Optimizing Maintenance Contracts: Long‑Term Strategies for Reliability

Incentives and Goals

When outsourcing maintenance, design a contract that rewards continuous improvement. A performance‑based incentive aligns the contractor’s interests with your long‑term operational goals.

Service‑Only Contracts

If the contract pays only for hours worked, the contractor has little motivation to go beyond the call of duty. The risk of losing the contract should be the sole incentive, which often leads to reactive rather than proactive maintenance.

Reliability‑Based Contracts

A results‑oriented agreement creates a win‑win: the contractor earns for meeting measurable reliability targets. Typically, the most critical outcomes, after safety and environmental compliance, are:

• Equipment reliability
• Cost of delivering reliability

With a clear incentive, contractors focus on prevention, scheduled maintenance, and disciplined processes supported by robust data systems.

Choosing the Right Contractor

Beyond cost, evaluate the contractor’s maintenance philosophy, reliability framework, and measurement approach. Ask for detailed plans on failure prevention, scheduling, KPIs, ongoing training, and how they will adapt to your plant’s culture. Remember, most contractors can only out‑perform you by streamlining work processes, not by bringing superior skills.

Long‑Term Agreements

Effective maintenance contracts should span at least five years. This duration helps mitigate the “lack of constancy of purpose” and “mobility of top management” described in Deming’s Seven Deadly Diseases. Consistency allows the contractor to embed proven practices, ensuring continuous improvement rather than short‑term fixes that new managers often demand.

Healthy Competition

Internal maintenance teams rarely face true competition, granting them a de‑facto monopoly. When you outsource, the contractor becomes a competitor, encouraging higher performance. However, maintain internal competitiveness to keep the outsourcing model effective.

About the Author

Christer Idhammar is president of IDCON Inc., a Raleigh, N.C.‑based consulting firm specializing in reliability and maintenance management. Contact him at 800‑849‑2041 or info@idcon.com.