Managing Maintenance as a Business

Managing Maintenance As A Business

Why Manage Maintenance?

Maintenance costs continue to capture the attention of senior management as the investment and reliability in assets become increasingly greater. Over the past twenty years, we have witnessed the recognition of maintenance as essential to the core business operations. However, most companies fail to adequately define the role and operation of maintenance within the business enterprise. Experience suggests that in many cases, maintenance continues to be a cost of doing business, and as such, treated just like any other budget line item — it increases or decreases as a percentage with disregard to impact on operations or what is truly needed. So why should we manage maintenance as a business? The answer is quite simply, because it is a business; in fact, it is a service business. Looking at today’s enterprise we see that direct costs have become identifiable and manageable as a result of management’s focus and attention. To this end, numerous business processes, systems, policies and procedures have been implemented to assist in this endeavor. However, we also find that maintenance costs are becoming a larger percentage of the total cost of conversion (excluding direct materials). For example, one company recently identified their maintenance cost as in excess of 40% of their total cost of conversion, representing a significant opportunity for improvement.

The real question still remains as to how we approach managing the maintenance function. All too often the answer to this question is to strictly implement a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) without considering the required, complimentary processes. This becomes the panacea for the effective and efficient use of maintenance resources. Many managers accept the philosophy that the system is the solution and fail to recognize that the real solution is in the process. But, how can one define the right processes without first defining...