Postponing maintenance is never a good idea. Doing so will cause your equipment to degrade faster. Your profitability depends heavily on the condition of your equipment and machinery.
As systems age and maintenance schedules are postponed, you’ll face risks that can impact (or halt) daily operations, stifle revenue, and compromise employee safety.
Understanding the threat of deferred maintenance is essential for developing mitigation strategies, which begins with regular maintenance. For example, electrical transformers are an essential part of a facility’s power system, and when they fail, the consequences are severe.
Aside from natural disasters, premature transformer failure is often caused by a lack of maintenance. Regular inspections help identify small issues before they become major problems. Without performing inspections and minor repairs, the first indication of wear could become a catastrophic failure.
You can’t predict when equipment will malfunction
When maintenance is deferred, the aforementioned risks can become a reality quickly and without warning. In fact, it can and will happen when you least expect it.
Skipping maintenance is like gambling with your time, but in the end, you’ll always lose. Regarding machines that aren’t maintained, a breakdown is inevitable – it’s just a matter of time. For newer equipment, it could be years. However, older pieces of equipment are prone to immediate and more frequent malfunctions, especially if maintenance has been deferred for a while.
Breakdowns and malfunctions are only unpredictable in terms of when they’ll happen. In the absence of a regular maintenance routine, an eventual breakdown is virtually guaranteed.
Maintenance extends the lifespan of equipment
Part of a strong preventive maintenance routine involves periodically replacing worn parts before they fail, thereby increasing the equipment’s lifespan. While older equipment can run reliably for many years with proper care, neglected machinery will deteriorate fast as the individual components wear out. For example, a bearing that has a typical lifespan of 10 years might fail in three years if it’s not properly lubricated over time.
Ignoring equipment maintenance on aging infrastructure is like never changing the oil in your car or getting tune-ups. Over time, parts loosen from vibration and other factors, and components can become misaligned.
When caught early, these issues are easy to address, and proper repairs will keep your car running for many years. However, ignoring even the smallest maintenance tasks can lead to catastrophic failure.
Equipment performance may degrade
A slight difference in how your equipment performs can have a negative impact on your operations. For example, a piece of machinery that hasn’t been maintained might still function, but at a slower pace. Your business will still run – just not as efficiently.
There is a big potential for lost revenue over performance issues. Not only will you have to deal with higher energy bills and lower quality output, but there’s a chance the output might result in defects and compliance issues.
Unmaintained equipment can become a safety hazard
While deferred maintenance can cause breakdowns that force unplanned downtime that negatively impacts your revenue, failing equipment can also become a safety hazard. For example, unmaintained pressure relief valves and emergency shutdown systems can pose a catastrophic threat to worker safety.
Depending on the type of machinery you use, worn components, compromised safety systems, and unreliable controls can lead to serious accidents. And if an employee gets hurt or killed as a result, there’s a chance you might get sued.
In most cases, employees can’t sue their employer for an injury, and must file a workers’ compensation claim. However, an employee can file a lawsuit if you don’t carry a workers comp policy, or if they can prove their injury was the result of your gross negligence. There’s a good chance deferred maintenance might be seen as gross negligence.
Emergency repairs are expensive
Emergency repairs cost more than planned maintenance; you don’t want to get into the costly habit of relying on last-minute repairs.
Getting a service professional to come out on little to no notice requires paying premium labor costs. Employees on call are usually working overtime, after hours, and on weekends, and the extra cost will be passed to you. Sometimes you’ll need to pay for travel costs, and if you need a specific part, you might have to pay for expedited shipping.
Don’t gamble with your revenue – implement regular maintenance
Keeping your business profitable requires following through with strategic upgrades, repairs, and parts replacement. Investing in routine and predictive maintenance is the only way to preserve and extend equipment life while protecting your business assets, your employees, and your bottom line.