Maintenance budgeting

I am a frequent traveler in the new AC buses started by BEST (Mumbai public transportation). They are very comfortable buses and they run more or less on time. Generally there is a place to sit and it goes significantly faster than the other buses. Lastly given the record breaking heat and the pollution around, the bus presents a great option.

Early last month I saw that the digital watch in one bus was not working. Next, in a few buses I saw the radio/ speaker system not functioning. Yesterday I saw a bus with the LED display that shows the destination in a faulty state. All this is really surprising since the buses are less than 6 months old.

Somewhere 'maintenance planning' is not a part of the budget and operations in many organisations. Assets wear out. In any business that is dominated by such assets, it is imperative that some resources are committed to ensure a certain minimum level of performance. Maintenance is a big expense these days and companies have to ensure that this is budgeted in the capital budgeting plans and the reasonable costs taken care of. Besides the cost, there has to be a seperate process to ensure that defective and worn out parts are replaced regularly.

Maintenance is not rocket science. Most equipment have a specific life cycle and need replacement in a specific time period. Organisations have to factor this and create individual or group replacement policies for components. The overall aim would be to ensure that the asset gives the desired performance for the longest possible time period.