The Hidden Costs of Emergency Repairs: Why Preventative Maintenance Matters
Preventative maintenance keeps systems running efficiently, enhancing business operations while avoiding disruptions, inflated costs, and reduced system performance.
This blog explores the importance of preventative maintenance, its potential impact on operations and cost, why businesses should prioritise it and what typical maintenance includes.
The Importance of Preventative Maintenance for Businesses
Preventative maintenance is the process of conducting regular, planned maintenance to systems around your building to reduce the risk of unexpected breakdowns. Without it, businesses are left vulnerable to costly repairs, inefficiency and downtime. It also helps businesses stay compliant with health and safety regulations, ensuring that systems are up-to-date and in working order.
Emergency Repair Costs Without Preventative Maintenance
Surface Costs
Labour Costs
When a system breaks down, businesses must arrange a callout to fix the issue. A lot of the time, these problems could have been identified with regular maintenance.
Material Costs
After an emergency breakdown and identifying the issues, businesses may have to purchase parts to fix the systems or, in some cases, even replace the whole system.
Downtime
With systems down, businesses will have to wait for issues to be resolved. This can cause disruptions to operations, affecting workplace productivity and comfort.
Hidden Costs
Inefficiency Costs
Businesses with older systems or faulty parts can cause systems to work harder, using more energy than they should need.
Productivity Losses
Downtime within the business can affect employee productivity by disrupting operations and workplace comfort.
Impact on System Lifespan
Making temporary fixes to systems instead of implementing permanent solutions can shorten the lifespan of the system.
Why Should Businesses Prioritise Preventative Maintenance?
Businesses that conduct regular maintenance position themselves for smoother operations, cost savings and energy efficiency.
Scheduled, regular system maintenance allows engineers to identify and resolve issues before they escalate and become more serious. This could include replacing vital parts and even whole systems. This can be quite costly for businesses, especially on such short notice.
Preventative maintenance ensures that systems perform optimally to consistently meet business demands. Efficient systems help businesses achieve significant cost savings on energy and operations. Keeping systems well-maintained using proactive measures is typically far cheaper than resorting to emergency callouts.
What Does Preventative Maintenance Include?
When conducting maintenance on systems, engineers identify key issues with systems. Some key tasks to include:
- Finding and Fixing Leaks
- Inspecting for Faulty Parts
- Listening for Unusual Sounds
- Calibrating Settings
- Testing System Performance
- Cleaning Components
- Monitoring Energy Usage
By identifying issues like the above, systems are less prone to unexpected breakdowns, inefficiency and excessive energy consumption. These proactive measures help businesses avoid costly emergency repairs.
The hidden costs of having to conduct emergency repairs can quickly add up, impacting both finances and operations. Investing in preventative maintenance businesses position themselves for smoother operations, significant cost savings, and long-term efficiency.
Want to reap the benefits of regular maintenance? Contact us to find out your next steps to long-term savings.