How to save money on overhead crane maintenance

 

A Guide for $aving Money on
Overhead Crane Maintenance

Most of crane maintenance costs are associated with the idea of mainly labour and parts.

These two added together account for approximately 75% to 80% of the total cost associated with crane maintenance and the balance or the remaining 25% or 20% is left for new or used equipment in the process of addressing crane maintenance issues.  In other words it doesn't become cost effective to fix the crane, its better to replace it.

The best way to save money on crane maintain is to understand how the problems and break-downs occur by tracking the information and knowing what things cost.  When I mean things I mean hours, parts, service travel time, labour premiums shipping costs and so forth.  None of these types of costs add any value to your operations.

Whether you hire and outside crane service company to install your parts and essentially "outsource" your crane maintenance or complete your crane maintenance in-house all these costs associated with your overhead cranes are important to understand and keep track of, especially if you are a crane owner who wants to save money and reduce your liability risk.

Many crane owners these days are being forced to become very knowledgeable about their equipment  because of economic downturns, increased government pressure for health and safety purposes.  So hear are some good tips you can uses as a standard for improvement for your crane maintenance:

Useful Tips to Save Money on Crane Maintenance

These few tips are considered to be the most important.  Keep in mind there are many more as well.

1.  Log all equipment failures, defects or break-down occurrences (besides your inspection reports)

Understanding why things break is the first step to a true preventative maintenance and optimized maintenance program for your cranes and organization.  Crane service companies have used this understanding of failures as a means of making money and aiding equipment manufacturers in the process of building new equipment.

2.  Separate all costs into categories such as parts, labour, travel, etc...

Not knowing the individual cost items will prevent you from making key important and better decisions to allow you to save money.  Establish a method of keeping track of all your costs, you will be surprised to learn why and where your money is going.

3.  Always keep track of problems on a per crane basis

Some crane owners will experience more repairs on one crane than another in their manufacturing facility or place of business.  Even if you have two cranes that are identical doing similar functions from a lifting application point of view tracking equipment individually will highlight problems but also give you more power when you implement a "True Preventative Maintenance Program," for each crane you own.

4.  Always use OEM parts or better than OEM parts for your cranes.

The first point means use original parts for your cranes and not re-manufacturered or copied parts.  This is really hard for crane owners and their plant managers to prevent this practice of crane maintenance or to catch it.  

Many service companies intentionally will supply fake parts to save money on parts costs at the same time receive more service calls.  The second point is a little tricky, you need a crane parts expert to understand what "better then OEM really means." Remember crane and hoist equipment manufacturers don't always supply the best part and they will never tell you which ones are better. 

5.  Proper Number and Type of Crane Inspections - Annual Crane Inspections (reactive maintenance)

75-80% of all crane owners only conduct or perform overhead crane and hoist inspections to comply with the government health and safety laws and regulations once per year or annually.  In some places the law is twice per year.  

Always remember annual crane inspections year after year will always cost you more on crane maintenance over time.  Crane inspections should be done according to usage and use application within your facility and can be certainly be implemented and can change year to year depending on the manufacturing production environment.  This is why the points previously state above are important are important to remember.

6.  Establish a Crane Service History

This points back to point #1 above.  The more information you have on your cranes from a maintenance point of view the more control over your costs you will have.  Ask yourself one simple question:  "Who would you prefer to know more about your cranes? You and your employees or the crane service company or the crane manufacturer?"

Of course there are more tips and ways to come up with a complete strategy of cost control measures but if you follow these small steps you will be in the top class of crane owners who will have complete control over crane maintenance.  Not only will you save money on maintenance but you will enjoy an increased level of crane and plant safety.

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Article by:  Bill Hallett, President and expert in Overhead Cranes.

MHE Control Systems and Crane Parts Depot

Bill specializes in implemention of true preventative maintenance programs for crane owners and is also  an overhead crane maintenance and parts specialist for over 16 years.  Bill has also created his very own Maintenance Optimization software for overhead cranes called:MHEControl