How To Reduce Equipment Maintenance Costs

Experts estimate that unplanned downtime costs businesses billions yearly; equipment failure accounts for 42%. Your ability to manage and reduce maintenance costs can ease the financial strain on your business and significantly affect your bottom line. You can prevent costly breakdowns and ensure equipment longevity. But while you need to reduce your maintenance costs, cutting the expenses too deeply can also lead to equipment failure and more downtime. Here are some practical ways to help you find the right balance. 

Create a funding source for equipment maintenance

While some experts advise budgeting approximately 2% to 5% of your facility’s spending value on maintenance, that may not be enough in some cases. You can consider raising different sources of funds to reduce your spending on equipment maintenance. Some options include leasing your equipment, including them in your budget, or applying for equipment financing. You can also turn to capital allowances as a good option. So, what is capital allowances? It allows you to claim a proportion of your equipment and machinery expenditure cost against your business’s taxable income. And you can add this amount to your equipment maintenance fund. 

Invest only in quality parts

As indicated earlier, cutting back on your maintenance costs too deeply can be counter-intuitive, as it could cause more unplanned time. And one of the most common ways many manufacturing businesses cut their maintenance expenses too deeply is by patronising sub-standard parts. Yes, they may be cheap, but the drop in part quality will likely cause your equipment to break down more often, costing you more in repairs. 

Your best option is to invest only in high-quality parts. When replacing any part of the machinery, use only high-quality parts designed specifically for your equipment. 

Outsource your maintenance tasks

Sometimes, the best way to reduce maintenance expenses is to outsource all maintenance tasks to a third party. Doing this offers three main benefits. First, it is more cost-effective than hiring an in-house maintenance team. Secondly, it frees you to focus on other productive areas of your business. And thirdly, you can work assured that your maintenance issues are in expert hands. When you outsource maintenance tasks, your business also benefits from the specialised equipment that your third-party expertise will come with.   

Invest in maintenance software

Properly scheduling maintenance periods matters when running a manufacturing business, as it can prevent costly and unnecessary disruptions and delays. Investing in maintenance software can help you schedule all maintenance tasks more efficiently. Such software is also designed to identify important maintenance trends you can use and track all maintenance activities in your business. Just like a third-party company, it takes a lot of responsibilities off your shoulders.

Consider using predictive maintenance

Similarly to maintenance software, predictive maintenance relies heavily on data. But its major advantage is that it uses such data analysis to predict potential maintenance issues before they become a problem. That means you no longer have to worry about any part of your business equipment or manufacturing machinery breaking down without prior warning. Predictive maintenance will, in effect, reduce downtime and eliminate the possibility of needing major repairs.