Module III

Maintenance organization

Resource characteristics

Resources structure

Maintenance control,

Administrative structure

Training of maintenance personnel.

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MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION
DEFINITION AND PURPOSE

Organization means a group of people who work together in a structured way for a shared
purpose. In any industry, the various maintenance functions are planned and executed by
workmen of different trades/ disciplines/skills and of different levels (workmen/ employees,
supervisors, executives and engineers etc.) and they have to be arranged/ grouped/ organized in
such a way that they have to work as a team towards the common goal of improving
maintenance effectiveness/ efficiency and for improving equipment availability and reliability.
Such grouping and arranging of maintenance personnel, with their interlinking and relationships,
is generally termed as maintenance organization. Maintenance organization, as in the case of
other organization, requires delegation of authority and span of control, with necessary feedback
and control system.

There are almost infinite numbers of organizational structures in use but many of those are not
configured to provide effective utilization of workforce and have unbalanced indirect (clerical,
administrative and other support) personnel. Maintenance organization (or for that reason, even
corporate organization) is both science and art. The science of the organization lies in different
dimensions (e.g. different categories of workmen, supervisors, staff and support personnel,
contractors, vendors, sophistication, prevailing cultures and regulations etc.) on which they are
designed. How these dimensions are coordinated, interlinked and governed is more of an art than
science. Again, the total number of workforces in an organization may not be a mere addition of
persons needed for different trades or dimensions but a judicious balance is to be arrived.
Organization, like individual, must preserve their integrity. It must be a balance between policy
and practice; between philosophy and performance; between decisions and deeds.

In 1986, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, USA, examined the balance between the
current level of manufacturing technology and of company's organization and the conclusion of
the study was that, 'American industries, in its drive to become more competitive, is attempting
to put fifth generation technology into second generation plant organization'. Thus, the

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maintenance organization should also correspond to the advancement of maintenance practices in
use.

Employees' involvement, to a reasonable extent, may also be considered in deciding maintenance

organization through suggestion system, information sharing and survey feedback etc. However,
while doing this, care should be taken not to increase the staff un-necessarily or not to create
additional management structure.

BASIC CONCEPTS FOR MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION

Followings are the basic concepts

(a) Establish reasonably clear division of authority, with minimum overlap-Authority can be
divided functionally, geographically, on the basis of convenience or it can be on some
combination of all the three. But there must always be clear definition of the line of demarcation
to avoid confusion and conflict

(b) Keep vertical line of authority and responsibility as small as possible- Unclear or many
levels of intermediate supervision or over-application of specialized functional employees must
be minimized. The overlap should be bare minimum. Whenever such practices are felt to be
necessary, clear division of duties must be established.

(c) Maintain an optimum number of people reporting to one individual- In a good

organization, number of people reporting to one individual may vary from 3 to 6, depending on
the type of job. When a job requires a fairly small amount of supervision, one man can direct the
activities of 12 or more persons.

(d) The total maintenance workload should be reasonably distributed amongst all concerned
persons to avoid conflicts amongst workers.

(e) Maintenance is not subordinate to operation. Again, difference between 'supportive service'
and 'subordinate service' should be kept in mind.

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Factors governing Maintenance Organization

Even with the above concepts in mind, decision of maintenance organization will vary as per the
following local factors of the organization

1. Type of operation: e.g. buildings, machine tools, process equipments, manufacturing

facilities, piping, mining machineries, electrical equipments etc.-each will affect the character of
organization and supervision required.

2. Continuity of operation: e.g. if the operation is 5/6 days a week, single shift one or 7 days a
week, round the clock (3 shift) one or others- considerable differences may be in these on how
the maintenance engineering department may be structured and how many personnel may be
needed.

3. Geographical location: The maintenance that may be needed in a compact plant will vary
considerably from the one that is dispersed through several buildings or over a larger area. The
later often leads to area maintenance shops and additional layers of intermediate supervision at
local centres.

4. Equipment's age and condition: Older the equipment, more maintenance and supervision
may be needed (for older plants).

