Passing thoughts (routine vs reactive maintanence)

Over the past few months, I’ve come to realise that many small to medium-sized companies adopt practices from larger businesses in the belief it will help them grow. For example, forecasting future work, holding meetings for the sake of meetings, installing car chargers, or offering employee benefits (like a £20 family-sized pizza off the back of £25k profits—but who am I to judge).

If I’m correct, as manufacturing companies grow, so does their list of assets. This list includes both machinery and manpower. Don’t get mad about me classing manpower and machinery in the same bracket, but I do. When it comes to manpower, as you employ more staff, there’s a threshold at which you not only have to abide by health and safety regulations but also provide evidence of compliance. This is essentially proof that the well-being of your assets—sorry, I mean employees—is a top priority. From a business perspective, an injured employee will never positively impact your profit margins. Unless, of course, they weren’t pulling their weight—in that case, they might be better off at home.

Now let’s switch the focus to machinery, arguably the most important asset a company can have.

If a machine breaks down and you have no plan or support in place to rectify the issue, this unplanned event surely won’t positively impact your profit margins. Unless, like the unproductive employee, it’s better off broken—in which case, I say, get rid of it.

So, at what point does a growing company decide to think seriously about all its assets and put a plan in place to address any issues? The honest answer is: we don’t know. Machines can run for years without issues, then suddenly a control system fails, and you’re faced with a significant expense. Or they could be cheaply made and fail every five minutes. (Side note: please source machines locally. This doesn’t count when a company slaps its sticker on something and claims it’s made in Britain or Germany.)

The only correct answer is: now. Make plans now—don’t wait. This doesn’t have to be a comprehensive maintenance plan; it could be as simple as a phone call or email outlining what machinery you have and how you’d like issues to be resolved going forward.

If you’re stuck and need assistance, please don’t hesitate to call, email, or even fax.

REPAIR, RETROFIT AND REPLACE