Maintenance doesn’t just have to mean money spent. Cutting down on maintenance in a smart way can actually unlock value in the rest of your business. It all starts with understanding, and in the modern business world that can only be built on data. Today, we’ll show you how.
Like Clockwork
Right now, you probably run maintenance when it’s needed. That sounds a bit basic, but you’ll run maintenance based on the schedules set out by the manufacturers of your assets, the terms from your lease provider, or your predefined schedule that loops into your audit trail for industry accreditations like ISO9001. Sometimes that is the best strategy.
To a certain degree, it makes sense that maintenance is time-based. It’s relatively easy to manage when you have a few assets or services, and it should (in theory) cover you against asset degradation. That’s because if the maintenance is regular, any issues should be spotted before they develop into serious faults.
From a production perspective, and the wider business angle, no one likes assets being offline for maintenance. It’s often viewed as a necessary evil, particularly when the maintenance doesn’t flag up any actual issues. Sometimes maintenance needs to happen to meet audit requirements. If you can’t prove that you’ve maintained equipment to a set schedule you might lose your accreditation, or in some cases even receive a fine if it is a regulatory requirement.
But if you’re treating maintenance like a piece of admin or a box-ticking exercise – you’re missing the point. While meeting standards might be vital for your business, effective maintenance scheduling can be a way to actually navigate all the challenges of cost-cutting.
Greasing The Wheels
With Ultimo, you can say: “Hey, we’ve done this maintenance twice a year, and never found anything, should we change it?”. Based on your experience with that asset, or with other assets like it, you can make an educated decision on your own maintenance periods. If you do this across your entire portfolio of managed assets, you’re going to quickly start shaving money off your maintenance bill and keep your machines running more of the time.
Of course, you should always take into account warranties and repair cost liability when skipping manufacturer-specified maintenance intervals, or even the terms of your asset leases if you’ve not bought them outright.
But, fundamentally, Ultimo gives you the information you need to make these types of decisions. It takes you out of the dark and puts the power back in your hands – which is what every asset manager should be looking for.
Want to get your maintenance periods just right? Ultimo is the way to go – reach out to us today.
