Guide
Machinery maintenance logs: what PUWER expects you to keep
Updated
The repair fixes the machine. The record is what you show an inspector, an insurer or a buyer. Here is what the regulations actually say, and what a usable log looks like.
What the regulations say
Production machinery is work equipment under the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. Two regulations matter here. Regulation 5 (Maintenance) requires work equipment to be maintained in an efficient state, in efficient working order and in good repair, and requires that where machinery has a maintenance log, the log is kept up to date. Regulation 6 (Inspection) requires inspection where the safety of the equipment depends on how it was installed, or where it is exposed to conditions that cause deterioration, with the result of the inspection recorded and kept until the next one.
Read that carefully: PUWER does not oblige every machine to have a maintenance log. It obliges you to keep one up to date where the machine has one, and to keep inspection records where regulation 6 applies. In practice, if the safe operation of the machine depends on maintenance, you want the log whether or not a specific line of the regulations names it.
What a usable log contains
- Asset identity
- Machine, make, model, serial number and location. If your maintenance system cannot tell two identical machines apart, the log is not evidence of anything.
- Date and who did the work
- Named engineer or contractor, with their company. An unsigned entry is hard to rely on later.
- What was done
- Planned service, inspection or breakdown repair, described in enough detail that someone else can tell what was and was not touched.
- Parts fitted
- Part numbers and whether new, refurbished or manufactured. This is the record that saves you a week of sourcing next time.
- Readings taken
- Vibration, temperature, pressures, alignment, insulation resistance, whatever the discipline uses. Trends are worth more than single readings.
- Work identified but not done
- The most valuable field in the whole log, and the one most often left blank. It becomes your planned work list and your evidence that a known issue was managed rather than ignored.
- Next action and date
- What is due next and when, so the log drives the schedule instead of describing the past.
Getting the record out of your contractor
- Ask for the report format before you place the order. A photograph of a handwritten worksheet is not a maintenance record you can search.
- Ask for readings, not just outcomes. "Bearing replaced" tells you nothing about why it failed.
- Ask for parts detail with numbers. It is the difference between a two-hour repeat repair and a two-week one.
- Ask for the work-identified list separately, so it can go straight onto your planned maintenance plan.
- File it against the asset, not against the invoice. Finance filing and engineering filing are not the same job.
Why it changes what repairs cost you
A machine with a real history gets diagnosed faster, because the engineer can see what has already been changed and what keeps failing. A machine with no history is charged for the time it takes to work that out from scratch, every time. The log is the cheapest thing on this site.