FACILITIES HAVE SCOPE TO IMPROVE ON THEIR MAINTENANCE PLAN

It is often satisfying to reverberate upon a question as this, though not gratifying to ask one aloud. Let us take a look at what all that cross our minds when we say maintenance. Maintenance itself rakes up stirring anecdotes within our mischief mongering brains. One may say, we know it, we maintain ourselves every day and have done so for the past years that we have lived. After having done it do we not know maintenance of our plant & equipment? If yes, do we know our assets well enough to even treat them on par with ourselves? Do we realize the long term operational costs could be 4 times the cost of the asset themselves? Then how are these related to break down and replacement costs.

One may do a great deal of justice by pondering upon these questions about ourselves. How many times we have not fallen sick due to our own negligence? How many times have we not gone on eating spree and put ourselves in awkward situations with high fat and cholesterol? How many times have we carelessly injured ourselves without following basic road discipline? How many times have we had bad days carrying on for weeks together due to our own urge to talk that which we could have done without? How many times have we given that morning workout, or jog or walk a go by for days to weeks finding excuses of convenience? How many times have we overworked ourselves on something that ought not to have done at all? How many times do have we postponed a health check-up on sometimes financial, time, job, and at times flimsy reasons.

Our body rejuvenate every moment and do not tolerate even a small extraneous harmful particle to enter and stay on in any cavity. With such mechanism we at times fail to comply with our daily routine on good health & good living. That apart well maintained body gives the best of physic-psychological support in all our endeavours till the last breath. Numerous examples can be citied of successful persona who have maintained fitness and worked till their last breath and departed being successful. Knowing all these we many times do not understand the needs of our own selves.

Adding another dimension, we notice that every function voluntary and involuntary, conscious and subconscious is controlled by our brain. It sits atop like a crown showing it is the master of everything underneath and influences those around it and falling within its purview. With efficiently programmed software that is evolving recording every experience diligently we falter.

This particular analogy was drawn as our long term is minutely broken into day-to-day strategies, wherein our daily priority overcomes our long term vision discreetly. The long term goal of any person prioritises health and then followed by prosperity, good living, wealth etc. Next comes in the family, society, state and so on. It is also true as to how much we balance between the present and the future therein lay success.

We have so much about our own selves which we are the masters and know all the ailments of all types in and out. In spite of it there is a tendency to lose balance but purportedly holding on to the long term goals so that we do not fall off and injure ourselves. This is the secret of maintenance of our inner spirit and the physical being completely balanced to lead a happy peaceful life. Ah did we say life? Do we see assets at work that serve us every day in the same light. May not be. When our own physical and spiritual well-being is likely to be masked by the present, then who care for the assets. The assets for which we are just the keepers. Do we care? If yes, how much? If no, why not? Merely because it is owned by someone else.

A properly maintained asset like a machine, a tool, an instrument, an equipment goes more than that extra mile to save a fortune for us. Let me bring over an anecdote which is a true picture for an economy. A family that conserves food by not cooking the extra small bit to be wasted saves as much food that the same family can live over it for half of its life. That means the wasted food amounts to as much as the family would consume over the same period of time. We may have heard about a dime saved is a dime earned.

Let us approach for some time a small piece from “The 7 habits of highly effective people” written by Steven Covey which almost all modern day working professional would have read. There Steven talks something about ‘P’ – Productivity and ‘PC’ – Production capacity. The ‘P/PC’ ratio is an indicator of how well we are prepared for a bright future. It must strive to reach “1” and be close to that. But it can never exceed ‘1”. If P > PC then the unit is over utilized. In order to maximize ‘P’, the only way is to increase ‘PC’ as P = PC.

“To maintain the P/PC Balance, the balance between the golden egg (production) and the health and welfare of the goose (production capability) is often a difficult judgment call. But I suggest it is the very essence of effectiveness.”
― Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change

A machine or a unit not maintained well has ‘P’ falling. We are not utilising the ‘PC’ to the available extent. An inefficient unit not only destroys itself sooner or later, but will also spell a path of disaster for the economics. Do we ask how? Inefficiency breeds lethargy and lethargy leads to underutilization of resources, excess costs of break downs, high costs of maintenance, besides inflated costs of replacement. It is better to maintain and extend the life than to replace.

Uncertainty and unpredictability may be reasons for ignoring the important aspect of asset maintenance. But we know that these two words do not stop us from planning our future. Then why must it stop from planning our asset ownership costs? There are two primary issues to be dealt with, Equipment behaviour is more predictable and technology has gone so sophisticated that it can extrapolate and interpolate data rather easily. In today’s scenario not only accurate maintenance budgets can be fixed but also accountability to the budgets may be fixed and Software provides for that.

Now the asset Owners make up their mind ……

The onus is on the owners to explore the best use of the technology and automation to strike a balance between the present and the future; the cost of maintenance and the cost of replacement of your assets, to extend the life of your valuable assets. The key is to increase the Preventive Maintenance and Reduce the Breakdown Maintenance. To upgrade to Predictive Maintenance – that is one predicts the requirement of a service well before it come for service and show up major breakdowns. To move from uncertainty to certainty.

We are there to support for an all-round implementation and management strategy that will not just buy value but enhance satisfaction.

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