You wouldn’t dream of buying a new car and drive it for 20 years without changing the oil regularly, checking for properly-inflated tires, or ignoring any number of regular maintenance items that would keep that car in good working order. Yet throughout the country, we are facing that very same issue with many public roads, bridges, and facilities, and the practice of doing nothing is taking a toll on public safety and severely shortening the life of these valuable public assets.
Maintenance Design Group believes in innovative, sustainable, robust design of facilities incorporating finishes, systems, and equipment that optimize the life of a facility. Further, we advocate maintaining these facilities–just like a new car–to keep them operating efficiently.
Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle featured an article about Grace Crunican, Bay Area Regional Transit’s (BART’s) new general manager. In the article, Ms. Crunican discusses the cost of doing nothing, sharing that BART’s aging system will need to invest roughly $15 billion in improvements over the next few decades, and the need for the community to view this as an investment in the system. She went on to say, “People don’t understand the cost of doing nothing. They figure if you do nothing, things stay the same. But if you do nothing, the system deteriorates, service deteriorates.”
IDCON Inc., a maintenance management consulting firm, posted an article that poignantly illustrates the cost of doing nothing. In this article, Michael Lippig, IDCON’s Business Development Manager, cites an example of a Canadian plant that procrastinated a $60,000 maintenance procedure, ultimately resulting in a $500,000 repair. “That is, unfortunately, a very common problem in North American plants. Most of the incidents by themselves are small enough not to attract attention. However, if you ask maintenance people at your plant, you will find that everyone has their favorite stories about ‘the cost of doing nothing.’”
The cost of doing nothing adds up when equipment and systems falter or fail due to neglect. We’ve all seen it happen. Please take a moment to share your story of a situation when not performing facility preventive maintenance caused major problems. Send us your story at my.story@mdg-llc.com.