Is Preventative Maintenance Worth It?
The old motto, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix”, may not be the best course of action when it comes to your cleaning equipment. This is considered reactive maintenance, or fixing the equipment after it breaks down. Preventative maintenance plan means as it sounds, don’t think too hard. It “prevents” any future equipment failure through regularly scheduled maintenance. Preventative maintenance is performed while the cleaning equipment is still working, so that it does not break down unexpectedly. A recent study from Jones Lang LaSalle found that on average preventive maintenance results in a 545% return on investment. With a ROI like this, you simply can’t afford not to have a preventive maintenance plan in place.
A preventive maintenance plan will help you stay on top of maintenance, repairs, and parts replacements. It will also keep your operation running smoothly and efficiently, prolonging the life of your equipment, and reducing your overall maintenance costs.
The maintenance is scheduled based on a time or usage trigger. Just as you may set a preventative maintenance schedule for your car every 10,000 miles, the same can be said for your power cleaning equipment. Whether working on the engine, scrubbers, or battery, set a number of machine hours that fits your equipment’s needs. Every machine is different, but we’ll be sure to give each piece of equipment the love and care it deserves.
Many maintenance professionals have recognized the benefits of preventive/planned maintenance. Here is a look at 6 reasons why a preventive maintenance plan is a better alternative than reactive maintenance.
Cost Savings
Companies that rely solely on reactive maintenance are essentially stepping back and saying a prayer, waiting for a problem to happen. You might as well start digging through the piggy bank now because this can be a very costly move. Unplanned downtime due to equipment failure, can result in idle employees, halting the production line, missed deadlines, and long-term damage to their brand. An unexpected failure can also mean having to pay technicians overtime and having to pay out extra money for overnight delivery of parts. A preventive maintenance program is meant to avoid these problems through long-term maintenance tasks.
A preventive maintenance plan can save your company money because efforts will be focused on preventing equipment failure rather than responding to emergencies. Preventive maintenance is usually much cheaper and faster than big fixes.
Improved Safety
When equipment isn’t working in optimal condition, it creates hazardous working conditions and even emergency situations where workers are injured. A good preventive maintenance plan improves the safety of your street sweeper or floor scrubber and therefore the safety of your company workers.
Increased Equipment Efficiency
Routine planned maintenance such as inspections, oil and fluid changes, part replacements and more can provide endless benefits to the company. These little fixes can help equipment to run much more efficiently. In turn, a company will benefit from fuel and energy savings because equipment will be running at peak performance.
Decreased Equipment Downtime
Unexpected downtime is a slap in the face for your company. While almost all maintenance tasks require some equipment downtime, a preventive maintenance program can decrease and optimize that downtime. Pre-planned maintenance tasks at optimal times decrease downtime as well as decrease headaches, stress, and angry customers! Decreasing equipment downtime is a benefit that saves time in maintenance and day-to-day operations.
Improved Reliability
Preventative maintenance can also help a company to be a more reliable business partner. Customers can count on a company to deliver products, materials, or service on time, without delay. By always offering a reliable product or service, a company can enhance its customer service and improve its reputation.
Extend Equipment Life
Most cleaning equipment these days is certainly not cheap, but the better a company cares for its equipment, the longer it will last. Preventive maintenance will prolong the life of equipment so you can get more hours out of it, resulting in reduced costs and increased profit.
The benefits of preventive maintenance has caused many service professionals to shift from reactive maintenance to a regular, routine maintenance plan meant to prevent problems and optimize equipment. Help facilitate preventive maintenance by scheduling maintenance tasks and keep organized records of all inspections and fixes. Preventive maintenance is the best option for companies that want to succeed long term, and therefore understand that they need a long term plan for proper equipment upkeep.
