Maintenance failure is any servicing or maintenance activity that is not part of a regular and planned servicing regime. All unplanned activity contributes to downtime and increased costs.

Why are maintenance failure records important?

Maintenance failure records allow the fleet manager to analyse the cause of the repairs and maintenance being carried out. Some of the typical causes are through:

• Lack of operator skill - operator inattention and accidents
• Insufficient management of operators - lack of daily maintenance, operator inattention
• Delayed replacement - age of the item
• Planned future scheduled work – normal wear and tear
• Not performing to specifications – faulty components (under warranty) and manufacturers’ design faults.

Why do we measure maintenance failure?

The fleet manager often has little or no influence over the way the plant and vehicles are operated, because the responsibility for operations falls within other departments within the organisation. Maintenance failure records provide accurate information on not only the cost of a failure but on what caused the failure. In this way managers responsible for the operations of these vehicles are able to assess the need for additional training, improved induction processes, operator discipline, or increased maintenance procedures.

How is maintenance failure measured?

Maintenance failure records reflect the maintenance labour involved in the subsequent repair, the downtime associated with the repair and the cost of the repair. In this way, fleet managers are able to highlight the overall cost of individual failures.