By Jim Fitch
Diagnetics, Inc.
According to major industries throughout the world, it’s time to throw out your old ideas on machine maintenance. The costsaving trend is toward a maintenance program that targets the root causes of machine wear and failure. Predictive and preventive methods are out: pro-active maintenance is in.
Why? Because proactive maintenance methods are currently saving industries of all sizes thousands, even millions of dollars on machine maintenance every year. This concept of saving large amounts on maintenance, however, may be tough for some to grasp.
According to DuPont, “maintenance is the largest single controllable expenditure in a plant: In many companies it often exceeds annual net profit.”‘ Add to this the fact that up to 90% of some companies’ maintenance work involves expensive (and productivity-killing) breakdown repair, and you can easily see the predicament. The problem of costly maintenance has truly reached a serious level, but as some companies have found out, and more come to realize every day, their maintenance costs can be cut drastically by establishing a “proactive” line of defense.