The Benefit of Better Maintenance Beyond the Factory Floor
Ask a maintenance tech what the benefits of better maintenance are, and they’ll give them to you from a mechanical standpoint. Ask a CEO and you’ll get similar answers, only from a fiscal perspective. But it’s hard for a customer to explain the benefits of good factory maintenance ― namely because when everything works right, the customer is none the wiser. Nevertheless, it’s critical to understand the benefits of good factory maintenance and the effect they have on the end products and users.
Quality control is the name of the game
The single biggest factor impacting end users is product quality. If any defect, no matter how big or small, slips through the cracks, it’s bound to affect the end user. When it does, it’s the tedious job of the manufacturer to source that defect. Regardless of where the trail leads, the ultimate cause likely defaults to some failure of equipment. The tolerance on X machine was off or the sensor on Y equipment allowed the defect.
Routine maintenance of machinery mitigates the issues that allow quality control errors. If the tolerance on machine X gets inspected and calibrated weekly, there’s less of a chance at passing defects. Similarly, sensor testing on equipment Y as part of routine maintenance ensures it functions, as intended.
Customers have no direct part in the maintenance, but the maintenance affects the caliber of the products they receive.
Longevity comes from well-produced products
Piggybacking on quality control, improved product longevity is another customer benefit of good machine maintenance. If it’s made right, without defect, a product will theoretically meet its optimal lifespan. But even more than that, a well-made product will likely benefit from easy repair itself. If only one component wears out, a quality product will hold up to that single component replacement better than a sub-par product. It creates the ethos for brand reputation, which, in turn, creates customer loyalty.
Timeliness impacts everyone
Better maintenance leads to shorter or avoided downtimes. The benefits of this are obvious at the factory level, but powerful enough to trickle down to the customer level as well. Fewer downtimes results in timelier deliveries, boosting customer confidence in a factory’s production capabilities.
Avoided downtime also increases total factory capability, allowing more customers to get their orders in a timely manner. Aside from increasing revenue and optimizing production capacity, good maintenance ensures production lines aren’t hampered and the customers aren’t left waiting on their deliveries.
Maintenance is key
The true benefit of good maintenance on a customer comes by way of total asset management. A machine that’s well-maintained and void of defects or problems is one that’ll run better, for longer, and more efficiently ― all in the name of serving the customer through good production standards. If the goal of that machine is to produce a quality product, the customer is the most direct recipient of those benefits.
