2.0 MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES

CHAPTER 1MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATIONINTRODUCTION & MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION ROLEJJ 616MAINTENANCE ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this chapter, students should be able to:-Determine the role of maintenance organization.

IntroductionOrganizing is the process of arranging resources (people, materials, technology etc.) together to achieve the organizations strategies and goals. The way in which the various parts of an organization are formally arranged is referred to as the organization structure. It is a system involving the interaction of inputs and outputs. It is characterized by task assignments, workflow, reporting relationships, and communication channels that link together the work of diverse individuals and groups. Any structure must allocate tasks through a division of labor and facilitate the coordination of the performance results.IntroductionOrganization structures should be viewed as dynamic entities that continuously evolve to respond to changes in technology, processes and environment, (Daft, 1989 and Schermerhorn, 2007). Frederick W. Taylor introduced the concept of scientific management (times study and division of labor), while Frank and Lilian Gilbreth founded the concept of modern motion study techniques. The contributions of Taylor and the Gilbreths are considered as the basis for modern organization management until the middle of the twentieth century maintenance has been carried out in an unplanned reactive way and for a long time it has lagged behind other areas of industrial management in the application of formal techniques and/or information technology. With realization of the impact of poor maintenance on enterprises profitability, many managers are revising the organization of maintenance and have developed new approaches that foster effective maintenance organization.IntroductionMaintenance cost can be a significant factor in an organizations profitability. In manufacturing, maintenance cost could consume 210% of the companys revenue and may reach up to 24% in the transport industry (Chelson, Payne and Reavill, 2005). The contemporary management considers maintenance as an integral function in achieving productive operations and high-quality products, while maintaining satisfactory equipment and machines reliability as demanded by the era of automation, flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), lean manufacturing, and just-in-time operations.IntroductionThere is no universally accepted methodology for designing maintenance systems, i.e., no fully structured approach leading to an optimal maintenance system (i.e., organizational structure with a defined hierarchy of authority and span of control; defined maintenance procedures and policies, etc.). Identical product organizations, but different in technology advancement and production size, may apply different maintenance systems and the different systems may run successfully. Maintenance systems are designed using experience and judgment supported by a number of formal decision tools and techniques. Two vital considerations should be considered: strategy that decides on which level within the plant to perform maintenance, and hence outlining a structure that will support the maintenance; planning that handles day-to-day decisions on what maintenance tasks to perform and providing the resources to undertake these tasks. IntroductionThe maintenance organizing function can be viewed as one of the basic and integral parts of the maintenance management function (MMF). The MMF consists of planning, organizing, implementing and controlling maintenance activities. The management organizes, provides resources (personnel, capital, assets, material and hardware, etc.) and leads to performing tasks and accomplishing targets. Figure 1.1 shows the role organizing plays in the management process. Once the plans are created, the managements task is to ensure that they are carried out in an effective and efficient manner. Having a clear mission, strategy, and objectives facilitated by a corporate culture, organizing starts the process of implementation by clarifying job and working relations (chain of command, span of control, delegation of authority, etc.).Figure 1.1 Maintenance organizing as a function of the management process

