Global Market Outlook on LAB Equipment Maintenance

Mature buyers from pharma/biotech industry prefer MVS model, while buyers from the food and beverage industry prefer to have strong internal maintenance team along with OEMs support. Few of the buyers also use services from local third-party service providers.Lab equipment requires sophisticated and regularized maintenance. OEMs are found to be better service providers, due to their relevant experience and technical capabilities, compared to third-party service providers.

Lab Equipment Maintenance Demand

Increasing budgetary, cost-saving pressure, advancements in maintenance technology, and emphasize on good laboratory practices are driving the lab equipment maintenance market growth at a CAGR of 5–6% by 2019.

Increasing budgetary constraints are expected to increase demand for lab equipment maintenance

  • Funds/grants by governments across North America and Europe have not increased as per expectations in the past five years
  • Research organizations are becoming less intended towards buying new lab equipment

Financial Downturn:

  • In a competitive financial environment, pharmaceutical companies are focusing on laboratory sustainability
  • Apposite lab asset management could increase laboratory efficiency and bring opportunities for soft cost savings

Technological Advancement in Asset Management:

  • Use of IT tools enables proper tracking of laboratory inventory and equipment
  • More appropriate maintenance programs could be scheduled to increase the uptime of the equipment

Stringent Regulations and Good Laboratory Practices:

  • Emerging countries are popular grounds for clinical trials. Local authorities are stressing on good laboratory practices, including Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) on operation, calibration, and maintenance of equipment
  • In developed countries, regulatory authorities are more focused on data security, traceability, and integrity of electronic records
  • Maintenance demand for high-end equipment (e.g., mass spectrometer and automation) is high compared to low-end equipment (e.g. cell-based research and material characterization equipment)
  • Buyers are recommended to engage with OEMs for high-end equipment, as they have the required experience and technical expertise in maintaining the equipment
  • OEMs acting as MVS providers have better capabilities to maintain the high-end equipment of other OEMs, than third-party service providers
  • Third-party service providers could be used to maintain low-end equipment, such as balances, centrifuges, etc., as they only require calibration and minor corrective maintenance over a period

Lab Equipment Maintenance: Multi-Vendor Service

MVS providers prefer target for at least 1,500 hours of maintenance work at a laboratory site to deploy on-site engineers. Typical utilization rate for an on-site engineer is around 80%, compounding to around 1,600–1,700 hours of maintenance work.

MVS providers offer asset management programs with more focus on medium-end equipment for maintenance, due to lack of technical complexity and considerable volume compared to the high-end equipment. The maintenance of high and low-end equipment is often outsourced to either OEM or third-party service providers.