CHAPTER 1

1.1 INTRODUCTION

The overall and overarching goal of any company’s establishment is long time survival and the
ability to produce useful outputs and provide satisfactory service to its customers.

But due to the

- Equipment parts wear out and corrosion

- Atmospheric conditions that destroy equipment parts and materials

- Aging affects materials and their behavior

- Improper handling affects equipment and materials the functionality of

equipment’s is affected.
If proper actions against those mention above causes of failures would not be taken, there would
be breakdown in the service providing and materials deteriorate unduly resulting in loss or total
stoppage of service it provides. Hence there is a permanent necessity that all means of production be
used, checked, serviced and tended.

In order to give the full function which they are designed for, the last three necessities constitute
what is called maintenance, whereas the former is operational.

From engineering point of view, the management of the means of production has two elements. First,
it must be maintained, and second, from time to time it may also need to be modified.

To achieve the primary objective of satisfying a demand, it is very important that equipment’s
are giving the right quantity and quality services at the right time and right cost. For these requirements
to be met, equipment need to be maintained in the most efficient and economic manner. The machines
and equipment must operate efficiently and effectively at the required level of service it provides.
There must be very few or no stoppages on service lines which require effective planning, scheduling
and good administration of maintenance activities.

Maintenance requirements have an impact on service scheduling and other functions performed
to satisfying demand. Time lost due to maintenance may interfere with schedules from the
organization. Therefore, maintenance requirements should be considered in choosing machines or
equipment for replacement or increasing the capacity of installed machines and equipment.

The maintenance department in any organization is saddled with the responsibility of the
maintenance of facilities, equipment, and machines.

1
1.2 DEFINITION OF MAINTENANCE
Maintenance is any activity that is carried out on any facility either to restore to or to retain the
facility in a good and acceptable working conditions. Maintenance involves all technical and other
procedures performed in order to retain the satisfactory working condition of a machine or part or
restoring it to an acceptable working condition so that the set tasks can be performed at the scheduled
time and under given conditions.

Maintenance is often not given the priority it deserves in the overall operating strategy of a
facility. Maintenance programs are managed and funded by people, and human nature seems to abide
by the old tenet, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” Compared to other departments, maintenance
departments have no real “product” and - as such - produce no real income. Many managers view
money spent on maintenance as money thrown down a black hole. In spite of any life-cycle “proofs”
to the contrary, managers look for ways to cut maintenance budgets first when any other need arises;
which is totally wrong.

It has been stated below that the maintenance functions stem at supporting role to keep
equipment;

(i) To operate effectively;

(ii) To maintain quality standard at all times;

(iii)To maintain the quantitative and cost standards output.

The objectives of plant maintenance have been enumerated to include the following;

To achieve minimum breakdown and to keep the plant in good working condition at the lowest
possible cost;

To keep the machines and other facilities in operational level, and used at optimum (profit making)
capacity.

To ensure the availability of the machines; buildings and services required by other section,
buildings and services required by other section of the factory for efficient performance. The most
important responsibility of plant engineering is that of maintaining the plant facilities and
equipment.

It is only when the equipment is adequately maintained that it can be expected to operate and
perform properly, and thereby yielding a high quality product at a reasonable cost.

2
1.3 NEED FOR MAINTENANCE

One of the factors that can ensure availability of installed facilities for efficient use is an
effective and efficient maintenance engineering system. Gone were the days when maintenance was
not given adequate attention. For any company with mechanized and automated systems, more
attention is now given to maintenance function. Therefore, the need for maintenance increases with
technological advancement in production/service providing facilities. Other factors which seem to
emphasize the need for effective maintenance system are:

(i) Strong competition

(ii) Tight production/service schedules

(iii) Increased machine utilization

(iv) Increased production/service level

Inadequate or lack of effective and efficient maintenance system especially in a manufacturing

enterprise/service providing sector gives rise to several undesirable consequences.

These consequences include:

(i) Excessive machine/equipment breakdown

(ii) Frequent emergency maintenance work

(iii) Shortened life-span of the facility

(iv) Poor use of maintenance staff

(v) Loss in production output/service provide

(vi) Inability to meet delivery dates

(vii) Excessive overtime

(viii) Loss of lives

1.2 FUNCTIONS OF MAINTENANCE ENGINEERING

The function of maintenance engineering can be divided into primary and secondary.

The primary functions of maintenance are:

(i) Maintenance of existing machines and equipment

(ii) Maintenance of existing buildings

(iii) Inspection and lubrication of machine and equipment

(iv) Generation and distribution of utilities e.g. clean and dry air, hot water etc.