IntroductionIn designing the maintenance organization there are important determinants that must be considered. The determinants include the capacity of maintenance, centralization versus decentralization and in-house maintenance versus outsourcing. A number of criteria can be used to design the maintenance organization. The criteria include clear roles and responsibilities, effective span of control, facilitation of good supervision and effective reporting, and minimization of costs. Maintenance managers must have the capabilities to create a division of labor for maintenance tasks to be performed and then coordinate results to achieve a common purpose.Solving performance problems and capitalizing on opportunities could be attained through selection of the right persons, with the appropriate capabilities, supported by continuous training and good incentive schemes, in order to achieve organization success in terms of performance effectiveness and efficiency.IntroductionA maintenance organization can be considered as being made up three necessary and interdependent components:-Resources: men, spares and tools.Administration: a hierarchy of authority and responsibility for deciding what, when and how work should be carried out. Work Planning and Control System: a mechanism for planning and scheduling the work and feeding back the information that is needed for correctly directing the maintenance effort towards defined objective. IntroductionIt may be mentioned that maintenance / production system is a continuously evolving organism in which the maintenance organization will need continuous modifications in response to changing requirements. It is required to match the resources to workload. Maintenance activities be it preventive or condition monitoring, involve use of resources- men and materials including documents. Work planning and control system under maintenance management in the plant ensures this and provides planning and control of activities associated with maintenance. This means application of general management principles of planning, organizing, directing and controlling to the maintenance functions, e.g. to the establishment of procedures for development of maintenance strategy and to models for describing the flow of work through maintenance work planning department. Role of Maintenance OrganizationA maintenance organization and its position in the plant/whole organization is heavily impacted by the following elements or factors:- (i) Type of business, e.g., whether it is high tech, labor intensive, production or service; (ii) Objectives: may include profit maximization, increasing market share and other social objectives; (iii)Size and structure of the organization; (iv)Culture of the organization; and (v)Range of responsibility assigned to maintenance.Role of Maintenance OrganizationA maintenance organization and its position in the plant/whole organization is heavily impacted by the following elements or factors:-Type of business, e.g., whether it is high tech, labor intensive, production or service;Objectives: may include profit maximization, increasing market share and other social objectives;Size and structure of the organization;Culture of the organization; andRange of responsibility assigned to maintenance.Role of Maintenance OrganizationOrganizations seek one or several of the following objectives: profit maximization, specific quality level of service or products, minimizing costs, safe and clean environment, or human resource development. It is clear that all of these objectives are heavily impacted by maintenance and therefore the objectives of maintenance must be aligned with the objectives of the organization. The principal responsibility of maintenance is to provide a service to enable an organization to achieve its objectives.*Role of Maintenance OrganizationThe specific responsibilities vary from one organization to another; however they generally include the following according to Duffuaa et al. (1998).Keeping assets and equipment in good condition, well configured and safe to perform their intended functions;Perform all maintenance activities including preventive, predictive; corrective, overhauls, design modification and emergency maintenance in an efficient and effective manner;Conserve and control the use of spare parts and material;Commission new plants and plant expansions; andOperate utilities and conserve energy.Role of Maintenance OrganizationThe maintenance organizations structure is determined after planning the maintenance capacity. The maintenance capacity is heavily influenced by the level of centralization or decentralization adopted. In this section the main issues that must be addressed when forming the maintenance organizations structure are presented. The issues are: capacity planning, centralization versus decentralization and in-house versus outsourcing.Role of Maintenance OrganizationMaintenance capacity planning determines the required resources for maintenance including the required crafts, administration, equipment, tools and space to execute the maintenance load efficiently and meet the objectives of the maintenance department.

Critical aspects of maintenance capacity are the numbers and skills of craftsmen required to execute the maintenance load. It is difficult to determine the exact number of various types of craftsmen, since the maintenance load is uncertain. Role of Maintenance OrganizationTherefore accurate forecasts for the future maintenance work demand are essential for determining the maintenance capacity. In order to have better utilization of manpower, organizations tend to reduce the number of available craftsmen below their expected need.

This is likely to result in a backlog of uncompleted maintenance work. This backlog can also be cleared when the maintenance load is less than the capacity. Making long run estimations is one of the areas in maintenance capacity planning that is both critical and not well developed in practice.Role of Maintenance OrganizationThe decision to organize maintenance in a centralized, decentralized or a hybrid form depends to a greater extent on the organization is philosophy, maintenance load, size of the plant and skills of craftsmen.

