Are you under pressure to cut costs? Whether you’re experiencing a slow season or have pressure coming from upper management, budget-cutting is one of a facility manager’s least favorite tasks. Unfortunately, cost-saving measures typically come from ancillary services, such as your maintenance department.
However, have you ever asked why your maintenance costs are so high in the first place? Could you, instead, achieve the same results while reducing your budget?
Maintenance costs are typically so high because the maintenance programs are inefficient. These problems in your maintenance plan may be causing unnecessary expense:
- An untrained maintenance staff is making mistakes that lead to further issues
- Your maintenance plan only includes reactive maintenance
- You are not budgeting for equipment upgrades
- You do not have a schedule for routine maintenance
- You do not have an efficient work order management system
- Your maintenance staff is not getting to maintenance requests quickly
- You do not update your maintenance plan when new equipment is installed
- You do not have a maintenance plan
Effective maintenance starts with prevention. It is much easier, and much more cost-effective, to provide preventative service on equipment than it is to fix machinery that is breaking down. The time of emergency is never the time you want to be repairing or replacing failed equipment. The best strategy is always preventative maintenance.
While preventative maintenance should be the core of cost reduction in your overall maintenance management, there are some things that cannot be prevented. Aging equipment has to be replaced inevitably, yet many facility managers fail to budget for these upgrades adequately. It is typically when the piece of equipment starts to fail that the facility manager starts looking into what upgrades are available and what they cost. If you plan ahead, however, you can avoid this surprise cost and have the cash saved for better, more efficient equipment.
If your equipment is in working order, high maintenance costs could be caused by untrained staff’s mistakes. Companies that do not invest in proper training or an experienced workforce can pay the price when misoperation of equipment leads to damage. If you aren’t hiring the best for your HVAC, plumbing, roofing, electric, or general contractor services, consider switching to MaintenX.
MaintenX helps you cut costs on unnecessary reactive maintenance. Our team of experienced contractors are there every step of the way to help you budget for new installations, provide preventative maintenance, and provide emergency service when problems arise. Our work order management system makes it easy for us to track the status of your service and send technicians out for 24/7 emergency repairs. When in need, call your local MaintenX team!
