Sometimes it is hard to convince the higher ups that preventative maintenance is a smart idea. It’s one of those things, if the person cannot see a physical entity, then they don’t see the value. If it isn’t quantifiable then it can sometimes be a hard sell.
Here are a few of the obstacles faced in convincing management to take part in a comprehensive preventative maintenance plan.
Commonality Issues
Preventative maintenance (PM) programs are fairly new. For years, maintenance departments depended on fixing what was broken instead of being proactive. Fixing something later only leads to downtime and extra cost so PM is the ideal way to keep up with equipment and take care of problems before they begin.
ROI Is Not Clear or Immediate
One of the obstacles is that management may not see a return on investment immediately and that can cause for pause in implementing or keeping a PM plan. Let’s face it, we live in a world where people want instant gratification and seeing a return on your money is definitely something that is important to management. However the main component is that you are saving time and money. Time spent on PM is much easier to handle than the time that your equipment is down and you’ve lost precious time to finish up work. As far as money goes, you can easily perform preventative maintenance on a piece of equipment and keep it running cheaper than if you were to just let the machinery break down when it is on its last leg. If you wait till you have to replace it, then you are looking at a major cost and looking at having downtime that affects everyone in your department.
Read More: When Maintenance Needs and Budgeting Collide
These are just a couple of the obstacles you may face with upper management. However, knowing what the impediment may be in the first place can help you prepare with what to do and say to support the preventative maintenance plan.
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