The advantages of centralization are:-Provides more flexibility and improves utilization of resources such highly skilled crafts and special equipment and therefore results in more efficiency;Allows more efficient line supervision;Allows more effective on the job training; andPermits the purchasing of modern equipment.Role of Maintenance OrganizationHowever it has the following disadvantages:-Less utilization of crafts since more time is required for getting to and from jobs;Supervision of crafts becomes more difficult and as such less maintenance control is achieved;Less specialization on complex hardware is achieved since different persons work on the same hardware; andMore costs of transportation are incurred due to remoteness of some of the maintenance work.Role of Maintenance OrganizationIn a decentralized maintenance organization, departments are assigned to specific areas or units. This tends to reduce the flexibility of the maintenance system as a whole. The range of skills available becomes reduced and manpower utilization is usually less efficient than in a centralized maintenance. In some cases a compromise solution that combines centralization and decentralization is better.This type of hybrid is called a cascade system. The cascade system organizes maintenance in areas and whatever exceeds the capacity of each area is challenged to a centralized unit. Role of Maintenance OrganizationIn a decentralized maintenance organization, departments are assigned to specific areas or units. This tends to reduce the flexibility of the maintenance system as a whole. The range of skills available becomes reduced and manpower utilization is usually less efficient than in a centralized maintenance. In some cases a compromise solution that combines centralization and decentralization is better.This type of hybrid is called a cascade system. The cascade system organizes maintenance in areas and whatever exceeds the capacity of each area is challenged to a centralized unit. Role of Maintenance OrganizationCentralized maintenanceThe strengths of this structure are: allows economies of scale; enables in-depth skill development; and enables departments (i.e., a maintenance department) to accomplish their functional goals (not the overall organizational goals). This structure is best suited for small to medium-size organizations. The weaknesses of this structure are: it has slow response time to environmental changes; may cause delays in decision making and hence longer response time; leads to poor horizontal coordination among departments and involves a restricted view of organizational goals.Role of Maintenance OrganizationDecentralized maintenance.The strengths of this structure are that it allows the organization to achieve adaptability and coordination in production units and efficiency in a centralized overhaul group and it facilitates effective coordination both within and between maintenance and other departments. The weaknesses of this structure are that it has potential for excessive administrative overheads and may lead to conflict between departments.Role of Maintenance OrganizationMatrix structure, a form of a hybrid structure.The strengths of this matrix structure are: it allows the organization to achieve coordination necessary to meet dual demands from the environment and flexible sharing of human resources. The weaknesses of this structure are: it causes maintenance employees to experience dual authority which can be frustrating and confusing; it is time consuming and requires frequent meetings and conflict resolution sessions. To remedy the weaknesses of this structure a management with good interpersonal skills and extensive training is required.Role of Maintenance OrganizationIn large size plants located at different places, inter unit communication is difficult. In such cases the decentralized type of organization is best suited, which means that the maintenance organization works under the direct control of a chief engineer in-charge of production. Under this type of organization, better coordination between production and maintenance groups is possible because of a common head of organization. The advantages of such type of organization are:-Speedy decisions due to better line of communication under single control.Maintenance and production people understand each others problems better because of their common goals.Interchangeability of workforce, even at the managerial level, is also possible.Better training at the workers level can be arranged.Role of Maintenance OrganizationIn a small factory where communication between the departments is freer, the centralized type of maintenance organization is preferred, which is placed under a chief maintenance engineer/manager. The total responsibility of the maintenance function for the entire factory lies with the chief maintenance engineer. Under this type of organization, the responsibilities and accountability of work must be properly specified for production as well as maintenance personnel to successfully meet the project goals. If this is not taken care of, one department may blame other for any shortfall.Role of Maintenance OrganizationThe partially centralized organization, which is the modified form of a centralized type of organization, is most suitable for projects that have units far away locations.Under this type of maintenance organization, the maintenance personnel, attached to the production unit, carry out work at unit level and look after day to day maintenance. All centralized work pertaining to maintenance planning and documentation is done at the level of central maintenance workshop.The above three types of maintenance organizations, however, are not strictly exclusive and some adjustments can be made to suit the working environment and the need.Role of Maintenance OrganizationPrimary FunctionsMaintenance of Existing Plant Equipment.This activity represents the physical reason for the existence of the maintenance professional. Responsibility here is simply to make necessary repairs to production machinery quickly and economically and to anticipate these repairs and employ preventive maintenance where possible to prevent them. For this, a staff of skilled engineers, planners, and technicians who are capable of performing the work must be trained, motivated, and constantly retained to assure that adequate skills are available to perform effective maintenance.Role of Maintenance OrganizationMaintenance of Existing Plant Buildings and Grounds.The repairs to buildings and to the external property of any plantroads, railroad tracks, in-plant sewer systems, and water supply facilitiesare among the duties generally assigned to the maintenance engineering group. A plant with an extensive office facility and a major building-maintenance program may assign this coverage to a special team. In plants where many of the buildings are dispersed, the care and maintenance of this large amount of land may warrant a special organization.Repairs and minor alterations to buildingsroofing, painting, glass replacement or the unique craft skills required to service electrical or plumbing systems or the like are most logically the purview of maintenance engineering personnel. Road repairs and the maintenance of tracks and switches, fences, or outlying structures may also be so assigned. It is important to isolate cost records for general cleanup from routine maintenance and repair so that management will have a true picture of the true expense required to maintain the plant and its equipment.Role of Maintenance OrganizationEquipment Inspection and Lubrication.Traditionally, all equipment inspections and lubrication has been assigned to the maintenance organization or function. While inspections that require special tools or partial disassembly of equipment must be retained within the maintenance function, the use of trained operators or production personnel in this critical task will provide more effective use of plant personnel. The same is true of lubrication. Because of their proximity to the production systems, operators are ideally suited for routine lubrication tasks.

