DRIVE
PROGRAM
SEMESTER
SUBJECT NAME
SUBJECT CODE
STUDENT NAME
ROLL NO.
ASSIGNMENT
WINTER 2015
MBA
FOURTH
OM0015
MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT
CHETAN ANAND
1405003452
Q1. Explain the concept of maintenance objectives and describe the
primary maintenance objectives.
Reproduce the concept of maintenance objectives
List the primary maintenance objectives
Explain the primary objectives
Answer:
Concept of Maintenance
Everything around us has a certain life expectancy or operational life. However, this
life expectancy can be increased by taking proper measures. In our daily life too,
some components need to be either repaired or replaced. For example, to increase
the operational life of a car, the condition of wheel bearings needs to be reviewed
from time to time, belts need to be adjusted and aligned, rotating equipment need
to be properly lubricated, and so on. Similarly, organizations need to ensure that its
machines and equipment remain functional in order to retain a smooth production
process. Maintenance involves a set of activities directed towards the upkeep of
machines and equipment of an organization.
The primary objectives of maintenance management are to schedule work efficiently, control costs and
ensure regulatory compliance.
Objective of Maintenance
Organizations nowadays invest a huge amount on maintenance practices to meet
their various objectives. These objectives may include fulfilling customer
requirements, improving organizational efficiency, minimizing operational risks,
becoming environmentally responsible, achieving the desired level of quality,
avoiding sudden breakdowns, etc. In this unit, you will study about maintenance
and its management in detail.
Q2. Suppose you are appointed as a maintenance manager in a
manufacturing organization. What functions you need to perform for
organizing maintenance activities?
List the different functions of a maintenance manager
Summarize the crucial role a maintenance manager plays in organizing the
maintenance activities
Analyze how these functions will help you as a maintenance engineer
Answer:
Role of a Maintenance Manager
A maintenance manager performs a key role in organising maintenance activities.
He/she is responsible for ensuring that all maintenance activities are performed on
time. He/she also needs to ensure the health and safety of maintenance personnel
and good working conditions of machines and equipment. Thus, the job of a
maintenance manager is very crucial in working of machines and equipment in the
long run.
Let us discuss these functions in detail.
Organizing maintenance activities: The maintenance manager is responsible for
organizing and scheduling maintenance activities so that they can be performed in
a sequence without any hindrance. In an organization, planners, supervisors, and
maintenance engineers need to report to the maintenance manager regarding the
performance of maintenance activities and any problems that may occur during the
maintenance process.
Coordinating with other departments: As you have already studied,
maintenance requires proper coordination among departments. For example, the
maintenance department needs to coordinate with the
accounts department to determine the budget allocated for maintenance activities;
purchase department to procure spare parts or any material required; human
resource department to hire maintenance personnel, etc. Thus, it is responsibility of
the maintenance manager to maintain good relationship with other departments
and coordinate with them in order to ensure the successful completion of
maintenance activities.
Providing training and education to maintenance personnel: The success of
maintenance activities can only be ensured if employees are well trained and their
maintenance skills are developed from time to time. The maintenance manager is
responsible for identifying the training needs of employees by conducting one-toone discussion meetings with them or supervising them while working; setting the
training objectives and goals; deciding budget; conducting training sessions; and
ensuring that training
goals are met properly. This helps in developing the skills and competencies of
maintenance personnel.
Delegating authority to appropriate personnel: Proper delegation of authority
is another important aspect of a successful maintenance process. Thus, the
maintenance manager should ensure that maintenance activities are assigned to
employees as per their skills and abilities.
Q3. What are the complex maintenance activities performed by expert
systems?
List and explain the complex maintenance activities performed by expert systems.
Answer:
In order to ensure proper control in maintenance management, appropriate
information and experienced maintenance personnel are required. Problem solving
in maintenance functions is dependent on the skills and expertise of the
maintenance personnel. Lack of skills of employees may create difficulty in
controlling maintenance activities. Therefore, expert systems are developed to solve
complex maintenance problems with ease.
Fault diagnosis: An expert system helps infinding out faults in machines and
equipment by providing logical analysis of faults and relevant data. Data is entered
into expert systems either manually or through mechanized sensors and control
systems.
