In a perfect world, your pumps and associated equipment would run like new forever. Unfortunately, there will be a time when you are faced with the need to repair or refurbish your pumps. For optimal efficiency, you’ll need to be able to easily access the equipment, so you can then make the decision to repair or refurbish.
There are many variables and factors that go into the decision of how to handle a pump that’s not working. These may include age of the equipment, budgets and possible downtime. With so much at stake to your operations, you must make the most informed decision or risk impacting future performance, maintenance and operating costs. It may even effect whether target production output can be achieved.
Allied Pumps has lots of experience in the question of repair versus replace. Because of the complexity of the subject, the process of determining which is best may not be fully optimised in many organisations. In this post, we’re sharing our expertise to help you in your decision-making process.
The bottom line in repair versus replace is cost. Ultimately, you want to make the decision at the lowest cost. But you should define cost first and the time period for considering these costs.
Direct costs to consider:
In looking at long-term strategy, there are also indirect fixed costs, like supervision, and various other indirect labour areas, like training, safety meetings and meals/accommodations for training. Long-term, these costs are not fixed. When considering it holistically, you can influence the total size of these costs.
There are also significant costs related to downtime and replacement, determined by the total downtime associated with component replacement. This takes into account the downtime required to switch out the component and the frequency with which the component could fail. While the equipment downtime costs includes:
Other costs that should be considered include the opportunity cost of additional capital and the cost of lost production. In the life cycle approach, total costs should be assessed for the period up until the equipment is due to be scrapped or replaced. This is likely several years. Because of this, the time value of money must be noted.
At Allied Pumps, we not only provide new pump systems, but also repairs, replacements and refurbishment. We are backed by our group of experienced support technicians, who offer in-house and on-site pump repair services, even for remote sites.
We recently had the opportunity to work with Royal Perth Hospital on a replacement. This 450-bed teaching hospital needed to repair or replace their fire pumps set. Fire protection is critical so minimising downtime was essential. Due to time constraints, refurbishment wasn’t an option. There was also the need to meet Australian Standards (AS 2941-2013), which meant refurbishment wasn’t economically feasible. We worked quickly to disable and remove the existing system. This was the same day the new system was delivered. We met a very aggressive turnaround time to get the site up and going quickly. The new pump complies with standards and does the job as intended.
If you’re wrestling with the decision of replace or refurbish, get in touch. We’ll give you an honest, expert recommendation to get your pump operations running efficiently and effectively.
Contact us to learn about how we can help you with your pump needs.
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