CII Maintenance Engineering Forum 2022: 38% of unplanned failures in Indian heavy manufacturing plants occurred within 28 days of a completed planned maintenance event on the same equipment. PM completion is the wrong metric.
Problem Framing
PM completion rate measures whether a work order was raised, assigned, and closed. It does not measure whether the maintenance was performed correctly, completely, and to the required standard. Under production pressure, experienced technicians abbreviate steps they've done hundreds of times, believing the abbreviated version is adequate. Sometimes it is. The times it isn't are where your unplanned failures originate.
Core Insight
Root cause in 67% of post-PM failures: critical PM step not fully executed. The maintenance records showed 'complete.' The step evidence didn't exist, because there was no step evidence requirement. A fully paperless, evidence-based inspection programme changes this. Every PM step is documented with visual evidence, not a checkbox, but proof.
Breakdown
Paper PM records: 'Completed' looks identical whether every step was executed or only the ones the technician prioritised.
Digital, evidence-based PM records: Each critical step requires photo/video confirmation before advance. The record proves the step happened, not that it was scheduled.
Real-time deviation flagging: If a step is skipped or a condition is out of tolerance, the system flags it before the equipment leaves the maintenance bay.
Real-World Application
AjnaVidya's digital inspection module brings evidence-based verification to planned maintenance. Step completion is confirmed with visual documentation automatically captured at the point of execution. A steel fabrication plant in Jamshedpur implemented digital PM verification on their critical press line. Verified step-completion rate moved from 69% to 97%. Post-PM failures within 30 days dropped 71%.
Actionable Takeaway
Audit 10 completed PM work orders against their step requirements. If step-completion gaps appear in more than 30% of records, your reliability programme has a quality problem masked by a completion metric. Book a 15-minute digital maintenance audit demo with AjnaLens. We'll show you what verified, evidence-based PM looks like on your equipment profile. → ajnalens.com/digital-inspection