Learning how to keep production and maintenance costs down requires staying on schedule and being judicious with your capital. High initial capital expenses like equipment and machine purchases can set you back if you fall behind schedule, or have to perform maintenance/repairs on them. Losing production time and paying out of pocket for equipment repairs will easily cost you progress, and hurt your budget. The good news is there are a couple ways to keep production and maintenance costs down without working 16 hours days or running your machines ragged.
Have a strategy in place and taken care of by the professionals
Whether you’re paying them yourself or they’re coming from a rental company, performing regular maintenance on your equipment is one of the best ways to ensure the longevity of your investments. Without regular servicing, equipment is likely to break down and halt production completely—that’s when you start losing money.
Regular maintenance offers the biggest ROI on equipment purchases
Good maintenance will help maximize production, and thus your profit. Maintenance helps companies control costs and service intervals, reducing downtime and increasing resale value. Since depreciation is such a serious problem for operations that own their equipment, recovering as much of that original capital expense can be a huge benefit to the budget.
No downtime by performing proper maintenance
Cutting back on downtime is the simplest way of reducing production costs. Nothing kills production quicker than equipment breaking down. Then you’re faced with the hassle of repairing it, delaying the job, and before you know it, you’re behind and you’ve spent more out of pocket than you made in a day’s work.
Prevention and monitoring cuts back on idling time
Monitoring machine performance is part of a good maintenance routine. Keeping an eye on how any piece of equipment is functioning on a regular basis helps keep you ahead of problems, such as idling. If you can decrease the idling time between loading and unloading operations, that saves time and money during production. This can be done by maximizing utilization and keeping up with maintenance. Something like telematics—machine-to-machine communication—with a fleet management system can be used to track maintenance intervals, check engine codes, and eliminate surprise issues and guesswork.
Only use trained professionals
If you employ your own team of technicians and maintenance personnel, make sure they have the proper training to understand the equipment being used in your operation. Improper or inadequate maintenance can reduce the life of your equipment; but skillful servicing can easily help you get the most out of your equipment, saving you money.
Staying within budget is an important part of any operation. Learning to maximize benefits and minimize costs can be a juggling act, but it is possible to keep production and maintenance costs down without breaking your back. Renting your equipment is one worthwhile alternative to eliminating maintenance costs and downtime due to repairs. If you own your equipment, investing in trained personnel specialized in your equipment can deliver a very noticeable ROI on your investments.