5. Size of plant/ industry: Here also the actual size of plant/ industry and its volume of business
will dictate the number of maintenance employees needed and amount of supervision for those.
Many more subdivisions in both, the line and staff personnel, can be justified since the overheads
can be distributed amongst more departments.

6. Scope of Plant maintenance engineering department: This scope is a direct relationship of

management policy. Presence of responsibilities for a number of secondary functions means
additional manpower and supervision.

7. Employees level of training and reliability: This highly variable factor has a strong impact
on the maintenance organization because it dictates how much work can be done and how well it
can be performed. In industries where sophisticated equipments predominates, with a high wear

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or failure incidences, more monitoring systems and more employees and supervisors may be
needed. Higher need of reliability of equipments may need bigger maintenance organization.

8. Complexity of business and machines and extent of automation and built-in test and
monitoring equipments provided: This may lead to less frequent physical check and
correspondingly less manpower.

9. Prevailing maintenance types/ systems of the industry (for older plants).

10. Extent of out-sourcing available or permissible: Availability of highly competent

maintenance contractors around the industry may dictate out-sourcing some maintenance jobs
(intermittent or continuous) and correspondingly reduce the industry's maintenance organization.

11. Local labour laws and prevailing industrial culture and practices.

AIMS/ OBJECTIVES OF MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION

Much of these have been discussed along with its purpose in previous section. The basic
objective/ aim of any maintenance organization or department is to ensure that production plants
and equipments are available, at minimum cost, for production for scheduled hours and quantity,
operating to agreed standards, safely and with minimum waste.

There must be recognition at the top management level and at all other levels of the vital need for
maintenance organization and an understanding of its aims and objectives. It should be clear that
maintenance department/ organization exists only by virtue of it being necessary for plant's
operation and upkeep. It is not a self-sufficient or self-contented unit. It is a part of team that can
perform satisfactorily only when firmly cooperating with others.

In order to develop an effective maintenance organization, following features must be kept in

mind:

1. Maintenance is basically a teamwork activity; still the individuals should be able to work
reasonable freedom for the specific/ defined job.

2. The jobs/ trades/ crafts of individuals should be so interlinked that they are supporting to each
other and pulling towards a common goal. This is very essential as maintenance department
consists workers of very many trades/ crafts; few of those are given below.

Main disciplines Trades/ crafts

Mechanical 1. Fitters. 2. Welder/ Gas-cutters. 3. Riggers. 4. Plumbers/ pipe fitters
5. Lubricators. 6. Mechanics (esp. automobile mechanics)
7. Machinists. 8. Markers.
9. Blacksmiths.10. Millwrights (combined fitter, rigger, welder)
11. Utility operator (for running pumps, compressors, boilers etc.) Etc.
Electrical 1. Armature winder: 2. Switchmen. 3. Electrical inspectors. 4. Electrician

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 5. Electrician technicians. 6. Electrician and cable jointer; Etc
Instrumentation 1.Instrumentation technician. 2. I and C (Instrumentation and controls)
technician 3. I and E (instrumentation and electrical) technician; Etc
Civil 1. Mason, 2. Surveyor, 3. Carpenter, 4. Structural fabricator, 5. Overseers,
6. Landscaper, etc.
Others 1. AC and Refrigerator mechanic 2. Draftsmen (Drawing Office)
3. Tool and Die technician; Etc.
In many organizations, many of these trades/ crafts are clubbed together to make fewer
trades/crafts, which help in better utilization of manpower and leads to lesser maintenance
personnel.

TYPES OF MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATIONS

One way of classifying any organization is Formal and Informal

Though this is not a popular way of classifying, with respect to maintenance organization, it can
be said that 'Formal Maintenance Organization' means a separate individual maintenance
department within an industry or plant, whereas 'Informal Maintenance Organization' means that
maintenance jobs are clubbed with operation jobs and same personnel do the operation as well as
maintenance jobs as per need and help of external agencies may be taken for heavier jobs, as, per
need.
As a more popular way, maintenance organization may be classified in following ways

