ABB survey reveals unplanned downtime costs

According to the Value of Reliability survey from ABB, 68 per cent of industrial businesses experience unplanned outages at least once a month, compared to 68 per cent globally. This costs the typical Canadian business close to 242,000 CAD per hour, compared to 170,000 CAD globally. Despite this, 19 per cent of Canadian businesses surveyed still rely on run-to-fail maintenance.

The survey, conducted by Sapio Research in July 2023, gathered responses from 3,215 plant maintenance decision-makers globally across the energy generation, plastics and rubber, oil and gas, wind, chemicals, rail, utilities, marine, food and beverage, water and wastewater, and metals sectors. It is part of a report that provides insights into how businesses currently manage maintenance and how they can reduce unplanned downtime.

The findings demonstrate the importance of equipment reliability and maintenance. Globally, ninety-two per cent reported that maintenance has increased their uptime in the last year, with 38 per cent reporting an improvement of at least a quarter. Also, three-quarters of respondents said that reliability positively impacts their business reputation and financial performance, and helps them meet contractual obligations, prevent waste and secure repeat business. Reliability was rated by respondents as the top priority when purchasing new equipment.

Looking forward, 60 per cent plan to increase their investment in reliability and maintenance in the next three years, with a third planning to boost spend by more than 10 per cent. Nine in ten respondents expressed interest in outcome-based maintenance agreements. Under these, operators pay service partners based on achieved outcomes, such as increased uptime or energy efficiency. This results in efficient and effective service delivery with predictable cashflow.

“There’s no typical length for an outage, but consider one that lasts a working day of eight hours – based on the median hourly rate, it would cost a business one million dollars. With this in mind, industrial businesses should aim to progress from a high-risk run-to-fail maintenance approach to a long-term outcome- based strategy,” said Hugues Therrien, ABB Canada Motors and Drives Service lead. “This will improve reliability, business reputation, competitivity, cut costs, and provide peace of mind – empowering businesses to focus on their core competence.”