Maintaining Your Physical Asset Management Initiative During a Recession

Cost cutting during a recession will likely come to your department and either prevent your program from moving ahead or move it backwards. However, a recession is a time when you need to refine your objectives and to focus on the elements of the program that yield the biggest payoff:

1.) Understanding what is important to maintaining the demanded Level of Service? Relative Criticality.

2.) Maximizing life-cycle of existing equipment. Learn new tricks to make equipment run as efficient and long as possible.

3.) Insure that your redundant equipment is in the best possible shape. Consider changing to a Lead/Lag operation as apposed to balanced run time. And maintain the off line unit with special care (motor heaters, oil inspections for water, etc...) to have a good standby.

4.) Inspect, protect, and repair your spare parts inventory. With a recession and businesses closing, you never know when the equipment manufacture might drop your machine from his "supported" list and your access to new parts will evaporate.

A few thoughts on recession proofing your program. Look for more to come on this topic.