Trends and Perspectives in Industrial Maintenance Management

With increased global competition for manufacturing, many companies are seeking ways to gain competitive advantages with respect to cost, service, quality, and on-time deliveries. The role that effective maintenance management plays in contributing to overall organizational productivity has received increased attention. This paper, presents an overview of trends and perspectives in industrial maintenance. The results of benchmarking studies from different company are presented and compared. Implications of the trends and perspectives for the management of maintenance are highlighted. Case studies that examine maintenance methods, knowledge, organization, and information systems in three manufacturing firms are used to motivate the discussion. What is maintenance? The combination of all technical and associated administrative actions intended to retain an item in, or restore it to, a state in which it can perform its required function. In this paper, maintenance is interpreted in the context of industrial systems (such as production facilities, buildings, equipment, and so on). The main purpose of this paper is to present the managerial implications of industrial maintenance trends. World Class Maintenance Management refers to maintenance planning as "the last frontier" for manufacturing facilities. In the move to world-class manufacturing (WCM), many firms are realizing a critical need for effective maintenance of production facilities and systems. With the trend to just-in-time (JIT) production and flexible, agile manufacturing, it is vital that maintenance management becomes integrated with corporate strategy to ensure equipment availability, quality products, on-time deliveries, and competitive pricing. The changing needs of modern manufacturing necessitate a reexamination of the role that improved maintenance management plays in achieving key cost and service advantages and of the contribution that maintenance improvement can make to the "learning organization." Numerous technological and managerial trends for the past two centuries have changed the requirements and content in maintenance. For example, the development of the automobile led to a worldwide network of distribution systems for spare parts and maintenance services. Similar systems have later been designed for many other industrial products (for example, ship engines, airplanes, and industrial production). The development of air transportation, satellites, telecommunication systems, and so on have led to new standards for design of technological systems and for maintenance requirements based on 100% system functionality. The development in maintenance requirements has been supported by advances in information technology that have given new possibilities for maintenance performance. Developments in the chemical industry (such as oil refineries, plastic and dyestuff factories, biochemical companies, and pesticide manufacturers) have added some new aspects for maintenance: environmental and labor protection. Technological developments have also Technical Proceedings of National Symposium on Recent Developments in Industrial Maintenance Management April 22 nd , 2006 SIET, Dhenkanal 28 given the maintenance area new tools and methods: nondestructive material tests, automated data collection systems, computer tools, video technologies, and so forth. New trends indicate more application of computer systems for diagnosis and analysis. In addition to technological changes, several trends in management have changed the view points on maintenance. Managerial attitudes have changed toward maintenance because new management philosophies, such as JIT, have focused on reduced time for delivery or enhanced quality. Trends with job enrichment and automation have led to embedding maintenance information technology in products and production equipment, with corresponding changes in maintenance jobs from mechanical to electronic. Sociological trends, such as lack of capital, fluctuations in currencies, competition, quality, and environmental consciousness, have also affected the need for maintenance. Case studies of three companies are presented and emphasized on the managerial implication on maintenance. Benchmarking of Maintenance It is observed that the importance of maintenance in society, or more specifically in industry, can be described in different ways by using various measures, such as: 1. Accounting of the total maintenance cost. 2. Percentage of maintenance cost to total production cost or capital cost in assets. 3. Total number of personnel working with maintenance-or percentage of maintenance personnel to total number of production personnel. 4. Possible consequences for lack of maintenance: financial, environmental, human, equipment damage, and so on.