly removed and perform the necessary cleaning and disinfection activities to continue with the company’s processes.

All the companies that are part of the Veggies from Mexico community have maintenance, cleaning, and supervision programs for facilities and equipment, according to the criteria of the different certification schemes approved by GFSI.

Claudio Jesús Román Mosqueda – Internal Auditor of Veggies From Mexico