1. Line and staff organizations,

2. Functional organizations
3. Centralized/ decentralized organizations

Line and Staff Organization

In the line organization, top management has complete control, and the chain of command is
clear and simple. Examples of line organizations are small businesses in which the top manager,
often the owner, is positioned at the top of the organizational structure and has clear "lines" of
distinction between him and his subordinates. A line position is directly involved in the day-to-
day operations of the organization, such as producing or selling a product or service. Line
positions are occupied by line personnel and line managers. Line personnel carry out the primary
activities of a business and are considered essential to the basic functioning of the organization.
Line managers make the majority of the decisions and direct line personnel to achieve company
goals. This is called 'Line Authority'. However, two important clarifications should be
considered, however, when discussing line authority

(1) line authority does not ensure effective performance, and

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(2) line authority is not restricted to line personnel. The head of a staff department has "line
authority' over his or her employees by virtue of authority relationships between the department
head and his or her directly reporting employees.

Staff positions serve the organization by indirectly supporting line functions. Staff positions
consist of staff personnel and staff managers. Staff personnel use their technical expertise to
assist line personnel and aid top management in various business activities. Staff managers
provide support, advice, and knowledge to other individuals in the chain of command. Although
staff managers are not part of the chain of command related to direct production of products or
services. they do have some authority over personnel. 'Staff authority' has the right to advise or
counsel those with line authority. For example, a human resource development manager advises
and aids a production manager or maintenance manager by training their workmen to improve
their skill and capability. Therefore, staff authority gives staff personnel the right to offer advice
in an effort to improve line operation.

The line-and-staff organization combines the line organization with staff departments that
support the line departments. Most medium and large-sized firms exhibit line-and-staff
organizational structures. The distinguishing characteristic between simple line organizations and
line-and-staff organizations is the multiple layers of management within line-and-staff
organizations.

An advantage of a line-and-staff organization is the availability of technical specialists. Staff

experts in specific areas are incorporated into the formal chain of command. A disadvantage of a
line-and-staff organization is conflict between line and staff personnel. Often, due to different
positions and types of authority within a line-and-staff organization, conflict between line and
staff personnel do occur, but a clear chain of command, which is a consistent characteristic
among line- and-staff organizational structures, help minimize such conflicts.

Though maintenance as a whole is, often, considered as a staff organization (with production
personnel as line organization), within the maintenance department, we have line organization
and staff organization, thus terming the whole maintenance as a line and staff organization.
Figure 1 shows a typical line and staff organization of Mechanical maintenance department of
Alloy Steels Plant (SAIL), Durgapur, West Bengal, India. It shows the line and staff functions at
two different levels. At first level, I/c Bar Mill Maintenance, I/c Sheet Mill Maintenance and I/c
of other mills are line functions and Office staff, I/c Repair and Machine shop and I/c Hydraulic
Cell are staff functions. At next level, Shift/ crew in-charge, along with crew workmen are line
staff and store keepers and I/c Planning cell with material chaser etc. are staff organization.

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 Figure 1: Line and Staff Organization

Functional Organization

In this type of organization, the arrangement is not made by level, designation or hierarchy of
maintenance personnel but by the type of functions they perform. Such organization is basically
not individual based but is based on the functional areas, shops and sections. This only highlights
the functional working arrangements in a plant/ industry.

Figure 2 shows an illustrative example of a functional organization. This is again based on Alloy
Steels Plant (SAIL). It functionally shows the various departments, sections and shops etc.
Functional organizations do not, necessarily, show the reporting system and is not considered for
active use. Some experts on Maintenance Engineering may considers 'Functional maintenance
organization as a sort of 'Line Organization' but here functional organization is considered as
more appropriate.

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 Figure 2: Functional Organization.

Centralized/ Decentralized Maintenance Organization.

In this classification, there are three different types of organizations

 Centralized
 Decentralized
 Partially Decentralized (Mixed)

Centralized maintenance organization refers to that organizational structure and arrangement, in

which all maintenance personnel and facilities, working anywhere in the plant industry.
ultimately report to Chief of Maintenance (may be G.M. or D.G.M. or A.G.M. Maintenance).
The maintenance facilities may be located in the same shop or in different production shops or
different maintenance workshops or captive shops and the maintenance personnel may be
working in shifts round the clock or in single shift, but at no stage they directly to report to or
directly responsible to production in-charge.