Utilities Generation and Distribution.In any plant generating its own electricity and providing its own process steam, the powerhouse assumes the functions of a small public utilities company and may justify an operating department of its own. However, this activity logically falls within the realm of maintenance engineering. It can be administered either as a separate function or as part of some other function, depending on management requirements.Role of Maintenance OrganizationAlterations and New Installations.Three factors generally determine to what extent this area involves the maintenance department: plant size, multi plant company size, company policy. In a small plant of a one-plant company, this type of work may be handled by outside contractors. But its administration and that of the maintenance force should be under the same management. In a small plant within a multi plant company, the majority of new installations and major alterations may be performed by a company-wide central engineering department. In a large plant a separate organization should handle the major portion of this work.Where installations and alterations are handled outside the maintenance engineering department, the company must allow flexibility between corporate and plant engineering groups. It would be self-defeating for all new work to be handled by an agency separated from maintenance policies and management.Role of Maintenance OrganizationSecondary FunctionsStorekeepingIn most plants it is essential to differentiate between mechanical stores and general stores. The administration of mechanical stores normally falls within the maintenance engineering group`s area because of the close relationship of this activity with other maintenance operations.Plant ProtectionThis category usually includes two distinct subgroups: guards or watchmen; fire control squads. Incorporation of these functions with maintenance engineering is generally common practice. The inclusion of the fire-control group is important since its members are almost always drawn from the craft elements.Waste DisposalThis function and that of yard maintenance are usually combined as specific assignments of the maintenance department.Role of Maintenance OrganizationSalvageIf a large part of plant activity concerns off grade products, a special salvage unit should be set up. But if salvage involves mechanical equipment, such as scrap lumber, paper, containers, and so on, it should be assigned to maintenance.Insurance AdministrationThis category includes claims, process equipment and pressure-vessel inspection, liaison with underwriters representatives, and the handling of insurance recommendations. These functions are normally included with maintenance since it is here that most of the information will originate.Role of Maintenance OrganizationOther ServicesThe maintenance engineering department often seems to be a catchall for many other odd activities that no other single department can or wants to handle. But care must be taken not to dilute the primary responsibilities of maintenance with these secondary services. Whatever responsibilities are assigned to the maintenance engineering department, it is important that they be clearly defined and that the limits of authority and responsibility be established and agreed upon by all concerned.The EndThank You