With workforce shortages all around, maintenance personnel is just another vital portion of a plant hard to find. When things go down, they go to work, keeping everything up and running so you can meet your production goals.
Most manufacturers need to balance the need for maintenance workforce with budget friendly options, and out of this comes a need to making service costs more palatable. This is where the trade-off of preventative maintenance usually occurs. In order to save money and resources, preventative maintenance is forgotten.
But when where items go out as predicted and a line goes down when it could have been avoided, it begs the question: Is sacrificing preventative maintenance in the name of budget or limited resources really worth it?
Chances are, when your production goes down, your managers aren't going to think it is. Yet, the cycle still continues. You can't find skilled technicians to hire and the ones you have a spread so thin, so you make the choice to let scheduling maintenance on wear components to fall by the wayside.
It doesn't have to be that way.
Many packaging plants are looking to the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to support their equipment once it is in the field, rather than rely on having the right person for the job in house as a way to help stop the cycle. This can solve a variety of issues for the operation and allow you to focus on other areas of maintenance that you have to support internally with the staff you have.
This presents a perfect balance for the OEM as well, since they are able to have eyes on their equipment and support it before wear components wear out due to normal wear and tear.
We've been discussing this topic a lot around Morrison lately since our Aftermarket Services team just launched Preventative Maintenance Agreements. If you’re considering how Preventative Maintenance Agreements from OEMs – we like to call them PMAs – can help you find this maintenance budgeting balance. Here’s the top 3 reasons below - straight from the team itself.
1. Reduce Maintenance Costs Every YearMorrison’s plans are designed to provide a 15% discount on service that is ordered through the PMA. Not all OEMs offer this, but we do because when you sign a PMA, you’re investing in your equipment, and we want to be a partner in that.
With reduced costs for every pre-planned visit, you’re taking less out of your maintenance budget to focus on other areas, and we’re able to plan your maintenance technician in advance so you know when someone will be onsite to service the equipment before it becomes a problem.
2. Less Need for Your Own Maintenance PersonnelBy utilizing a PMA, you utilize the maintenance personnel of the OEM, so yours can be focused on other areas of the plant or you can save on the time spent hiring to fill open roles. The PMA fulfills immediate, and long-term maintenance needs on the OEM’s equipment.
But what if I already have enough maintenance personnel to service all the equipment in my plant? You can still benefit from a Preventative Maintenance Agreements! These agreements can also be designed to train your maintenance team to learn the ins and outs of the OEM’s equipment and therefore provided added value to your team.
Either way, the OEM’s maintenance team essentially becomes yours on every visit.
3. Reduced DowntimeOne of the keys to reducing downtime is properly maintaining the equipment and replacing wear components before they go out. When you can plan the downtime for maintenance, it is less costly and has less effect on production.
A Preventative Maintenance Agreement is designed with the number one goal of reducing downtime. Within the agreement, there is a plan to service and replace wear components at timed intervals to reduce anything unplanned on the line that may result in failure or lost production.
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If you're interested in how this can help you balance your maintenance needs while be budget friendly, head over to this page and fill out the form to be connected with our team.