The centralized maintenance concept seems to promote harmony between the maintenance
personnel because they are closer together. When area concept is used with centralized
maintenance, a small area near the process or production is set aside for maintenance personnel.
If needed, they can go to central shops or call additional crews from there to do the heavier or

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specialized work that can only be done in the larger and better equipped place or by more
workmen.

Centralized maintenance organization may be of two types-pure and amalgamated. In 'pure

centralized maintenance organization', the employees of individuals discipline ultimately
report to chief of that discipline (e.g. all mechanical workers and executives ultimately report to
chief mechanical engineer, electrical employees should ultimately report to chief electrical and
so on) and these individual chiefs report to head of plant (e.g. GM-Works or Director-Works etc).
In 'amalgamated type', the lower levels (crew in-charges or sub-area in- charges) of individual
disciplines (mechanical, electrical, instrumentation etc) may report to area in-charge of
maintenance (senior manager or other such high level), who may be of any of those disciplines
and who, in-turn, will report to chief of plant maintenance (GM/ DGM- Maintenance and so on).

The decentralized maintenance organization may base on two concepts

-the discipline-wise decentralization and area-wise decentralization. Discipline-wise means

mechanical crafts/ trades may have separate shop/ department, electrical have separate shop/
department etc. Area- wise means separate composite group of maintenance personnel for
maintaining separate system or physical area.

Normally, the decentralized maintenance organization refers to that organizational structure and
arrangement in which all the maintenance jobs of a shop are also the responsibility of in- charge
of production of that shop and the maintenance personnel of that shop ultimately report to the
production in-charge of that shop. In this type of organization, chief of maintenance or chief
mechanical engineer is responsible only for central facilities or services, e.g. repair and machine
shop, central drawing/ design office, utility (steam, air etc.) generation and distribution and other
captive shops.

As either centralized or decentralized organization is not suited for all types of organizations/
industries, the concept of 'Partially Decentralized" or "Mixed" organization is also used. The
partially decentralized (mixed) organization, which is the modified type of centralized
organization, is most suitable for bigger plants or plants having units at faraway places. In this
type of organization, maintenance personnel, attached to production unit, carry out day-to-day
maintenance, routine maintenance and most emergency jobs. However, important maintenance
functions, e.g. overhauling, planned (preventive/ predictive etc.) maintenance, major jobs,
procurement of spares etc., are kept under the charge of chief maintenance engineer (I/c of the
centralized maintenance section), who will look after all the central and captive shops,
maintenance planning, drawing and documentation and utility generation and distribution.

The above three types of organizations are, however, not always followed rigidly and some
adjustments can be made to suit the working or available environment and needs. The advantages
and disadvantages of all the three types are given in the following table:

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 Type Advantages Disadvantages

Centralized 1. Skill and technology easily disseminated, 1.Collaboration with

organization 2. Problem easily investigated, operation departments
3. Easy deployment from a more diversified and difficult,
specialized craft group. 2. Incomplete collection of
4. Lesser duplicating of workers and facilities, operating data,
thus lesser manpower and facilities needed, 3. Higher transportation cost,
5. Excel in planning, scheduling both for men and material,
6. Costly and specialized equipment can be 4. More time getting to and
procured and used more effectively, from work area,
7.More specialized supervision, when needed
8. Better standardization and variety reduction
of spares and materials for industry,
9. Generally, more cost-effective,

Decentralized 1. Good communication with operating dept 1.Difficult to share

Organization organization technology and skills,
2. Speedy maintenance response and reduced 2. Requires more people,
travel time. 3. Non-availability or under-
3. Better familiarity with machines and utilization of specialized tools
Processes; more production mindedness. and facilities,
4. Interchangeability of operation-maintenance 4.Generally, more costly,
workforce, even at managerial level, is possible Because of duplication of
5. Conflict amongst workmen is reduced due to tools and facilities,
better coordination.
Partially 1. Good communication with operating Dept, 1. Management somewhat
Decentralized 2. Skills and technology dissemination and difficult
Organization organization problem investigation easier 2. Job rotation requires
3. Many of the other advantages of the above ingenuity
two types.
Figure3 shows the example of Centralized Maintenance Organization and Fig. 12.4 as
Decentralized Maintenance. These are again based on steel plants under Steel Authority of India
Ltd. (SAIL).

