Traditionally, company profits have been maintained and increased through three primary means:

1. Increase the price of goods and services sold.
2. Increase the amount of goods and services sold.
3. Reduce the costs of goods and services sold.

Options 1 and 2 can be very difficult or even impossible to implement in a competitive market.  Therefore, option #3 may seem like the only viable option.  Reductions in costs can be accomplished in many ways.  Some are drastic attempts such as reducing product quality or the number of employees.  It is almost impossible for companies to achieve true long-term profit gains in these ways because those gains are usually short-lived.
What can you do to help your company increase profits in the competitive world we live in, and provide greater stability in your job? Reduce the costs of goods and services produced (option #2) in a way that you or your facility may not have previously considered. You can do this by:

• Improving equipment reliability through implementing Condition Monitoring reliability practices (RCM, FMEA, RCFA, etc).
• Ensuring the correct maintenance activities are planned, scheduled, and completed on time.
• Ensuring that the correct spare parts inventory is available and kitted when the work is scheduled and executed.
• Ensuring that value-added PMs are created and completed on the equipment.
• Ensuring that reliability-based engineering is completed. Maintenance cannot overcome poor design and installation.
• Ensuring operational activities that support maintenance and reliability are followed. Maintenance and Operations should work as partners and not as competitors.
• Supporting those in your facility that are working toward these efforts.
• Make sure that the right work is being done on the right equipment. This requires prioritizing based on a thorough understanding of equipment criticality, understanding how and why your equipment can fail, what really needs to be done to keep it operational upon demand, etc.

All of the above efforts can help your facility reduce maintenance costs and the cost of goods and services produced. This could be the difference between being the leader in your market or watching your job, profit and company suffer.