FAQ
With the decreasing cost of hardware it seems to be difficult to justify the cost for maintenance. But replacement of the physical goods is only one side of the medal. The other side involves to bring the new piece of hardware to that point, where the other PC seized to exist. The main problem for most organisations is the downtime.
Example:
Your PC gives up the ghost Friday 15:30 h
Calling service engineer at 15:45h
Engineer arrives at 16:15h
Initial tests indicate failure of cooling device for the processor
16:30h
This could have caused damage to the processor and/or the system board
Spare parts are not at hand, local shops are out of stock
17:00 order placed for cooler, ETA Monday next around lunchtime
Courier is delayed, part does not arrive before Monday 15:00h
Engineer fits part
PC does not start because of additional damage
More parts need to be ordered
PC finally up and running on Tuesday 14:30h
Estimated time of no operation for this PC: 15 hours or nearly two working days.
Reason for the downtime : a cooling fan worth € 4.75
Due to the absence of a PM-plan the engineer had to apply diagnostic or corrective maintenance, which is performed to correct an already-existing problem.
With PM in operation this scenario could have been avoided. Regular maintenance on PCs would include an internal inspection of the PC so accumulated dust would have been discovered, removed and the proper operation of the fan been tested (to get an idea have a look at this.)
In addition the service provider for PM usually creates an inventory of hard- and software and takes care of having stock of replacement parts before they become scarce on the market or go out of production altogether. Most customers agree to buy the parts and have them on site, just in case...
BTW: Having somebody on site performing PM is the ideal opportunity to talk to that somebody about backups.