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CENTRALIZED MAINTENANCE GROUPS

Be it any type of maintenance organization, there are few centralized groups (not limited or not
permanently earmarked to any particular operation shop/ department), and shop maintenance
groups (permanently earmarked for maintenance of a particular operating shop/department. Few
of these are shown in Figure 3 and Figure 4. The roles/ responsibilities of such centralized
groups are as given below:

1 Planning and scheduling of all major repairs, shutdowns and overhauls etc., in consultation
with shop maintenance and other agencies,

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2. Planning of spares, tools, tackles, specific consumables and other necessary materials, in
consultation with shop maintenance etc.,

3. Preparation of annual maintenance budget and periodical reviews,

4. Manpower planning and their training and development, in consultation with personnel
department and training department,

5. Execution and supervision of all heavy repairs and major overhauls,

4. Assistance and technical guidance on addition, modification and replacement (AMR) schemes
of the plant,

5. Advise on maintainability and reliability of equipment, before purchase and on improvement/

changes etc.,

6. Assist shop maintenance personnel in repetitive failure analysis and analysis of other major
defects and suggest suitable improvements/ changes,

7. Improve maintenance productivity through better maintenance repair technologies or through

systematic use of tools or better tools like torque or impact wrenches or hydraulic torque
multipliers etc.,

8. Assist in implementation of various condition monitoring systems; few hi-tech or sophisticated

monitoring equipment may be used by this group only,

9. Periodical joint inspection of centralized oil and lubrication systems 10. Centralized hydraulic
and pneumatic repair cells/ shops,

11. Assist in joint inspection of plant's columns, girders, structural etc.,

12. Operation and maintenance of centralized services, which may include:

 Captive shops, such as Central Workshop. Machine Shop, Structural and Fabrication
shop, Electrical Repair Shop, Instrumentation Repair shop etc,
 Drinking and Industrial Water Supply System, including water treatment shops etc.
 Boiler houses
 Central Compressor House, small Argon, Oxygen, Nitrogen gases manifolds,
 Auto and Loco Repair Shop,
 Centralized Hydraulic and Pneumatic Repair Cell/ Shop
 Wagon Repair Shop and Rail Track Maintenance Group (often this may be under separate
Traffic Department),
 Storage and distribution of fuel oil and fuel gasses (occasionally this may come under
separate Energy Department)

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 Electrical power supply, distribution and billing etc.,
 Plant Civil Maintenance, including sewerages and sewerage disposal units etc.,
 Central Drawing Office, including archives and minor design works,

Figure 3: Centralized Maintenance Organization.

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 Figure 4: Decentralized Maintenance Organization.

13. Assist Materials Department for inventory control, variety reduction, vendor analysis and
vendor development and proper material procurement and inspection systems etc,

14. Participate in formulation of inter-plant and intra-plant standards of maintenance spares and
stores etc.; participate in inter-plant maintenance meetings and other such meetings to share the
improvements for maintenance practices, systems, techniques and materials etc,

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15. Coordinate waste recovery systems/plans of different shops/departments; Etc.

Roles/Responsibilities of Shop Maintenance Groups

As indicated earlier, shop maintenance groups are formed separately for each production shop
and they may work in shifts and general shift, in line with the running of production equipment.
Some of the responsibilities of these groups may be as followings:

1. Lubrication of equipment as per schedule and as per need,

2. Routine inspection of equipment, as per check lists and otherwise,

3. Attending reactive jobs (breakdown and emergency jobs), running repairs, adjustments and
minor preventive maintenance jobs,

4. Starting and stopping of centralized grease systems, lube systems, hydraulic systems and
motor rooms etc. and giving electrical power to equipment, as per need,

5. Forecasting requirements of spare parts and other materials and intimating central groups or
taking action otherwise as detailed,

