Facilities. When to fix and when to replace?

Although merely fixing assets as they fail may work in some circumstances, it’s not a strategy that should be adopted without a careful cost-benefit analysis. Savings from not maintaining an asset should be compared to costs incurred when the asset fails.

Here are some of the categories of cost to consider:

Call-out Charges – Unless you have onsite maintenance staff, unexpected asset failure may result in high call-out charges for an engineer to fix the equipment.

Opportunity Cost Maintenance Charges – Even if you do have onsite maintenance staff, they’ll probably be working on other tasks. The time taken to switch between jobs and travel from one area of the business to another costs money. In addition, there is a risk that the asset previously being worked on may not then be ready for use when planned.

Damaged Components – System failure damages components. If the oil in a car or another machine isn’t replaced regularly to ease the passage of metal on metal, you can imagine the damage caused. Regular planned maintenance limits this kind of issue.

Damaged Stock – The failure of a refrigeration system for hospital supplies or leisure centre kitchen food stores will inevitably lead to the loss of stock. Similar loss to raw materials and work-in-progress could occur as a result of asset failure in a manufacturing plant.

Equipment Downtime – When a machine stops working for a business at its optimal level or in its entirety the business will be unable to fulfil its obligations. Planned preventative maintenance can ensure such downtime takes place when sufficient capacity is available. GA’s Mechanical Services division provides our clients with a fully coordinated and integrated Building Services solution.