Industrial maintenance costs: why is an ERP an indispensable tool?
Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 9:08 am
A piece of equipment on the production line stopped working unexpectedly, just when you managed to close a big sale to one of your main clients. This is the reality that occurs in dozens of factories that, even today, do not carry out preventive and predictive maintenance plans , much less execute control scripts in their companies.
One of the major problems of this lack of planning is the increase in industrial maintenance costs , which causes financial problems for your company and reduces your competitive advantages. This problem can be avoided by hiring a complete ERP , that is, a management system with functionalities that help you analyze and propose corrections much faster and avoid high costs.
To explain how an ERP solution can be the main ally in cost management , we spoke with two TOTVS specialists: Marcelo Gramigna, Product Manager, and Umberto Tonin, Digital Manufacturing Offering Architect. Check it out!
The importance of planning to achieve cost reduction
When companies do not work with a specific maintenance control solution and do not plan properly, it is even possible to have an idea of how much was spent at the end of the month. However, it is much more difficult to know which of the machines is generating an excessive burden on their finances and which processes can be optimized to reduce costs.
“The type of maintenance that generates the most expenses is corrective maintenance, that is, maintenance where a problem has already occurred and the factory has not performed preventive maintenance ,” says Marcelo Gramigna. This is because a machine that does not work not only generates the expense of parts that must be changed in an emergency: there are also the costs of stopping part or all of its production.
“It is important to know how much each piece of equipment costs, from acquisition to maintenance, because the product that goes through that machine receives a portion of the cost of these processes. If you simply do an apportionment, you are sometimes charging the cost of a product for maintenance, and that machine did not even have to go through that process for a long time,” explains Umberto Tonin .
By adopting an efficient preventive and predictive belgium whatsapp data maintenance plan , your company can, in addition to reducing costs:
reduce the number of corrective maintenance occurrences;
improve the predictability of expenses;
buy in advance and at better prices all the materials needed to repair the equipment;
gain greater agility in repair and remediation processes;
and, above all, minimize the impacts on production.
The main advantages of ERP for managing maintenance costs
Ideally, your company should manage maintenance costs, from planning to recording day-to-day information, using a complete management system. Automating these processes brings some benefits that can create new differentials for the business . Check out these benefits!
Receive automatic notifications and service orders
The management software will help, according to the manufacturer’s manual and the process used on the machine, to inform you how often your team should perform maintenance on each piece of equipment, reducing costs and making a much better management of the company as a whole . “The system counts the operating hours, in addition to providing a complete overview for maintenance planning and the purchase of materials ,” highlights Marcelo Gramigna.
Organize inspection routes more easily
Ideally, at most weekly, plant operators should inspect each piece of equipment. This process should follow an inspection script , which can be developed with the help of data recorded in your ERP.
Gramigna points out that this will allow you and your team to understand whether the machine is actually working in accordance with the supplier's information or whether it is already presenting a problem even before the scheduled maintenance period.
Have the complete history of your machines
Unfortunately, manual notes cannot fully record all the information about your machine. With the management system, combined with Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data technologies , the history of changes and inspections carried out on each of the equipment can be stored .
“With access to old notes, you can build up a strategic stock of spare parts to avoid prolonged machine downtime. You have to be careful, because sometimes the maintenance cost is low and it will be done with a simple part. But what will make this process more expensive are other factors, such as the time that the machine and production will be down, costs not related to service, worsening customer satisfaction and even loss of sales,” warns Umberto Tonin .
One of the major problems of this lack of planning is the increase in industrial maintenance costs , which causes financial problems for your company and reduces your competitive advantages. This problem can be avoided by hiring a complete ERP , that is, a management system with functionalities that help you analyze and propose corrections much faster and avoid high costs.
To explain how an ERP solution can be the main ally in cost management , we spoke with two TOTVS specialists: Marcelo Gramigna, Product Manager, and Umberto Tonin, Digital Manufacturing Offering Architect. Check it out!
The importance of planning to achieve cost reduction
When companies do not work with a specific maintenance control solution and do not plan properly, it is even possible to have an idea of how much was spent at the end of the month. However, it is much more difficult to know which of the machines is generating an excessive burden on their finances and which processes can be optimized to reduce costs.
“The type of maintenance that generates the most expenses is corrective maintenance, that is, maintenance where a problem has already occurred and the factory has not performed preventive maintenance ,” says Marcelo Gramigna. This is because a machine that does not work not only generates the expense of parts that must be changed in an emergency: there are also the costs of stopping part or all of its production.
“It is important to know how much each piece of equipment costs, from acquisition to maintenance, because the product that goes through that machine receives a portion of the cost of these processes. If you simply do an apportionment, you are sometimes charging the cost of a product for maintenance, and that machine did not even have to go through that process for a long time,” explains Umberto Tonin .
By adopting an efficient preventive and predictive belgium whatsapp data maintenance plan , your company can, in addition to reducing costs:
reduce the number of corrective maintenance occurrences;
improve the predictability of expenses;
buy in advance and at better prices all the materials needed to repair the equipment;
gain greater agility in repair and remediation processes;
and, above all, minimize the impacts on production.
The main advantages of ERP for managing maintenance costs
Ideally, your company should manage maintenance costs, from planning to recording day-to-day information, using a complete management system. Automating these processes brings some benefits that can create new differentials for the business . Check out these benefits!
Receive automatic notifications and service orders
The management software will help, according to the manufacturer’s manual and the process used on the machine, to inform you how often your team should perform maintenance on each piece of equipment, reducing costs and making a much better management of the company as a whole . “The system counts the operating hours, in addition to providing a complete overview for maintenance planning and the purchase of materials ,” highlights Marcelo Gramigna.
Organize inspection routes more easily
Ideally, at most weekly, plant operators should inspect each piece of equipment. This process should follow an inspection script , which can be developed with the help of data recorded in your ERP.
Gramigna points out that this will allow you and your team to understand whether the machine is actually working in accordance with the supplier's information or whether it is already presenting a problem even before the scheduled maintenance period.
Have the complete history of your machines
Unfortunately, manual notes cannot fully record all the information about your machine. With the management system, combined with Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Big Data technologies , the history of changes and inspections carried out on each of the equipment can be stored .
“With access to old notes, you can build up a strategic stock of spare parts to avoid prolonged machine downtime. You have to be careful, because sometimes the maintenance cost is low and it will be done with a simple part. But what will make this process more expensive are other factors, such as the time that the machine and production will be down, costs not related to service, worsening customer satisfaction and even loss of sales,” warns Umberto Tonin .