One of the messages offered was my "Inverse-Square Rule for Deferred Maintenance" which states: "If a part is known to be failing but left in service until the next level of failure, the resultant expense will be the square of the primary failure part."
Working in focus groups representing each type of industrial maintenance, they tested this rule by completing my "Inverse-Square Rule for Deferred Maintenance" Worksheets (attached below this post) to identify and total all costs associated with their breakdown events. In every case and industry, when they totaled the direct maintenance, indirect, and intangible costs and took the square-root, the value was equal to the cost of the primary failure part, or the cost of the deferred inspection, or the cost to train the employee that would have avoided the exponential cascade of expenses. This rule seems to apply across all types and scales of maintenance. They then computed their True Risk/Reward Ratio for Deferred Maintenance.
These people now have a very powerful tool to better manage the function of maintenance in their organizations because this rule is an accurate predictor of costs and man/hours that can be applied in the field. When facing an operational or budgetary maintenance decision, all they have to do is square the cost of the primary part that needs to be replaced or multiply the early intervention Work Order cost by the Risk/Reward Ratio for their industry to produce the numbers necessary to make the right decision.
David Geaslin, Principal
The Geaslin Group
Web:
www.geaslin.comWeb:
www.ManagingMaintenance.com 
