First, what defines capital equipment?

A piece of capital equipment can be defined as an asset with a functional life of more than a year and which a company uses in its production line and process. Furthermore, it is usually a significant financial investment. The equipment is vital as it assists a company to continue its’ manufacturing process and often improve on it, as it provides the opportunity to expand their business operations.

Additional to this, capital equipment may offer the opportunity for new technological advances in production processes.

Such a large investment requires routine maintenance to extend the life of the capital equipment.

Underestimating the importance of equipment maintenance will ultimately negatively impact your bottom line to a lager degree. “If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it”, is unfortunately a common approach some businesses view equipment maintenance. Their view is that money is wasted on maintenance of equipment when it is in running condition.

There are however several reasons to conduct routine maintenance.

As machinery equipment is an investment, and one that requires time and money to be kept in optimal condition, preventative maintenance is paramount to the life of machinery, and ultimately saving you time and money through reduced production downtime.

While the common view may be that paying for preventative maintenance is an unnecessary cost, the reality is that without it, you’re often left with more expensive repair costs in the long run.

As MicrosStep, we believe in the importance of preventative maintenance, through keeping your capital machinery operating in peak condition. A newly acquired machine is in peak condition, as it runs smoothly like a well-oiled machine, which is the ideal scenario for a business.

When equipment runs flawlessly, projects are completed on or ahead of schedule, and the company’s bottom line illustrates this in their financial statements. Ensuring your equipment to continue to run optimally, “like-new condition”, is paramount to maintaining high levels of equipment productivity. If equipment services are not conducted, equipment efficiency suffers. When efficiency suffers, the company’s bottom line suffers.

Generally, in manufacturing environments, minor repair scenarios arrive where machines are not operating precisely as when they were new, however they are not affecting production in a significant way, therefore companies will continue operations with their machines, and perhaps adjust them slightly to ensure performance.

This is a short-term solution, however, is rather near-sighted when it comes to their future operations.

They may seem like minor repair problems now, but chances are that these problems will become major problems in the future. Major problems lead to higher repair costs, as well as significant production downtime.

Minor repairs can be a quick and inexpensive fix, which can be conducted during routine service intervals on six-monthly, and an annual basis. Often these services are missed, and the results are machines that operate poorly, which ultimately results in breakdowns.

Major repair problems often translate to significant downtime of machines, meaning being unexpectedly behind production schedule, which may further translate to companies that are unable to take on additional projects.

If production workers were scheduled to work with these specific pieces of equipment, companies require to pay these workers regardless of the unavailability of the machines. In addition to downtime, companies may be dealing with larger components of machines being damaged, with higher costs, and longer waiting times for parts.

Unfortunately, and additional to these situations, service engineers may already be scheduled on other jobs and unable to attend to the breakdown immediately. There are also the additional costs of expedited shipping for parts, and further to this may require the need for major troubleshooting requiring additional time and costs.

Major repair problems have large price tags. MicroStep encourages our customers not to wait for the major problems to incur, but rather to invest in routine maintenance programs which we provide.

Keeping machinery clean assists largely in reducing wear and tear on equipment.

Machinery equipment are susceptible to dirt and contaminants. They are made up of several moving parts, all with their own intricate system. If filters are not regularly changed, cutting tables and electronics not kept clean, oil not changed, it will negatively impact the operation of equipment, which may result in downtime and costly repairs.

Ideally, to extend the life of your MicroStep machines, they should be operating in buildings away from the elements. Wind and rain results in the occurrence of rust, which results in damage to key machine components.

At MicroStep South Africa, our belief is “If you do not schedule your machine for maintenance, your machine will schedule it for you!”

Call us today to schedule your service. We look forward to receiving your request.