3
 (v) Installation of new machines and equipment

(vi) Modifications of existing machines, equipment and buildings

The secondary functions include the following:

(i) Sanitation

(ii) Disposal of used items

(iii) Storekeeping

(iv) Fire protection

(v) Janitorial service

1.3 MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

Maintenance is related to profitability through equipment output, running cost and also through
time taken for maintenance purposes. With increasing industrialization and complexity of equipment
the importance of maintenance increase as downtime and costs related to downtime become
increasingly prohibitive.

To understand maintenance and its various characteristics features, it is imperative to know

what an equipment life-cycle comprises and the factors at the various stages as they relate to
maintenance. An equipment is considered as passing through a number of stages, the first being design
and the last one replacement. The level of maintenance activity required and maintenance management
involved at the equipment operation stage is affected by factors at other stages through which the
equipment passes. These stages are briefly discussed below indicating how maintenance is affected by
the actions undertaken at the respective stages.

Design stage
The most important features of maintenance, particularly reliability and maintainability should be
considered properly in relation to performance of equipment, capital and running costs right at the
design stage. Good maintainability and reliability characteristics are incorporated in the system at this
stage

Manufacture stage
Next to design stage it the place where reliability and maintainability can be considered but its impact
can have less impact than design stage.

Installation stage
Maintainability is an important factor to be considered during installation, for it is here that
maintenance problems become clear.

4
 Commissioning stage
This is a stage of technical performance testing and also a stage of where primary design faults are
located and designed out. During commissioning, maintenance effectiveness can be analyzed and
changes can be effected in the system.

Operational stage
Operational stage is a stage of continued learning where maintenance plays an important role. In this
stage, mal-operation should be avoided and maintenance activities are optimized so as to exploit the
system reliability and maintainability characteristics.

5
 Repair/Replacement stage

Figure 1.1 Equipment life cycle

Source: A. Kelly and M. j. Harris. Management of Industrial Maintenance, Butterworth & Co. Publishers Ltd, 1978

During the operation period or useful life of an equipment proper maintenance management can
influence resource utilization and profitability of an industrial plant. Maintenance management is the
direction and organization of resources in order to control the availability and performance of an

6
 industrial plant to specified level. Normally, to meet the workload in a timely and cost effective manner
any maintenance management is faced with a two dimensional problem and these are

i. Determination of size and nature of the maintenance workload and

ii. Organization and control of resources, ie. Labor, spares and equipment

1.5. FUNCTION OF MAINTENANCE WORK

The maintenance department influence plant availability directly through preventive and
corrective maintenance task.
The most basic definition of availability is expressed by equation.

Where: -

- Top – cumulative time of operation uptime

- Tdown – cumulative outage time, downtime

Downtime doesn’t consist only of the time taken for repair but also includes delays due to lack of
resources and information.

Downtime = repair time + delays

Repair time is affected by management, system or equipment maintainability as well as

engineering techniques. Mathematically, this can be stated as

Repair time = [(maintainability, management method, engineering techniques)

Delays are influenced by organization of maintenance resources and flow of information and this can
be expressed as

Delays = [(organization of maintenance resources and information)

Plant availability is greatly influenced by reliability and maintainability. These characteristics

are built in at the design stage and then after affect the maintenance workload. Causes of low reliability
or maintainability can only be removed by engineering re-design which is not the responsibility of
maintenance department.

The maintenance manager influences availability through those outages which occasion maintenance
actions. The outage constitutes downtime. Figure 1.2 shows equipment time and its constituent parts
including the activities involved during maintenance.

7
Figure 1.2 Classification of equipment time activities involved

8
Figure below shows downtime and its classification including various features
involved.

Figure 1.3 Downtime and its constituents

1.6. FUNCTION OF MAINTENANCE WORK

Depending on the nature of maintenance workload is related to time, maintenance is broadly

classified in to two. Figure 1.4 shows the broad categories of maintenance.

Figure 1.4 Classification of maintenance

1.6.1 Preventive Maintenance

Preventive Maintenance is the technique of minimizing untimely equipment breakdown and/or an

equipment’s condition falling below a required level of acceptability. Preventive maintenance calls for
taking equipment off-line for repair and planned intervals (time-based) or depending on the equipment
condition (condition-based). Scheduled maintenance is performed at regular intervals for the purpose
of keeping the system in a condition consistent with built-in levels of reliability, performance and

9
safety. As can be noted from Figure 1.4 some tasks like servicing is carried out in the running condition
while other tasks like repair/replace require taking the equipment off-line.

Preventive maintenance helps in prolonging the life of equipment by limiting component and system
failure rates from exceeding design levels. Preventive maintenance also ensures accuracy of
equipment.

