Food and drink manufacturing has the worst record of any industry for equipment downtime and stoppages, according to a survey by a leading supplier of maintenance software systems.

Just under half of food and drink manufacturers said equipment failure accounted for up to £26,500 in lost production, while 7% lost between £531,000 and £5m every year. More than 14% of respondents said they had more than 10 major breakdowns in the past year, stopping more than half of their production.

According to Intentia's enterprise asset management benchmarking survey, carried out among 400 global manufacturing and utilities organisations, stoppages were largely due to poor maintenance strategies. Intentia said the findings suggested companies recognised the value of preventative maintenance but failed to put resources behind it. A key issue in the food and drink sector was poor decision making on capital purchases.

More than 85% of respondents agreed that preventative maintenance increased production and operations capacity, with almost two-thirds reporting that their preventative maintenance gave them a competitive advantage. However, the proportion of operational spending on maintenance by most organisations was less than 10%.

"The food and beverage industry in particular demonstrated a clear belief in the investment qualities of maintenance," said Intentia director Brian Dunks. "Yet, paradoxically, the industry is shown to rely more heavily on repair-based maintenance than most other industries and is experiencing higher than average unscheduled downtime."

• The national maintenance management show is held at the NEC, Birmingham on March 1-3. See http://www.maintec.co.uk .