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A strategic approach to amintenance can help avoid problems and increase productivity.
Many companies are experiencing equipment outages or forced downtime because of decisions made 3-5 years ago.
To some industrial managers, maintenance is a necessary evil, a secondary activity that detracts from production and depletes capital. Paradoxically, that viewpoint has caused many companies to paint themselves into a corner, causing emergency downtime that is both exorbitant and avoidable.
Less pain, more gain
“In many business sectors, maintenance is synonymous with pain,” says Dan Schreiner of the North Central Group based in Prince George, BC. His company performs both maintenance contracting and consulting services. “And they’re right, equipment outages and forced downtime is painful, mostly because it is expensive and impacts production.”
Schreiner knows that the pain can turn into downright resentment when companies end up paying maintenance contractors hefty overtime charges compounded by the cost of production losses for emergency services and equipment replacement that may very well have been avoidable.
“To a great extent, maintenance is not a “core” value of a company’s business philosophy,” Schreiner adds. “Many maintenance-related decisions are long-term. And the reason that so many industrial operations are struggling with maintenance issues and forced downtime is not because of decisions they made last week or last quarter. It’s because of decisions they made three-to-five years ago.”
In both Schreiner’s and his partner, Peter Dawley’s experience, performing maintenance in the “fire fighting” mode is a primary reason for emergency shutdowns and the exorbitant repair or untimely replacement of equipment.
“Those who consider maintenance as an ancillary business function are headed for those problems,” Dawley explains. “ a well-planned, ongoing maintenance program should be a core business activity, just like production or sales.”
On the IDCON website, Maintenance and Reliability guru Christer Idhammar asks, “Why would maintenance not be a core business, while operations and manufacturing are considered core businesses?” Idhammar adds that a maintenance contract should be long term‚Äù‚Äùno less than five years and preferably longer than that.
According to North Central, those who consider maintenance a core business activity can not only minimize emergencies and accidents, but also use planned shutdowns and maintenance providers to improve operations. They may even increase capacity by optimizing processes and integrating more efficient systems.
“In some respects this is going against the grain,” he says. “Most maintenance contractors prefer emergency work because it is highly profitable and they can specialize in a certain skill set. But, from the customers point of view, this is all pain and no gain.”
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