Understanding maintenance agreements

Reducing the pressure on your staff by maintaining the reliability of your compressors

Often overlooked but never unimportant, maintenance agreements for compressors should be a crucial component in the purchase and operation of any compressor system.

What exactly is a maintenance agreement? It is simply any arrangement for after-sale support made between a customer and, in this case, a compressor distributor or manufacturer. A maintenance agreement obliges the distributor to perform scheduled preventive maintenance to keep plant compressors running well, minimize downtime, and to maximize equipment life. Maintenance agreements should increase overall plant efficiency and reduce costs.

Small shops and large plants both benefit from maintenance agreements. Small shops, with one or two low-horsepower compressors, many times neither have nor need a dedicated, full-time maintenance staff. This fact of life makes a maintenance agreement very useful for a small shop because the agreement ensures that periodic maintenance, such as changing filters or lubricant actually gets performed.

Although many large plants already have a full-time maintenance staff to monitor and repair equipment, there is one caveat to consider. The mere existence of a maintenance staff does imply the on-site presence of a compressor expert. Plant maintenance supports a broad range of plant equipment and maintenance departments are frequently overworked.

Thus, in major manufacturing plants, a maintenance agreement is useful as the distributor at times stocks supplies for the plant's maintenance staff to protect against on-site outages. In addition, distributors provide hands-on service training and update the customer's staff on new developments that affect the plant's compressor system.

Key aspects of a maintenance agreement
A good maintenance agreement focuses on individual customer needs because compressor applications vary from plant to plant. Plants with only a few, small-horsepower rotary screw compressors may require only periodic visits. Others that rely on an array of medium-to-large horsepower rotary screw compressors or reciprocating compressors require much more attention. Some plants use a combination of compressor types to meet various plant applications, each with individual maintenance requirements. This situation requires calculated, staggered maintenance visits for each machine. Therefore, a custom-tailored maintenance agreement is ideal.

It is important, then, for the distributor and plant management or maintenance personnel to discuss and understand what is required to keep the air system running smoothly. This helps determine the number of visits, type of maintenance, and parts required. Within the agreement it is also beneficial to create and document a written schedule of both the frequency of maintenance and what work is to be performed on each visit.

Ensuring parts availability is another key aspect to consider for your maintenance agreement. Most compressor distributors keep standard parts on the shelf. However, it is imperative that a distributor determines what parts are required and how often they should be replaced on the basis of each individual compressor application. The maintenance agreement allows customers to negotiate timely access to parts. Sometimes it is preferable to maintain a stock of parts at the customer's location as well, a clause that can be included as part of an agreement.

When stocking parts, most distributors order large quantities that translate to attractive pricing for customers. Distributors also are more likely to have routine maintenance items in stock as a result of efficient inventory planning. However, this reality does not guarantee that a few, unique parts are always available. It is important to ensure that maintenance agreements address the availability of hard-to-find, uncommon parts.

These classes award certification upon completion and ongoing training to distributors as new information becomes available. Such certification helps guarantee that the distributor organization possesses the expertise necessary to service the compressor in your plant. In addition, qualified distributors have complete access to the manufacturer's engineering and service departments should such external support be required.

The turnkey trend
As large manufacturing plants economize in capital expenditures and downsize maintenance staffs to compete in a global market, a new trend is emerging that helps manufacturers save time and money. This trend is the so-called turnkey maintenance agreement with distributors. This new type of maintenance agreement outsources all responsibility for compressor maintenance to the distributor. In effect, turnkey maintenance places the full responsibility of scheduled compressor upkeep on the shoulders of the distributor. With a turnkey agreement, the customer concentrates solely on plant's production efficiency and quality and leaves the burden of compressor maintenance to a responsible, trained distributor.

Benefits
Maintenance agreements are beneficial both in terms of efficiency and bottom-line financing. Efficiency increases as distributors get to know the customer's compressor in much the same way that a doctor builds a relationship with a patient. Just as a doctor works comfortably with a long-time patient, a compressor technician can usually get right to the heart of the problem, whereas an outsider may spend significant time doing diagnostic work. In addition, a maintenance agreement ensures that a qualified technician will be available should a problem occur, thus minimizing plant downtime.

A maintenance agreement with a compressor distributor also allows a customer to effectively plan and account for maintenance costs throughout the fiscal year. A maintenance agreement can guarantee attractive replacement parts pricing and distributor service rates. This results in significant cost savings throughout the year.

In addition, with consistent, professional maintenance, an air compressor runs efficiently, therefore reducing the probability of sudden breakdown and the costs associated with emergency repairs. Further, by using maintenance agreements, you can generally count on fixed maintenance costs rather than arrange in-house budgets built on vague estimates of how much the compressor maintenance and repair might cost each year. In summary, maintenance agreements enhance your ability to control and reduce your plant operating costs.

Pitfalls
Consider several issues when developing or negotiating a maintenance agree-ment. Avoid canned or one-size-fits-all maintenance agreements. In fact, you should seek an agreement that is tailored specifically for your unique compressor application.

Variables such as climate, plant environment, and workload make a difference in the maintenance schedule for a compressor or compressor system. For example, compressors operating continually in the heat and humidity of the Gulf Coast area require a different maintenance schedule than a similar compressor system in a friendlier climate. Other factors, such as proper plant ventilation and air quality, make it impossible to effectively use any single approach.

Another pitfall to avoid is contracting with any organization that doesn't sell genuine original equipment parts for your compressor. Though less expensive, these so-called pirate parts will not consistently function at the same level of performance as parts fabricated by the original equipment manufacturer.

Countless examples have proven that the inferior quality of pirate parts places the customer's significant investment in capital equipment at serious risk. The bottom line: Attempting to save a few dollars a year with look-alike parts is not worth potential catastrophic compressor failures and costly interruptions of plant production. A maintenance agreement guarantees that genuine original equipment replacement parts be stocked and used for all maintenance--added protection for the customer's investment!

A maintenance agreement (see Figure 1) is a valuable asset to any business that uses compressed air. A proper maintenance agreement becomes a specialized tool that increases compressor reliability and efficiency and gives you piece of mind.