Having a preventative maintenance program for your critical equipment and systems makes good business sense. As Benjamin Franklin said almost 300 years ago, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. A carefully designed preventative maintenance program includes routine repairs and checks that can uncover looming problems before they manifest. Preventative maintenance can help avoid unexpected business disruptions, improve employee safety, reduce operating costs, and extend the life of your expensive assets. Given the uncertain business environment today, preventative maintenance is uniquely important for essential businesses, like those that support our country’s transportation infrastructure.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a substantial impact on our economy and will likely continue to materially affect businesses for the foreseeable future. Essential businesses must be ready to support their communities, regardless of the trials and tribulations that may lie ahead. During these challenging times, when cash flow presents difficulties for many companies, businesses cannot afford downtime as a result of equipment failures or system breakdowns. In addition, service personnel may not be as readily available if coronavirus cases spike. For all these reasons, proactive preventative maintenance is even more essential now.
Apart from the unique business environment created by the pandemic, a preventative maintenance program can deliver many significant ongoing benefits for your business, including:
- Improved employee safety;
- Decreased downtime;
- Reduced operating costs;
- Better business performance; and
- Extended asset life.
In short, a preventative maintenance program will improve your business’s sales and profits.
Improved Employee Safety
Regular preventative maintenance can ensure that your equipment will operate safely. Equipment that is not in optimal working condition creates a hazardous working environment. With regular maintenance, potential equipment issues can be identified and addressed before they cause an employee to be injured. Injuries in the workplace can be a crippling expense for a business. Additionally, a company’s safety record is an important consideration for job candidates evaluating employment opportunities. A strong safety record will also improve employee morale by offering workers peace of mind and the confidence that management has their best interests in mind. As a result, a strong safety record can help businesses attract and retain top talent. The bottom line is that improving employee safety can reduce costs and improve the quality and productivity of your workforce.
Decreased Downtime
While planned preventative maintenance takes time and money, that business impact pales in comparison to the costs, lost time, and lost revenue that result from extended downtime due to unexpected equipment or systems failures. Unplanned downtime can result in idle employees, missed deadlines, and long-term damage to the company’s reputation. Because preventative maintenance is planned, you can schedule downtime to minimize business disruption. The costs are also predictable, and cash flow impacts can be planned and managed.
Reduced Operating Costs
Emergency repairs can be costly due to the need to pay technicians overtime as well as the premium for expediting the delivery of replacement parts. As mentioned before, unexpected downtime can also lead to idle employees, which can be costly. Apart from the incremental costs associated with unexpected repairs, the minor fixes and proactive repairs that are completed during preventative maintenance can keep equipment and systems operating at maximum efficiency. While all equipment will experience wear and tear over time, ongoing maintenance can minimize the loss of equipment productivity during the aging process.
Better Business Performance
Preventative maintenance can help a company provide more reliable and better customer service. Customers count on businesses to deliver products and services on time and to their specifications. Unnecessary delays and lower service quality due to equipment failures hurt business performance and negatively impact the customer’s experience. Repeat and referral customers are a company’s most valuable customers. Providing reliable service to customers is critical for maximizing repeat and referral business.
Extended Asset Life
Regular maintenance extends the life of equipment and maximizes its lifetime value. Extending the life of equipment delays the need for expensive capital purchases, which reduces the amount of cash that must be set aside for new equipment purchases. The result is more free cash flow, which can be used to fuel business growth or can be distributed to the company’s owners and employees.
More and more business owners are realizing the financial benefits of moving from a reactive to a preventative maintenance plan. In these uncertain economic times, a proactive maintenance plan is more important than ever. Essential businesses must be ready to serve their communities, even during these volatile times. In the long term, preventative maintenance is a highly sound business strategy. Keeping employees safe and engaged and customers happy, while reducing operating costs and maximizing free cash flow, is a formula for sustained business success. A smart preventative maintenance program can help deliver that success.
About Western Pump
We are a general and specialty contractor serving the petroleum and transportation industries, as well as mission-critical infrastructure. Western Pump provides a wide range of construction, maintenance, and compliance services to private- and public-sector customers. We have completed work for government agencies, private developers, major oil companies, educational organizations, and general contractors.
We provide preventative maintenance services for fuel systems, automotive equipment, and DC fast -charging stations. To learn more about our preventative maintenance services, select one of the following links: