Scheduled maintenance or repair when broken: weighing the options for factories

For factories, there are two familiar maintenance approaches: scheduled maintenance, meaning inspection and upkeep on a schedule even before anything breaks, and repair when broken, meaning intervening only once a failure has happened. Both make sense, but their costs and risks are very different.

The right question is not which approach is cheaper for a single repair, but which helps the factory run steadily all year, with the lowest total cost and the fewest sudden stoppages.

Comparing the two approaches

Scheduled maintenance: small, regular costs

Scheduled maintenance catches early signs of deterioration: a loose joint, a slight pipe leak, a surface starting to peel. Repair at this stage is usually quick, cheap and can be scheduled at off-peak hours, without interrupting production.

Repair when broken: cheap now, expensive later

Repairing only when things break saves costs in the first months, but an unexpected failure can stop a whole production line, damage related equipment and incur rush costs. For items that directly affect production, the cost of one sudden stoppage is often many times the cost of a year's maintenance.

Maintenance is not a cost to cut, but a cost that prevents a larger cost.

When to combine both

In practice, most factories need both approaches, differing only in proportion. Important items that are hard to replace should follow a strict scheduled plan. Items with little impact, that are easy to replace and whose failure does not stop production, can be left to repair when broken, provided a backup plan already exists.

• Items affecting safety or stopping a production line: scheduled maintenance, never wait for failure.
• Items wearing with hours of use: inspect on running-hour cycles or by season.
• Decorative or rarely used items: repair when broken, but still inspect regularly so they do not deteriorate unnoticed.

Signs it is time to switch to scheduled maintenance

• The same item failing repeatedly within a short period.
• Failures occurring at peak hours and delaying deliveries.
• Rush repair costs starting to exceed the cost of regular upkeep.
• Nobody remembers when that item was last inspected.

Where to start

There is no need to change everything at once. Start by listing the items that have caused production stoppages, schedule regular inspections for them first, then gradually extend to the remaining items. After a few cycles, the factory will have enough data to know which items truly need frequent upkeep and which can be spaced out.