Ensuring equipment reliability is one of the great challenges for industrial operations, from plants to mining companies. Many organizations do not have the staff expertise to develop and effectively run an asset management system, including such core functions as reliability-focused maintenance. Often, they have no idea where to start.

To resolve this problem, companies may outsource some or all of their maintenance management functions. Often, the finance department is encouraging them from the sidelines. Since third-party providers (3PPs) often maintain the parts inventory, outsourcing increases working capital and improves the balance sheet. While this strategy may look good on paper, in the long run it almost never improves efficiency. Over time, it can have a very negative effect on operating productivity and system reliability.

Despite this reality, leadership may be entrenched in the mindset that outsourcing maintenance (and other asset) management responsibilities is a sound approach. They are convinced they cannot resolve their problems internally, so they accept lower-than-expected performance from the 3PP as the best possible outcome.

Fortunately, there is a much more effective and efficient solution—implementation of a well-designed and run maintenance management program. Can organizations achieve this goal by themselves? Probably not. However, that doesn’t mean they should hand over the actual work to an outside provider with no vested interest in their success.

Rather, bringing in an unbiased efficiency expert to evaluate operating shortcomings and develop a reliability-centered maintenance management program is a proven technique with far greater long-term value than outsourcing the functions themselves. As a part of the analysis, the expert will evaluate every activity and function related to maintenance. If targeted outsourcing makes sense, the consultant will recommend it.

For example, for some firms, it makes sense to outsource specific functions —testing and analysis, for example, or software customization of the CMMS (computerized maintenance management systems).

In both of these examples, outsourcing is limited to strategic hand-off of specific program elements. The core maintenance management program, and primary responsibility for reliability, remains exactly where it should—with the company whose success depends upon it.