Maintenance is often been perceived primarily as a cost factor. With the transition into reliability management as a crucial strategic factor for a company's success, this perception is slowly changing.
But obviously, costs are a major concern and there is a lot of attention when it comes to cost reduction in maintenance operations. Fortunately, a lot can be done.
Keep reading to see which five cost drivers in industrial maintenance we have gathered for you and how you can avoid them!
Cost Driver #1: Lack of investment
Short-term cost-cutting measures in maintenance will probably haunt your organization for a very long time. Plants, machines, and electric components need regular maintenance, updates, and modernization to avoid unplanned downtimes. However, oftentimes companies ignore issues with old and outdated software, manuals, and documentation.
Cost Driver #2: Machine downtimes & missing KPIs
Unplanned downtime costs anywhere from $3,000 to $200,000 an hour. If a machine has broken down, then production comes to a hard stop. These situations put tremendous pressure on the maintenance staff to fix the breakdown and avoid critical incidences in the first place.
Predictive maintenance and the evaluation of machine parameters help to prevent downtimes. Digital tools and smart digital helpers support technicians with fast repairs and improve the overall operational efficiency.
Cost Driver #3: Lack of documentation
Lacking documentation on how to repair a machine is also a problem often seen in maintenance organizations, especially, when the experts who have all the knowledge have left the company (brain drain, retirement). The bill of materials drawings and parts list of spare parts are also crucial parts of proper maintenance documentation.
Cost Driver #4: Slow & wrong decisions
Digitized evaluation of your machine data provides the best basis for well-founded decisions based on solid figures. According to a digitization survey, 33% of survey participants manage, control, and monitor their assets, such as production facilities, centrally. Another 37% are currently transitioning towards digitized evaluations, and 36% systematically analyze their company data.
Cost Driver #5: Overstrained employees
Stressed and overworked employees are more likely to make mistakes. They can’t carry out maintenance tasks with the necessary care and accuracy and ignore or postpone scheduled (predictive) maintenance activities.
Digital tools such as Partium, can help to reduce repetitive and administrative tasks. They help avoid incorrect part orders, reduce long trips in the warehouse, and are a great option to double-check if the part in question is available or the right part in the first place.
If you want to know more about Partium and what it can do for you, shoot us a message at sales@partium.io or contact us here.