Regardless of your industry, maintenance is one of the most important aspects of running a large-scale manufacturing facility.
Far too many plant operators delay maintenance activities for various reasons, and it inevitably shows. Forgoing maintenance leads to production problems, costly repairs, and shutdowns. What was once a minor issue with a quick fix became a problem that will require far more attention.
Why is plant maintenance important, and what should you focus on?
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The Importance of Plant Maintenance
Maintenance is something every plant operator and manager should take seriously. If you don’t regularly maintain your plant’s environment and equipment, it will always result in glaring negative consequences, such as poor performance and even lost jobs.
On the other hand, regular plant maintenance will help ensure that your equipment is always running at the optimal performance level. It can also extend the life of your equipment greatly!
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Our experts shared some insights into the reasons why plant maintenance should be an integral part of your routine.
Broken Equipment Leads to Lost Production
The main consequence of irregular plant maintenance is broken equipment. Equipment that hasn’t been serviced or inspected is far more likely to break, and no plant in any industry can function at its peak with broken machinery.
Broken equipment always leads to lost production, because it will interfere with the steady flow of production and could even completely shut down a line. In a power plant, a broken boiler or material handling system will immediately drop output, which will leave customers angry and looking for answers.
The amount of lost production varies with the piece of equipment that is broken, but you could easily find yourself facing tens of thousands of dollars a day in lost productivity because something vital wasn’t maintained and malfunctioned. Even relatively unimportant parts can cause disruption.
If you keep a watchful eye on your equipment, you will be able to address issues early on and even prevent many equipment failures from occurring.
Poor Plant Maintenance Raises Operational Costs
Insufficient plant maintenance also results in higher operational costs. When something breaks, you’ll have to dedicate precious resources to repairs and replacement.
Regular maintenance is a great opportunity to fix problems before they require a major repair. Unplanned outages are even more serious. At this stage, your plant is facing the cost of repairs, replacements, and lost production time.
Other times plants will discover that their equipment has degraded beyond the ability to be repaired, and the solution is now a much more expensive replacement.
Other operational costs will also include work shortages, lost manpower hours, higher overhead, and rescheduling production.
In addition to avoiding increased operational costs, regular plant maintenance can lower energy costs. We have performed many equipment retrofits and upgrades that have increased the operational efficiency of the equipment and decreased the power it requires to run properly. Plant maintenance is important because it actually saves you money!
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Maintain Your Plant on a Regular Schedule
It’s not just the question of why plant maintenance is important, but how to use it to your advantage. You should schedule maintenance for every system and component in your facility to ensure everything is inspected on a regular basis. Some components will need to be inspected daily; others can be attended to on a less regular basis. Making these decisions will be much clearer if you have a maintenance plan.
Talk to a plant maintenance provider to develop a plan put into place along with the resources and manpower to protect your plant’s investment and capital and keep equipment operating as it should.