Inflation and cost pressures are just two of the challenges facing those working in the maintenance and engineering space. This can mean some difficult decisions when it comes to devising and implementing effective maintenance strategies.
Maintenance and engineering professionals face a wide array of pressures. While some are now falling away, others are emerging to take their place. According to the 2024 Maintenance Engineering Report, produced by RS in partnership with the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), attracting and retaining staff is now the biggest headache for many.
Beyond this, though, lie other challenges. While concerns around inflation are easing – 47 per cent of respondents raised this as a worry a year ago, compared with 39 per cent in 2024 – it’s still seen as the biggest challenge by one in five (22%). This is particularly the case for leaders, with 44 per cent seeing it as a concern, and also for smaller (47%) and medium-sized firms (42%).
“Inflation is still a big issue in the food and beverage sector, due to upstream supply chain issues, energy costs and the rise in input materials due, not least, to inclement weather conditions,” confirms Richard Jeffers, Solutions and Technical Director at RS.
“If you work in the beef or poultry sector, there’s been a massive increase in the cost of food because crops have been destroyed. Input price increases for raw materials are still very dominant in certain sectors, even though the more macro global supply chain issues are easing.”
This easing of macro pressures is reflected in the survey findings: 31 per cent highlighted supply chain disruption as a challenge, compared with 40 per cent the previous year. However, Jamie Hughes, Plant Manager at life sciences business Ecolab, says his business is still working through the consequences of higher input prices.
“The budgets got blown, certainly at a plant level,” he says. “Our energy costs went through the roof on an almost uncontrollable scale, and we saw that roll through all our expense lines as well. But we’re also noticing a lag factor and are starting to see higher prices come through in renegotiations for contracts this year.”
This is reflected in the fact that three in 10 (30%) people now list investment and departmental resources as challenges. While not something Hughes has yet witnessed, he feels it is an inevitable consequence of higher costs and the lag effect of inflation.
Maintenance strategies
Organisations are developing a range of strategies to help cope with the demands of the role. The majority (60%) deploy a planned maintenance strategy, while more than one in three (37%) use predictive maintenance, and 30 per cent total productive maintenance.
Yet 42 per cent also make use of a reactive – run to failure – approach. This is likely to reflect the realities of the role, rather than a lack of knowledge, contends Jeffers. “It’s not a case of people not knowing what good looks like,” he says.
“It’s the fact that it’s a tough organisational change to get there, and it’s very easy to move into firefighter mode. A lot of organisations would love to do preventive maintenance, but they can't break out of the reactive cycle. Like anything in world-class manufacturing, it’s about leadership, change management and managing your factory in a very focused way.”
Ecolab is one company that has adopted a predictive maintenance approach. “We’ve seen some real benefits, mainly around informing us how our equipment is performing, which enables us to react accordingly,” says Hughes.
“But you need to move away from being a craft-based maintenance team and have some people in the back office analysing what’s going on, who can translate that into an understanding of the physical conditions of that equipment.”
This can be challenging, he adds, with older engineers often unfamiliar with newer technologies and younger entrants also lacking in data analytics skills.
Data support
Data, however, can play an important role in helping to shape strategies that will enable organisations to meet – and prioritise – some of the challenges they face, says William Matthews, Asset and Lifecycle Manager, food and beverage industry.
“It gives a firm foundation to stand on and build up case studies,” he says. “The more reliable the data, the more you can justify why you need that downtime to do that preventative maintenance task when you’re challenged on budget.”
This kind of information can also help devise the right strategy, he adds, which could mean taking a decision to stretch out maintenance based on an understanding of the potential risks and costs. “Can you go from four times a year to three because then you have a true cost reduction?” he asks. “With a mature structure and reliable data, you can track all that information.
“If things are running well and are well-maintained, you’ll get a good lifecycle for an asset. If it’s abused and not maintained, you’ll decrease the life of that asset and need more capital investment. That can have bigger consequences around the cost of operating and replacing several bits of machinery.”
For more insight and opinion on the 2024 Maintenance Engineering Report, click here.
