It’s a fair question. Why would you outlay a hefty sum to prevent problems that haven’t and may not occur? If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. And don’t prevent it, either. But the fact is, Planned Preventative Maintenance should form a part of any asset management plan designed to maximise performance and minimise interruption to core business functions. Carry on reading to find out why it’s the best thing your business can do.
What is PPM?
PPM is a planned and controlled programme of maintenance carried out at predetermined intervals, in order to maximise the performance and operational life of the assets in question, as well as reduce unforeseen instances of failure. This includes inspections, adjustments, cleaning, replacements and repairs.
In short, it’s a proactive approach to asset management that requires regular maintenance to be undertaken whether an asset is failing or not. That way, potential problems can be identified and addressed before they develop further, reducing the chance of unexpected breakdowns and avoiding the knock-on impacts of asset failure.
What are the risks of not having a PPM strategy?
The alternative to a PPM strategy is reactive maintenance. This is where you run all of your assets until failure and then repair or replace them as required. While this strategy can save on some initial financial commitments, reactive maintenance will almost always end up costing more.
At its worst, reactive maintenance could require an entire company to come to a standstill while the issue in question is rectified. At best, unscheduled maintenance could mean residents get late or no notice of any disruption, putting the company’s reputation at risk, as well as potential renewals of contracts. What’s more, at the point of failure, costs may be higher to repair, and consequential damage may also have occurred.
What are the benefits of a detailed PPM strategy?
Manage with precision: PPM strategies ensure the appropriate timescales, costs and services are accurately integrated into the day-to-day management of your business, creating a seamless experience optimised for service excellence.
Make your facilities more resilient to risk: PPM strategies draw your attention to operational risks early on, so you can mitigate expensive repairs and breakdowns, fix existing problems faster and prevent negative downtime.
Improve financial performance: PPM strategies reduce pressure on your operational budget through greater budget certainty, improved investment planning and smarter, more proactive execution.
Maintain a productive environment: A good PPM strategy will maintain the quality, compliance and safety of your buildings, with as minimal disruption as possible, so that you can concentrate on staff well-being and resident satisfaction.
Enhance your assets: All assets lose efficiency over time, but a PPM strategy can extend the life cycle of assets, and preserve performance for longer.
How to get the most out of a PPM strategy
The more comprehensive the strategy, the better. In order for PPM to have the greatest chance of success, it should cover all elements of building management – and that requires communication.
Creating a plan should always be a two-way conversation; with the engineers using their experience to recommend what needs maintaining and how often and the client guiding them through the site and identifying potential problem areas. But the dialogue shouldn’t end once the plan is established. Regular communication is the key to making the strategy work as smoothly as possible.