Ensuring the equipment and systems you use in your business are regularly maintained will save you time and money in the long run.
This article highlights the importance of investing time in a structured maintenance plan in the workplace as well as offering tips on how to keep your equipment in good working order.
Importance of proactive maintenance
Establishing a proactive approach to maintenance is a sensible strategy for a company as having such plans in place should help reduce the chance of breakdowns which could impact company productivity and profitability.
Even though planned maintenance will involve investing more time and cost more money initially, you can rest easy knowing you are better prepared. This upfront planning should reduce the chances of suddenly being hit with an unexpected cost or delay due to improperly maintained equipment.
Implementing a well-structured maintenance plan means you can keep your equipment in good working condition and assess any faults or complications as they arise and before they become business critical. Another benefit of a proactive maintenance plan is that it’s easier to forecast these upfront costs in your financial projections rather than to suffer the consequences of a larger repair bill for breakdown of equipment down the line.
Cost implications of neglecting maintenance
With any business, it’s understandable that juggling a demanding workload and busy schedule means that proper maintenance of equipment and systems may not be at the top of your list of priorities. However, failing to maintain such equipment and tools can have a huge financial impact, which could seriously damage your business and ability to provide a service.
For example, you could have a series of tools that are used for cutting wood that if not properly maintained, could fail or deteriorate, thus impacting the quality of the work you produce.
As a result, you could take a financial hit as you may need to urgently replace such equipment or even reduce the sale price of your finished products if they are not up to standard – this could also lead to serious issues with customers choosing to shop elsewhere.
Best practices and action plans
There are several best practices that you can adopt to make sure that the equipment or systems you need to work in a safe and effective manner are properly maintained.
As a company, you can set out a clear preventative maintenance programme which all employees abide by, and plan regular maintenance checks to make sure things are running as they should be. Creating a checklist will allow people to easily identify what needs to be checked and it will make it easier for staff to stay on top of.
Make sure you are familiar with your more critical assets, how they work and what sort of complications could arise. You can plan and make sure that you have the right tools for repairs or people with the right training on hand to be able to fix these key business assets should anything crop up. If you have specific systems that are frequently in need of maintenance, try to establish the root cause and how you can change the way you work in the future to minimise the risk of expensive business interruption.
