‘What you don’t repair you destroy’

New report by Bosch Rexroth says too much maintenance in UK industry remains reactive

A THIRD of manufacturers consider their maintenance programmes to be reactive rather than planned or predicted, according to a recent study.

The report, published by Bosch Rexroth and the Institute of Engineering and Technology, surveyed nearly 300 engineers in UK industry and found that maintenance practices continue to be a cause for concern.

Thirty-two per cent of those who took part in the survey described their maintenance as being reactive, with less than 30% implementing either predictive or preventive maintenance regimes.

‘The fact that nearly 30% of manufacturers in our recent poll would class their maintenance strategy as predictive or preventive is something to be celebrated,’ said Richard Chamberlain, UK service manager at Bosch Rexroth.

‘However, there is still some way to go both to help bridge the gap for those that continue to take a reactive approach, and helping forward-looking manufacturers take that extra step towards a more planned maintenance programme.’

One of the key barriers to adopting a more forward-thinking approach by maintenance teams is resource, according to the report.

Fifty-three per cent of respondents answered that maintenance budgets have stagnated or decreased in recent years, and 64% responded that maintenance personnel numbers have, similarly, stayed the same or reduced.

‘Maintenance resource is the major issue for manufacturers,’ said Mr Chamberlain. ‘All too often, maintenance teams are stretched too thinly to be able to be more planned and predictive, instead resorting to firefighting to keep machines running.’

‘What you don’t repair you destroy – A report into maintenance practices in UK industry’, by Bosch Rexroth, can be downloaded from: http://bit.ly/RexrothMaintenance