Debugging: After diagnosing the problem, the expert system guides the user to
detect the probable cause of the fault by providing a series of instructions.
Fault rectification: The expert system then provides instructions to perform
corrective actions for rectifying faults by providing technical data. In addition, the
expert system provides instructions to the user regarding the rectification of faults.
Inspection scheduling: After the analysis of the fault, the expert system can be
used for preparing a schedule for regular inspection of complex machines and
equipment.
Planned maintenance scheduling: The expert system helps in creating planned
maintenance schedules by providing information on the breakdown history of
machines and spare parts as well as the usage of machines. The planned
maintenance schedules are created on the basis of pre-determined set of rules.
Moreover, an expert system helps in defining a link between planned maintenance
schedules and production schedules to ensure the best planned maintenance work.
This figure shows a well-defined link between the elements of an expert system.
The knowledge base is used to store the knowledge of all maintenance jobs,
machines, and equipment. The inference engine at the request of the user finds
an appropriate solution to the problem from the knowledge base. The working
memory is used for storing the information so that it can be manipulated during
the process.
Q4. Explain the process of maintenance benchmarking.
List and describe the steps maintenance benchmarking process
Answer:
Benchmarking projects can be classified in many different ways -- for example, by
the subject matter of the analysis, by the type of participants, by data source, or by
methodology. There's internal and external benchmarking; competitive and
noncompetitive benchmarking; functional, process, and strategic benchmarking;
and database and consortium benchmarking. While different approaches have their
pros and cons, and some are clearly more effective than others, they all should
have the same ultimate objective: to help an organization improve its business
performance.
Irrespective of the type of benchmarking an organization undertakes, a wellstructured and systematic process is critical to success. The Juran 7-Step
Benchmarking Process(Exhibit 1) has been developed over many years by the
Juran Institute and has formed the basis of numerous annual benchmarking
consortia since 1995. I'll describe it here in terms of external consortium
benchmarking, but the process is generic and equally applicable in principle to all
types of benchmarking.
The process is divided into two phases. Phase 1 is a positioning analysis that
provides the benchmarker with a comprehensive study of the relative performance
of all of the benchmarking participants and identifies any gaps between the
benchmarker's performance and that of "best-in-class" organizations:
Step 1: Preparation and planning. As with any other project, thorough
preparation and planning are essential at the outset. Recognize the need for
benchmarking, determine the methodology you're going to use, and identify the
participants in your project.
Step 2: Data collection. This stage involves deciding what you're going to
measure and how you'll measure it. You need to define the benchmarking envelope
-- what is to be benchmarked and what is to be excluded. At this point, you can
establish the metrics you intend to use; these, too, must be clearly and
unambiguously defined in order to ensure comparability of the datasets that you will
collect. Finally, you need to determine the most appropriate vehicle for data
collection.
Step 3: Data analysis. The key activities here are the validation and
normalization of data. Before you can perform any meaningful analysis, it's
essential that all data be validated to establish its accuracy and completeness.
Some form of data normalization is usually required to enable like comparisons to
be made between what may be very different operational subjects. Without it, direct
comparisons of performance are normally impossible and may lead to misinformed
conclusions. To be of value, the analysis must indicate the benchmarker's strengths
and weaknesses, determine (and, where possible, quantify) gaps between the
benchmarker's performance and the leaders', and provide recommendations for the
focus of performance improvement efforts.
Step 4: Reporting. The analysis must then be reported in a clear, concise, and
easily understood format via an appropriate medium.
Unfortunately, many benchmarking exercises stop at this point. But to maximize the
value of the initiative, organizations must go further: They must build an
understanding of the practices that enable the leaders to attain their superior
performance levels. This is the purpose of Phase 2 of the 7-step benchmarking
process:
Step 5: Learning from best practices. In this step, the top-performing
organizations share their best practices, to the mutual benefit of all of the
benchmarks. Of course, when some of the benchmarks are true competitors, the
options for sharing may be limited, and alternative approaches may be required to
establish learning.
Step 6: Planning and implementing improvement actions. Once the
learning points have been ascertained, each organization should develop and
communicate an action plan for the changes that it will need to make in order to
realize improvements. The learning points should feed into the organization's
strategic plan and should be implemented via its performance improvement
processes.
