Page 42 - An Introduction To Predictive Maintenance

32 An Introduction to Predictive Maintenance

(-ve)

Cash Cost of installing CM
outflow
( ) S
Break even point

0
0
Net cash flow
Cash
saving
Potential savings from CM

(+ve)
Time/usage (hours)

Figure 2–6 Typical overall cash flow from an investment in predictive
maintenance.

able for quantification, the lack of firm tangible benefits, and the financial environ-
ment in which maintenance engineers operate all conspire to make the construction
of such a plan difficult.

Until the engineer is given the facilities to collect and analyze performance data accu-
rately and consistently; until the engineering and manufacturing departments are inte-
grated under a precise standard value-costing system; and until the maintenance
engineering function is given the status of a profit center, then financial justification
will never become the precise science it should be. Instead, the more normal process
is one in which an engineer makes a decision to install a CM system and then backs
it up with precise-looking figures based on imprecise data. Fortunately, once the
improved system has been approved, its performance is only rarely monitored against
that estimated in the original business plan. This is largely because the financial values
or benefits achieved are even more difficult to extract and quantify in a post-
installation audit than those in the original business plan.

2.4 ECONOMICS OF PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE
Maintenance is, and should be, managed like a business; however, few maintenance
managers have the basic skill and experience needed to understand the economics of
an effective business enterprise. This section provides a basic understanding of main-
tenance economics.