The Cost of Reactive Maintenance

Not surprisingly, this reactive method can be expensive, and is not considered adequate for TPM. However, it can be cost effective in situations where the equipment is simple, robust, and not critical to production.

In the past, equipment tended to be less complex than often it is today. It also performed fewer functions, e.g. a drilling machine just drilled holes. In a factory which owned a number of drilling machines, the sudden failure of one of these would represent the loss of only a fraction of their production capacity. Quite likely, the machine could be quickly restored to working condition by the factory's own maintenance and tool-making staff.

A common scenario today is high technology equipment performing multiple operations. There are usually only a small number of these machines in the factory, thus the failure of just one represents a significant loss of production capacity, and an expensive overhead lying idle! To restore the machine to working order may involve waiting for spare parts, and may require the specialist skills of the original manufacturer.

Reactive Maintenance Costs