Repair rather than replace

How often do you think, “It’s easier to just replace this rather than repairing it,” when your smaller equipment fails? There are significant reasons to think differently when this occurs. WHY does it matter?

The WHY matters

Most companies put a significant emphasis on their large, electromechanical equipment while placing the smaller items in the disposable category.  Yes, the capital and energy costs associated with a larger piece of equipment can be a big ticket item while in comparison, the purchase price of a smaller unit makes it enticing to replace without further evaluation.  However, data which includes dollars, does not necessarily support that thought process because it is the WHY that matters.

  • What if the disposable, replacement mindset continues for two, five or even ten small units over a given time?
  • What if the failure is due to a process change, operator inexperience or energy issue rather than just a faulty unit?
  • At worst case, what if the failure results in a safety concern?

Cost is more than meets the eye

Cost does not stop merely at the replacement, removal and reinstallation but also the production profits lost due to downtime and other potential liabilities.  Typically the removal and reinstallation can individually surpass the replacement cost of a small unit but the production profits lost accrual can quickly dwarf that figure. Also we cannot put a cost on a possible safety issue.

Those figures validate the need for a solid predictive maintenance program as well as makes the WHY exponentially important.  That is WHY looking solely for a low cost repair or determining a unit is beyond economical repair (BER) and replaceable without reporting that starts with WHY the failure happened and ends with HOW to prevent it from happening again can be a mistake.

The WHY and HOW leads to profits

Hibbs ElectroMechanical, Inc. looks out for your best interest. We collaboratively make good repair and replace decisions along with providing the WHY it failed and HOW to prevent it from happening again through industry best practices and best in class documentation. Having a good partner like Hibbs ElectroMechanical, Inc. makes it worth the investment.