The basic reasons for undertaking preventive maintenance are the following

- Increased automation

- Reduce loss of profitability due to production delays

- Just-in-time manufacturing policy

- Production requirement for higher quality

- Reduction in equipment redundancies

- Reduced cost of maintenance

The last item, reduction in maintenance cost is achieved in many different ways:

- Reduced production downtime resulting in fewer machine breakdown

- Better prevention of equipment and increased useful life expectancy which eliminates
premature replacement of equipment/machinery

- Efficient use of maintenance labor achieved by working on schedule basis instead of crush
basis repair breakdown

- Timely routine repairs resulting in fewer large scale repairs

- Reduced cost of repairs by reducing secondary failures, when parts fail in operation, they
usually damage other parts giving rise to secondary failures

- Reduced product rejects, rework and scrap due to better overall equipment condition
- Improved safety and quality conditions

- Identification of equipment with excessive maintenance costs indicating the need for other
measures to be taken like operator training, replacement of obsolete machinery, adapting
new and different technology

A preventive maintenance program should include periodic inspection, preplanned maintenance

activities, non-destructive testing, and maintenance to correct deficiencies found through testing or
inspection. The elements of preventive maintenance are:

10
Care: - Regular care of normally operating subsystems and components requires such activities like
cleaning, lubrication, etc.
Servicing: - servicing of subsystems and components includes care along with other activities such
as filling in oil and fuel, readjustment, re-setting, adjusting, and checking without
instrument and checking without instruments.

Inspection: - Inspection of subsystems and components comprises servicing together with checking,
testing, measuring, examining. The activities carried out during inspection are
i) Checking of function (comparison with required data), and

ii) Gauging (use of measuring instruments).

Repair: - Repair activities include replacement of damaged and destroyed parts or those nearing
wear-out and reconditioning of components. Repair action normally requires disassembling
and assembling of components.

The frequency of performing regular care, inspection and servicing to prevent degradation of reliability
depends on the characteristics of the components. The frequency of performing repairs depends on the
wear out characteristics of system components. Optimum replacement or repair times can be scheduled
in advance.

In order to have a successful preventive maintenance program, the focus should be on cleaning,
lubrication and correcting deficiencies found through inspection and testing. Repair/replacement of
components should be done by highly qualified maintenance personnel to avoid maintenance- induced
problems. It should be noted here that the risk of preventive maintenance program are those
maintenance tasks that may result from a faulty preventive maintenance activities; these are preventive
maintenance-induced problems.

1.6.2 Corrective Maintenance

Corrective maintenance is defined as that which is carried out when equipment fails or falls below
acceptable condition while in operation. Basically, corrective maintenance is an emergency
maintenance which is carried out after breakdown, thus it is a shutdown activity. Corrective
maintenance is an off-schedule maintenance required by system in-service failure or malfunction.
System operation is restored as soon as possible by replacing, repairing or adjusting the component
which interrupted service.

1.7 Maintenance Objective, Planning and Control

The proper maintenance objective is the minimization of the sum of plant unavailability and resource
costs through the proper planning and control of maintenance work. A unit is considered to be in one
of the following states:

11
 In production ---------------------------------------------available

Undergoing repairs -------------------------------------Unavailable

Waiting for repair ---------------------------------------Unavailable

Undergoing preventive maintenance -----Unavailable/available
A simple model of production-maintenance situation containing the essential characteristics of a
maintenance work, maintenance planning and maintenance resources is shown below.

Maintenance is presented as the operation of a pool of resources (men, spares and equipment)
directed towards controlling the level of plant availability. The maintenance resources are divided
between preventive maintenance and corrective maintenance as preventive and resources
respectively.
Maintenance objective is minimization of the resources and unavailability costs.

Unavailability cost = loss of in-service material and production loss while in repair undergoing
preventive maintenance

12
Resource cost = corrective maintenance labor, preventive maintenance labor, maintenance equipment
spare usage and holding costs.

Figure 1.5 A general model of a maintenance system

(Source: A. Kelly and M. J. Harris, Management of Industrial Maintenance)

An established maintenance organization and planning needs to set-up a control system to ensure that,
the plan and organization are continually updated. This control system performs three main interrelated
functions: work control, plant condition control and maintenance cost control. These three functions
are interrelated in that they are targeted at minimizing maintenance cost.

1.7.1 Work Control

This is a function of the maintenance organization and its object is to match manpower, spares and
equipment to the maintenance workload. This function includes
- Location of plant failure

- Determination of the necessary corrective action

- The setting of priorities

- Coordination and control of resources

13
1.7.2 Plant condition control

This function is required in order to achieve optimum performance in the long term. The function of
plant condition control is to:

- Identify the most important problems

- Diagnose causes

- Prescribe solutions

In achieving this function the alternative actions available are:

- Modification of preventive maintenance policy

- Equipment re-design (especially in the early period of equipment life)

- Changes in production policy

1.7.3 Maintenance cost control

Its main objective is to minimize the sum of costs related to maintenance activities. The
function of maintenance cost control is
 To identify high cost areas of the plant
 To monitor the trend of maintenance effectiveness
 To provide information for maintenance decision making
 To facilitate maintenance budgeting

14