Total Cost of Ownership

When everything is running smoothly, it’s not always easy to justify the costs of servicing and maintenance especially when margins and profits are already extremely close. No one wants to spend large amounts of money on the maintenance of their machinery. Understanding your Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is an important part of any manufacturing business. If you haven’t been paying close attention to your TCO, then it’s about time that you started.

What is Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)?

Total Cost of Ownership places a complete value on an item such as a piece of equipment or machinery. It considers the initial purchase price as well as operating costs, training to use the equipment, servicing, maintenance, and repairs over the lifetime of the item.

With any piece of equipment, there is preventative maintenance and servicing that is recommended to avoid breakdowns and failure. Unfortunately, with tight profit margins and even tighter deadlines, maintenance on machinery which is operating smoothly often gets overlooked.

When you skip maintenance and servicing on equipment and machinery, you may save some money and time in the short term, but long term, you’re only going to increase the total cost of ownership. Servicing and maintenance help to prevent more costly breakdowns later on, which result in expensive repair bills and lost productivity.

How can servicing and maintenance lower your TCO?

It may seem expensive and time-consuming at the time, but maintaining your equipment and machinery can save you money and lower your total cost of ownership. A proactive approach to servicing and maintaining your equipment as well as managing your parts inventory not only saves you time and money but also provides you with more flexibility.

When you have a maintenance and servicing schedule in place, you can pick and choose when your equipment is down for maintenance and repairs. This allows you to have all your equipment operating at 100% of its capabilities during peak periods of operation. When things are quiet or you have breaks in the schedule, you’ll be able to do your maintenance.

How can outsourcing your maintenance help your business?

Operating a successful and organized maintenance servicing schedule is never an easy task. It’s a delicate balance between ensuring that adequate amounts of essential parts and inventory are on standby when services are required, and a trained and qualified workforce is ready to complete maintenance on tight deadlines.

When you outsource these key tasks to keep your facility ahead of the curve on maintenance and upgrades, it allows your business to concentrate on growing your business and reaching your revenue goals. Flagship can help ensure that not only is the total cost of ownership of your important equipment and machinery lower, but also that your plant or factory will keep operating when it needs to.

Breakdowns with any machinery or equipment are sometimes unavoidable. Still, by being proactive about your servicing, maintenance, and parts inventory, it will reduce the chances of expensive and time-consuming repairs when you can least afford them.