6. Energy conservation and waste reduction measures pertaining to the shop; also initiate
Suitable waste recovery plans in consultation with centralized maintenance groups,

7. Advise and help central maintenance groups on major repairs and overhauls etc.,

8. Keep watch on on-line condition monitoring equipment/systems and carry out periodical
Monitoring as per schedules,

9. Regular cleaning of valves, instruments and other critical items and their opening/closing as
per need,

10. Ensuring necessary safety provisions (covers, guards, railings etc.) and providing/
maintaining environmental control measures, breakdown/failure analysis and initiating
recommendations such as modification or improvisation etc., for improving equipment's
efficiency,

12. Coordinate with captive shops for repairs and reconditioning of broken-down components.
Also coordinate with other central agencies (e.g. steam, compressed air, water etc.) for need of
their shops,

13. Controlling outsourcing (contractors and other outside agencies) expenditures for their shop
and also helping budgetary control of their shops,

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14. Liaison with operators and other personnel of operating/ production shop for upkeep of
equipment and their standard operating procedures. Also arranging shutdowns for central
maintenance groups; Etc.

EXTERNAL MAINTENANCE SERVICES

Such services are available in two forms

 Contract Maintenance Service

 Manufacturer's After Sale Service,

Contract Maintenance Service

Though this concept is used more in developed countries, few industries in India have also
started using this concept and offloading total maintenance jobs of the industry to outside parties,
a sort of outsourcing. However, in more cases, the total job is not off- loaded to contractors, but
help of contractors and contractor's men are taken by most industries, to varying extents. Few of
such cases are given herewith-

1. Hiring contract labours for cleaning and helping during major repairs, shutdowns, overhauls
etc.,

2. Yearly or periodical contract for cleaning of equipment and strategic places and for
transportation of maintenance materials and structural etc.,

3. Individual job contracts during major repairs and shutdowns, to supplement plant's own
workforce,

4. Yearly or periodical contracts for maintenance and upkeep of high technology areas or for
some other areas for which plant's own maintenance personnel are not trained or not capable or
not available,

5. Building, owning, operating, maintaining and supplying few small but special services (e.g.
argon, nitrogen and oxygen etc), within plant premises and captive to the plant,

6. Hiring few specialized maintenance consultants for advising and supervising specific areas;
Etc.

Manufacturer's After Sales Services

Some of the equipment manufacturers/ suppliers offer their "after sale service' for equipments
supplied by them, which may include periodical or round the clock checking, maintaining and
supply for spares for those. This is normally free for one or two years, immediately after initial
commissioning of the equipment and may be extended for further period on chargeable basis.

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This is advantageous for purchasing industry as plant maintenance personnel may get acquainted
with the equipment during that period and may become able to forecast jobs and spares for those.

Some industries do not want to increase their manpower for newly procured special equipments
and, as such, enter into regular maintenance contract with the supplier for periodical or round the
clock operation and maintenance of those equipments. Weigh bridges, weighing machines,
weighing load cells, pneumatic conveyor systems, few special condition monitoring units, many
electronic equipments are some of the examples in this category.

Advantages/Disadvantages of External Maintenance Services

The earlier concept of having more and more maintenance facilities within the plant, under direct
control of maintenance department, was, probably, based on following apprehensions

 No adequate/ established external maintenance system was available,

 No adequate evaluation of performance and incentive were established for external
Services; also, it was presumed that they would be less reactive and proactive to
emergencies,
 Lack of proper and quick communication,
 Lack of proper accountability and punitive measures for external services; Etc.

However, now, with the use of IT and quick communication and in today's competitive
environment, much of the above-mentioned apprehensions can be taken care-off. Such limited
external maintenance services have many advantages over the conventional departmental
maintenance, a few of those are mentioned below

1. It is more economical,

2. Skill preservation can be maintained better,

3. It is technically better as technicians, having enough experience on same or similar equipment,

are only employed for the job.

4. Competition from other similar agencies leads to better service and upkeep from the existing
external services; Etc.

However, there are few disadvantages in external maintenance services, such as-

(i) Lesser Liaison and rapport with operators and operating personnel.

