Recent competitive trends have been pushing companies to reconsider the impact and importance of increasing equipment availability, utilization and resource utilization, and increasing quality and responsiveness of maintenance services in achieving World Class Status to meet world competition.
It has been estimated that of the over 600 billion dollars per year spent on maintenance, more than one third 200 billion dollars is wasted! Wasted due to poor management of resources, poor measurement and control of labor, material, capital! Not only that: Maintenance costs are higher than managers realize, because although they think the costs of doing maintenance are high, they don't often realize the costs of not doing maintenance right are even higher.
Perhaps as much as 15 to 40 percent of total product cost (due to the 'hidden, costs such as breakdowns, lost production, lost time, late delivery, disorder, poor quality, high rework)! Think about it, most managers think of maintenance as a cost, a necessary evil.