Maintenance and repair costs are a normal and expected part of facility ownership, but when a facility’s budget tightens, maintenance managers feel the pinch right away. No matter how tight the maintenance budget gets, facilities maintenance managers are responsible for completing a host of essential tasks. Well-planned maintenance is the cornerstone of a cost-effective facilities management and maintenance program. Below are some cost-saving ideas for facilities maintenance to further stretch their maintenance budgets.
Implement Facility Maintenance Software
You must use and control a significant amount of information in order to effectively manage the maintenance of a facility. Facility maintenance software can help you track incoming work requests, schedule preventive maintenance, determine resource allocation, and aid in budget preparation. The automation of tasks and ability to help you make better business decisions makes implementing facility maintenance systems the most important among cost-saving ideas for facilities maintenance.
Schedule Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is an essential component of successful facilities management and maintenance, as it prevents the risk of system or component failure. Preventive maintenance tasks are performed on a regular schedule or frequency and consist of many checkpoint activities on equipment. Examples of preventive maintenance tasks include lubrication, mechanical adjustment, and filter replacement.
While preventive maintenance helps to extend the life of equipment, it can also be wasteful because it is governed by operating cycles and frequency rather than the actual condition of equipment. When maintenance budgets are cut, preventive maintenance is typically the first area to be affected because eliminating preventive maintenance doesn’t have an immediate impact. You cannot include all assets in your preventive maintenance program unless you have unlimited resources. Your preventive maintenance program should focus on the most critical systems and components for which the risk of failure must be eliminated.
Perform Predictive Testing and Inspection
Predictive testing and inspection improve the availability of equipment by allowing for just-in-time maintenance of systems and components. Predictive testing monitors the condition of equipment to detect trends that point to wear and tear or impending failure. This enables maintenance technicians to perform maintenance in a timely manner.
Take a Proactive Approach to Maintenance
Traditionally, facilities practice a combination of preventive maintenance and breakdown maintenance, or practice only breakdown maintenance. Breakdown maintenance, which allows equipment to run to failure, quickly consumes asset life and necessitates expensive replacements. Running damaged equipment until it fails may also lead to higher environmental cleanup and lost production costs since the equipment often fails at the worst times. It may even cause operations to shut down without warning.
Optimal maintenance programs are a logical combination of predictive maintenance software testing and inspection, preventive maintenance, and proactive maintenance. Proactive maintenance involves identifying the root cause of equipment failure and then taking action to remove it. Potential root causes of equipment failure include defective installation, defective parts, unsuitable design, or improper operation. Eliminating the root causes of machinery defects can reduce the amount of defects that must be repaired over time and lower maintenance costs. Technologies that can be used to identify defects include oil analysis, vibration analysis, shaft alignment, thermal imaging, and motor circuit testing.
Many facilities view equipment failure as a necessary evil, but it doesn’t have to be this way. These cost-saving ideas for facilities maintenance will help you automate procedures, increase equipment availability, and extend the life of assets. By implementing DPSI’s facility maintenance software and developing an optimal maintenance program, you’ll ensure your equipment stays in peak operating condition and reduce overall maintenance costs.
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