As energy and almost every other cost of production rises at rates we haven’t seen for a generation, many manufacturers are scutinising their costs looking for opportunities to make savings. In previous downturns, some businesses have chosen to cut maintenance. At face value, it’s an easy decision; move away from paying a regular fixed fee and only pay out when something absolutely needs fixing.
However, that is often a false economy. Moving away from proactive, planned maintenance will push a manufacturing plant back to a reactive approach to maintenance where parts are replaced or mended when they break. This inevitably results in more unexpected failures, unplanned breakdowns, unpredictable repairs and a rapidly spirally amount of downtime, with all the costs of idle plant and the potential damage to customer relationships. For many manufacturers, even one hour of unplanned downtime can be hugely expensive.
More enlightened manufacturers realise that good maintenance actually saves them money. Not just the reduction in unplanned breakdowns and downtime, but in a number of other ways. Installing secondary gas metering can identify opportunities to improve energy efficiency. Monitoring key expensive assets ensures they are replaced at exactly the right time, when their performance is deteriorating but before they break gets the maximum value out of the assets and keeps the whole production process running at optimal levels.
In addition, well-maintained production equipment enjoys a longer life, delaying the capital cost of replacement. In a climate of rising interest rates, securing finance and meeting more expensive repayments is a much more challenging situation than in recent years.
For more information about our approach to maintenance and the benefits that your business could enjoy, you can download our free white paper – The Asset Management Journey, or you can contact us directly through the contact form or give us a call on 01886 358025.