One of the high costs of undertaking any maintenance activity is the unpredictability that this type of maintenance requires on call response teams to follow the just in case principle. Many of the drivers of KPI’s, centre around the ability to perform reactive maintenance and as improvements in asset performance are achieved the impact of  those KPI’s instead of lessening can create a greater burden through the continuous improvement process.

Reactive maintenance within the water industry is one aspect that needs continual review and analysis and developing ways to restrict and eventually remove this costly component should be a focus of all in the industry.

The increases in both technology and information and more extensive SCADA systems may allow a significant reduction in the reactive maintenance activity.