Preventive maintenance is designed to prevent failure before it occurs, implementing partial or complete overhauls at specified periods and preserving equipment by replacing worn components before they fail. Here is one example of a preventive maintenance program that works for both the customer and the equipment distributor.
Fascan International, exclusive U.S distributor of the Fassi series of cranes, has paid more than $2.5 million to its customers since March 2007 as part of its SE Crane Maintenance program – and no one is happier about it than Bernie Faloney, Fascan’s CEO.
According to Faloney, everyone in the construction business is faced with the challenge of getting more work done with fewer resources. Business owners are expected to keep their equipment running, and get as much work done as possible in shorter windows of time and at much slimmer margins.
“Construction companies are doing everything they can to stay competitive, and what usually gets deferred is equipment maintenance,” he says. “Eventually, that practice catches up with you, and your equipment ends up breaking down. Fascan created its SE maintenance program to help prevent that loss.”
Three Years, $10,000
Fascan’s program is simple. With the purchase of a Fassi SE Crane, a model specially designed to transport and handle wall board, customers are enrolled in the SE maintenance program, which outlines a quarterly, multipoint inspection plan for a period of three years. Fascan also reminds SE Crane owners by mail when routine maintenance on the crane should be performed. On top of that, for three years Fascan pays the SE Crane owner about $833 per quarter to offset maintenance expenses, with a bottom line of $10,000 being paid out per crane at the end of the 3-year period, provided the program guidelines are met.
Why? The answer, says Faloney, makes sense when you look at it in the long term.
Everyone Can Use an Extra $220,000
The average construction company loses about two weeks of productive time per crane each year to maintenance and mechanical failure, according to Faloney. And as some business owners can attest, sometimes two weeks is a low estimate. Figuring an average of $22,725 of gross delivered product each day per SE crane, Faloney illustrates that reducing those two weeks of downtime loss to a period of just four scheduled days can translate to a gain of $220,000 in potential revenue each year.
With the Fascan maintenance program, a customer schedules just one day each quarter for an approved Fascan service partner to service the crane. With regular inspections, potential problems are identified and fixed before the equipment can become damaged. This regular preventive maintenance can significantly reduce a crane’s downtime over the life of the maintenance program, add additional days of productive work to a company’s bottom line, and extend the life of the equipment well beyond the maintenance reimbursement period.
“Fascan recognized the challenges of crane owners and operators years ago,” says Steve Matson, owner of Empire Repair in Mahwah, NJ, which services and repairs some 250 crane and truck clients each year. “Crane owners needed a stronger maintenance program with more incentives and an easier way to keep up with equipment repair. Fascan got it right with this one.”
A Better Investment
Three years ago, Faloney’s clients may have quietly thought that he was going to lose money with his new maintenance program, but Faloney explains that it is a far better investment, in terms of customer satisfaction, to commit the $10,000 for each crane than to risk them having to pay several times that amount on a repair.
“Customers spend far more than $10,000 to repair equipment that has broken down due to poor upkeep,” says Faloney, noting that the cost of parts alone to replace a column and base on an SE crane can exceed $25,000. The customer wins by having a known number of days when the crane is out of service in exchange for a greater number of working days; Fascan wins by having a satisfied customer base.
Matson agrees, saying that while the payments are a great incentive for owners to maintain their equipment, the real achievement is that it puts the task of maintenance front-and-center with crane owners and makes them give regular servicing a higher priority.
“I don’t think there’s a comparable program out there,” he says.