Every automotive plant has a preventive maintenance plan. Few have one that matches how each shop actually fails. A stamping press needs its clutch and brake system checked on a different rhythm from a welding robot's dress pack. A paint booth lives or dies on airflow balance and filter condition, which have no equivalent in assembly. A conveyor that carries bodies through the plant fails by wear, not by trip. When one generic checklist is copied across all four shops, the daily rounds become a tick-box exercise, the annual overhauls get deferred by production pressure, and the tasks that would have caught the next failure are buried among those that never do. A good PM plan is organised by shop, then by interval, with each task tied to a standard that tells the technician what good looks like. This guide gives a practical starting checklist for stamping, body-in-white welding, paint, and assembly conveyors, broken into daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tasks. Intervals shown are typical starting points: your OEM manuals, safety regulations, and your own failure history always take precedence. iFactory Preventive Maintenance turns this checklist into scheduled work orders, with completion records and overdue tracking, live.
iFactory Maintenance Reliability - Automotive Manufacturing
Automotive Plant Preventive Maintenance Checklist by Shop
A shop-by-shop PM checklist for stamping presses, welding robots, paint booths, and assembly conveyors, organised by daily, weekly, monthly, and annual tasks.
4 shops
stamping, body, paint, and assembly
28 tasks
core checks with a standard for each
4 intervals
daily, weekly, monthly, and annual
OEM first
manuals and safety rules override defaults
What Each Interval Is For
The interval is not just a schedule. It signals the purpose of the check, who should do it, and how much downtime it needs. Matching the task to the right interval keeps daily rounds short and annual shutdowns focused. Each shop checklist below can be ticked off as the round is completed.
Daily
Look, listen, verify
Quick checks by the operator or shift technician: levels, pressures, leaks, noise, safety devices. No downtime. The aim is to catch visible change early.
Owner: operator or shift technician
Weekly
Clean, lubricate, adjust
Routine servicing that fits a short stop: lubrication points, filters, consumables, alignment checks. Prevents the slow wear that daily rounds cannot see.
Owner: maintenance technician
Monthly
Measure and trend
Condition measurements, calibrations, and torque checks recorded against a baseline. The place to spot trends in vibration, temperature, wear, and force.
Owner: technician with condition tools
Annual
Overhaul and validate
Planned shutdown work: gearbox and bearing inspection, safety system validation, temperature surveys, structural checks. Needs a booked window and parts on hand.
Owner: maintenance team and specialists
Stamping Shop PM Checklist
Presses combine large rotating masses, hydraulics, and safety systems that protect people. The checklist weights the clutch and brake, lubrication, and safety device checks, and uses the monthly measurements to trend stopping time and main drive condition.
Body-in-White Welding Robot PM Checklist
Robot cells fail where the process meets the machine: tips, dress packs, cooling, and joint gearboxes. The daily and weekly tasks protect weld quality, while the monthly and annual tasks protect the robot itself.
Paint Shop PM Checklist
Paint quality depends on air, temperature, and cleanliness, so the paint checklist is built around airflow balance, filters, atomisers, and oven condition. Faults here often show first as defects on the body, so PM and quality data should be read together.
Assembly Conveyor PM Checklist
Assembly conveyors rarely fail suddenly. They wear, stretch, and loosen, and the line stops when the accumulated drift becomes a jam or a drive trip. The checklist emphasises lubrication, tension, and measured wear.
Tracking PM Completion Across the Plant
A checklist only works if the plant can see what has and has not been done. The view below shows the information a maintenance manager needs each week: compliance by shop, overdue tasks, and where deferral is building up.
Stamping Shop
Press line P1 to P6
On track
PM compliance96%this month
Overdue tasks2both weekly lubrication
Next annualP3 in 18 dayswindow booked
Deferred0no carry-over
Body Shop
Robot cells BS-1 to BS-12
Watch
PM compliance88%below 95% target
Overdue tasks9mostly TCP checks
Gearbox trends1 risingBS-9, J3 axis
Deferred4production pressure
Paint Shop
Booths and ovens
On track
PM compliance94%this month
Overdue tasks3filter checks
Oven surveyDue in 40 daysspecialist booked
Deferred1approved with reason
Assembly Conveyors
Trim, chassis, and final
Action
PM compliance79%falling for 3 weeks
Overdue tasks17chain lubrication backlog
Chain elongationNear limitchassis line
Deferred8escalated to manager
Want this checklist loaded as scheduled work orders for your own assets? Book a demo - bring your asset register and current PM schedule, and we will map each task to an interval, an owner, and a completion standard in the first session.
What a Structured PM Plan Delivers
A shop-by-shop checklist is the base layer. Tracked against a compliance target and reviewed against failure history, it delivers the following.
95%+
PM compliance target
measured weekly by shop, with overdue tasks escalated
Fewer
Unplanned stops
as wear, leaks, and loose parts are caught on rounds
Clear
Standards per task
so a technician knows what good looks like
Full
Audit history
of what was checked, by whom, and when
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these intervals fixed, or should we adjust them?
They are starting points. Your OEM manuals set the minimum for each machine, and regulations set the rules for safety systems. Beyond that, adjust the interval using your own failure history: tasks that never find anything may be extended, and tasks tied to repeat failures should be shortened. Review the plan at least once a year against breakdown and work order data.
Which calendar tasks can be replaced by condition-based checks?
The best candidates are measurements that already sit in the monthly tier: bearing and gearbox vibration, motor current, temperature, and gun force or drive torque trends. Where a continuous signal is available, the check can run all the time and trigger a work order only when the trend moves. Safety device tests, lubrication, and visual inspections usually stay on the calendar.
How do we stop daily and weekly PM from becoming a tick-box exercise?
Give each task a specific standard and a place to record a reading or a finding, not just a tick. Keep rounds short enough to do properly. Review completion data each week and look for patterns, such as the same tasks always marked done at the end of shift. When a task finds a problem, record it, so the team can see that checks lead to action.
What should we do when production pressure defers PM tasks?
Make deferral visible and deliberate. A deferred task should need a reason and an approval, carry a new due date, and appear on the weekly review. Tasks that are deferred repeatedly, such as the chain lubrication backlog in the example above, should be escalated and either given a protected window or redesigned so they take less time.
Turn the checklist into scheduled, tracked work.
See iFactory Run Your Automotive PM Plan
Bring your asset register, your current PM schedule, and the last twelve months of breakdowns. We will map each shop's tasks to intervals and owners, show which checks can become condition-based, and track completion by shop from day one.
Full log
audit-ready history
