Today’s Gremlin – The White Knight

The White Knight

Today’s Gremlin – “The White Knight”, is a day-to-day hero, fixing what’s broken and returning the operation from panic. When things break, you really do need him, and he can be a hero, but couldn’t he be preventing those breakdowns?

The White Knight is the one you call when things have gone wrong. You need things fixed fast, regardless of the time of day, and he’s there for you. He works overtime if needed, he’s there when you need him, and he’s fast. Things do get fixed. But do they stay that way?

Thriving under pressure

Today’s Gremlin – “The White Knight”, thrives under pressure. Delivery promises are at risk, quality has been suffering, lots of workers are idled waiting for the repairs. Some might even call the White Knight an “adrenalin junkie” because he seems to work best with all that pressure. He gives you that quick repair and often gets rewarded for his fast response to urgencies, and his quick resolution times. The White Knight is definitely one of your “go to” people in a pinch, but is he really a hero in today’s highly competitive business environment?

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure

Today’s Gremlin – The White Knight is your “pound of cure”. While smart enough to fix things and come up with work-arounds, why not put that same energy into preventing the failures and avoiding the downtime and urgency-driving consequences?

Unplanned and urgent repair work is often 3 or more times the cost of doing the work to plan and at a pre-determined proactive time that avoids the downtime altogether. A good proactive maintenance program reduces overtime, contracting and premium costs for parts and deliveries – all saving you money. It also keeps your equipment running so you can meet scheduled deliveries and output quotas. In operations it saves you idle time for a work crew that has to wait for broken down equipment to be repaired. If you are operating a fleet, it means fewer vehicles in reserve saving you capital.

No serious breakdown should be a surprise

Breakdowns with serious consequences to production, safety or environmental risks can be identified before they happen. It only takes a bit of structured thinking to know what could go wrong, and what happens when it does. Most failures can be forecast or detected before they get to that breakdown. You can avoid all those consequences that harm your business and keep your White Knight busy! You need reliability as well as good work management to achieve dependable uptime.

Less urgency saves money and lowers risks

We are experts in eliminating your need for White Knights! Talk to us about how you can save money (easily up to 20% of your maintenance spending) while lowering your risks to safety, environmental compliance, and business continuity.

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