Step 7: Institutionalizing learning. The insights that you've gained and the
performance improvements that you've achieved must be fully embedded within
the organization; it's critical to ensure that the gains are rolled out throughout the
business and sustained over time. Benchmarking can take place at the corporate,
operational, or functional levels of the organization. Make sure that these levels are
linked via a cascading series of interlinked goals to ensure systematic progress
toward the vision.
Q5. Suppose you are the head of the maintenance department of your
organization which preventive maintenance tasks would you perform?
List the tasks you would perform in preventive maintenance
Discuss the tasks you would perform in preventive maintenance
Answer:
Tasks in preventive maintenance
Preventive maintenance is a complex process, thus includes a number of tasks.
These tasks are performed in a systematic manner and as per the predefined
schedule. Tasks performed in preventive maintenance vary across organisations
depending on plant requirements, organisations budget, etc. However, there are
some common tasks that are performed in preventive maintenance.
Let us discuss these activities in detail.
Lubrication: Lubrication is a process wherein lubricants (in the form of oils, grease,
etc.) are applied to opposing surfaces in close proximity to reduce friction between
them. In other words, lubrication is performed to make surfaces smooth and
slippery. In case of lack of lubrication, metal or other components can rub
destructively over each other causing damage that may bring machines to a halt.
Thus, lubrication helps an organisation to maintain the efficiency of machines,
increase their life, reduce maintenance costs, etc.
Inspection: Regular inspection is carried out to determine whether a machine is
operating correctly. The main aim of inspection is to detect faults that are hindering
the production process. Inspection includes measuring and testing certain
characteristics of machines and equipment with respect to their performance. The
results of inspection are then compared with specific standards and requirements to
determine whether machines and equipment are performing as per the required
standards.
Restoration: Machine failures happen due to various reasons like short circuits,
fluctuations in voltage, leakage, etc. which result in production delays. In such
cases, it is important for an organisation to restore failed machines back to their
operational state at the earliest. Restoration involves various tasks, such as routine
cleaning, repairing, and replacement of faulty components.
Discarding: Sometimes machines and equipment need to be disposed of even
after maintenance procedures are performed by them. The reasons for discarding
machines can be depreciation of machine, overuse of machine, etc. Apart from this,
in some instances, single cell parts of machines are required to be discarded, such
as cartridges, cylinders, turbine disks, and canisters.
Q6. Answer the following questions:
a. List the objectives of maintenance audit.
b. State the functions of a maintenance auditor in an organization.
c. Explain the two types of issues which are to be resolved in action after
audit.
Answer:
a.
The prime objective of maintenance audit in an organisation is to check whether
current maintenance procedures are followed correctly. The following are some of
the main objectives of maintenance audit:
To communicate the importance of maintenance to employees
To detect the areas of improvement in maintenance
To measure the performance of integrated maintenance policies
To ensure maximum participation of maintenance personnel in setting and
monitoring maintenance targets
To create an environment that promotes quality in maintenance practices.
b.
Role of a maintenance auditor
A maintenance auditor plays a vital role in conducting the audit process in an
organisation. He/she is responsible for ensuring the success of maintenance audit.
For that, he should have complete knowledge of the auditing process and
procedures and should be unbiased while performing the audit. The following are
the main functions of a maintenance auditor:
Interacting with departmental heads to get a clear understanding of the goals,
objectives, operations, and financial status of the organisation.
Identifying the loopholes and defects in the existing maintenance system in order
to suggest the areas of improvement.
Assessing the performance of the existing operating procedures and
understanding their impact on maintenance.
Checking the inventory of machines and spare parts for any deviations.
Guiding the audit team members and coordinating with them make to carry out
the review efficiently.
Providing recommendations and suggestions for improvements.
Presenting a maintenance audit report to the management for further discussions
and decisions.
c.
Material control issues: Material control issues mainly include shortcomings in
inventory processes, systems, and procedures. In the audit report, internal controls
are suggested to resolve material control issues.This helps an organisation in
addressing these issues before the next audit.
Operating issues: These issues arise due to the weak areas of maintenance
operations of the organisation, which can ultimately result in production halts. In the
closing meeting, auditors propose improvement
measures to correct discrepancies in maintenance operations and strengthen them.
