Emergency maintenance is a type of maintenance that teams want to avoid at all costs. Emergency maintenance issues differ from usual, expected reactive maintenance in that it is a maintenance issue that directly threatens health and safety, profitability or production due to a critical fault.
It is crucial for maintenance and facilities teams to have the ability to differentiate between a high-priority fault and an emergency fault which has the ability to impact the business and risks lives. A high-priority maintenance fault moves to the top of the list whereas an emergency fault requires an immediate response.
Emergency maintenance situations that threaten health and safety or profitability could include:
Downtime from emergency maintenance will negatively impact businesses and profitability. Where there has been a maintenance issue on a critical asset, there is a risk of production being paused or stopped altogether until the issue is resolved.
Not only is there a risk to profitability but emergency maintenance issues may also pose a risk to health and safety and could threaten lives. Gas leaks, fire hazards, and burst pipes could lead to dire circumstances and these maintenance faults require an immediate response.
An automated response could be the first step to helping to avoid emergency maintenance issues. Some assets could be fitted with software that triggers an automated emergency response that inevitably will help to reduce overall downtime.
Maintenance software can be used to prevent emergency maintenance issues through effective preventative maintenance. Preventative maintenance ensures the health of assets and through regular upkeep, teams will see the lifetime value of assets grow as well as help to prevent unexpected emergency failures.
