Maintenance; looking beyond the bottom line

Looking beyond the bottom line

Is maintenance being taken seriously? There is still a nagging feeling that UK industry is still just looking at the bottom line. Having attended numerous exhibitions over the last year, and spoken to manufacturers from across the industrial spectrum, the UK still doesn't seem to be fully embracing the take up of the latest asset management solutions on offer to equip maintenance professionals with the kinds of predictive maintenance technologies to help increase efficiency, reduce downtime, and better prepare for economic uncertainties.

In challenging times, when budgets for new capital expenditure are tight, effectively maintaining existing assets and machinery is paramount, but I shouldn't have to explain this, should I? Unfortunately I do. Speaking to exhibitors and visitors at various shows throughout 2011 brought home to me the increasing frustration within the maintenance sector that large chunks of industry are still failing to understand or appreciate that maintenance should be a given. Like quality control, maintenance should be given the same importance.

The main issue that surfaces with alarming regularity is that of return on investment, and persuading those with the purse strings to part with the cash based on the potential savings that could be made from investing in maintenance products or services and even training. Too many businesses still don't want to listen to the voice of reason and are simply looking at the bottom line, failing to see the bigger picture. One thing is certain however, machinery failure will mean downtime, and downtime costs money, and lots of it! Would any of us throw hundreds of thousands of pounds into a bin? I doubt it, but this is effectively what some businesses are doing by looking at maintenance as a cost rather than as an investment for their business to prevent unnecessary downtime.

Reducing costs, improving efficiency and eliminating costly machine failures are vital, and all the products, systems and services on show at all the events I attended last year were highlighting how to help achieve these goals. Numerous truly innovative technologies are available - almost everything industry needs to facilitate maintenance strategies, and yet having spoken to some manufacturers I feel take-up is still relatively disappointing when compared to our European counterparts. I say disappointing because I expected industry to have woken up to the realities of what a downturn meant to their business, and looking horizontally at ways to reduce costs, through better maintenance.

It is my belief that industry is still not taking maintenance as seriously as it should. Manufacturers up and down the country should be using any opportunity available to them to look at new ways to develop their maintenance strategy.

Not only is maintenance an opportunity for UK industry to save money it can also help to prevent the loss of experienced engineers. As a proud industrial nation we must do what we can to preserve our manufacturing base and the highly professional engineers that it relies on. If we fail to act now on issues as basic as maintenance, it will inevitably mean the demise of some manufacturers simply because they didn't have the courage or foresight to look beyond the bottom line.