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M A I N T E N A N C E
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Machinery and Equipment MRO
September 2020
REPAIR AND MAINTENANCE DURING COVID-19 The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly changed the maintenance landscape.
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ome manufacturing facilities have suffered shutdowns or cut backs because of the virus. Permanent closures have occurred in some industries due to the lack of demand, and owners not being able to hold on with falling sales and profits. Industries such as the airline industry have been hit hard, and have laid of thousands of pilots, flight a endants, and support staff. Sales of building materials hit a very low point early in the pandemic, even though they were classified as an essential service and remained open for business. Luckily, this sector has recovered well over the past couple months, driven by home owners staying home and spending money on home improvements. The food industry has been strong during COVID-19, but have suffered staff storage with breaks outs of the disease at some plants, and have reduced production output due to social distancing in the workplace. Public institutions like universities are preparing to conduct their classes online for the fall semester and some expect only a fraction of students to be on campus. This will dramatically affect the number of staff needed to maintain the campus. The cutbacks and closures have had a trickle-down effect on many support services as well. Maintenance contractors depend upon on repair and maintenance contracts with factories
to keep their businesses alive as well. Some high security facilities, dependent on contractors to perform equipment maintenance, are still closed to outside contractors and vendors, unless absolutely essential to the business. This many changes in a short period of time will have long term effects, both good and bad, on how equipment is maintained. Repair and maintenance relies heavily on interpersonal contact. The majority of maintenance activities requires more than one person working in isolation. Maintenance generally takes people working in close proximity to each other. Changing a large drive assembly for example may take two to four people, working within inches of each other. Therefore, it is understandable that there will be increasing numbers of COVID-19 infections at manufacturing facilities. Maintenance offices and workshops are not all designed for six-feet of social distancing, many plants have reduced staff and people working from home to help reduce the spread, and to protect people’s health. However, the maintenance on equipment must be completed to keep the plant running. Wearing the appropriate PPE to protect people from the spread of the virus creates challenges. Wearing face masks and shields are not normal PPE for maintenance personnel, and in plants that are hot and humid, face shields and safety
Photo: FG Trade / E+ / Getty Images
BY PETER PHILLIPS