(ii) Lesser familiarity of external service personnel with local practices and environment,

(iii) Creating an environment with offloading more and more to outside agency, without
corresponding reduction of regular maintenance force,

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(iv) With many outside agencies involved, effective coordination becomes difficult,

(v) Very often objections from worker's union; Etc.

CAPTIVE SHOP FACILITIES

As earlier mentioned in this book, some captive shops/ facilities are essentially needed in big
industries for urgent repair/ reconditioning of the breakdown components and also making some
new parts/ spares. Of-course, with more development of ancillary units/industries around a big
industry, the need for such captive shops would be less. In centralized maintenance structure or
mixed (partially decentralized).

Structure, relatively bigger captive shops are maintained and operated by centralized
maintenance groups, but in decentralized maintenance structure, slightly smaller captive shops
are attached with each or few production shops. Some of the captive shops, which are operated
and maintained by maintenance department, are given herewith

Machine Shop

Caters to the need of different machining jobs, (e.g. turning, boring, drilling, shaping etc.) for
repairing, reconditioning and replacement of spares parts, and, thus, reducing bought-out items.

Machine-tool Reconditioning Section

Caters to the need of major repairs, overhauling, trueness checking of the machine-tools and
equipment of captive machine shop and small machine tools used by production shops (e.g.
guide conditioning shops), inspection department and Roll Turning Shops etc. Occasionally this
section (in cooperation with machine shop) may also take up in-situ (during major repair in
different shops) machining for removing severely jammed and/or broken big pins and shafts etc.

Lifting Tackles and Material Handling Section

Caters to the need of reconditioning/repair of all lifting tackles used by maintenance and other
sections in the plant, such as chain blocks, hooks, pulley-blocks, pull lifts, hydraulic and
mechanical jacks, winches etc. and also for splicing/making of wire-rope slings, chain slings etc.
Often wire-rope slings, chain-slings and in-situ wire-rope testing and certification also becomes
the responsibility of this section.

Hydraulic and Pneumatic Cell

Few plants have this section/ cell to cater the need of repair/ reconditioning and testing of
different hydraulic and pneumatic components (e.g. pumps, motors and valves etc) installed all
over the plant/industry. This cell is equipped with suitable test rigs for load-testing of different
components. Often, the cell may take making of new hydraulic hoses for urgent requirements of
any section of the plant/industry. Thus, the cell helps in reduced purchases of hydraulic and

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pneumatic components and hoses. As per need, the cell may help the different maintenance
groups by advising or troubleshooting or taking up some jobs in hydraulic/ pneumatic systems
during any major problem.

Fabrication and Structural Shop

Caters to the need of all heavy and critical fabrication jobs, associated with repair/ reconditioning
of major components/ assemblies or for making new ones. The shop also makes various
structural and fabrication items (e.g. tanks, reservoirs, columns, buck-stays, trusses etc.) for
whole plant. The shop also takes up brazing and specialized welding of few high-alloyed
components. The shop is equipped with necessary testing facilities (e.g. pressure testing,
ultrasonic and radiographic testing. die-penetrant test etc.), either of shop's own or on contract
basis.

Smithy and Foundry Section

Smaller plants do not have any foundry section for maintenance organization and their smithy
section is attached either to machine shop or lifting tackle shop for recondition and re-metaling
of white metal/ babbitt metal bearings, making links for chain slings and also making/ repairing
of forging tools (chisels, tongs, pockers, dies, punches, spoons etc.) for maintenance and
operation of whole plant. However, in bigger plants/industries, small foundry and smithy
facilities are clubbed together in a separate section to do all such jobs and also to make smaller
casting and forging spares for the plant. The foundry section is, naturally, attached with a small
carpentry facility.

Electrical Repair Shop

Caters to the need of repair of various types of electrical equipments, machines and appliances,
which requires special attention and facilities that can't be done in-situ, including rewinding of
electrical motors, welding transformers etc.

Electronic Cell/Section

Looks after the repair and upkeep of various electronic equipments/ gadgets of the plant. Also
occasionally advises on trouble-shooting and solving of the shop electronic equipments.
Instrument Repair Shop

Responsible for repair, testing and calibration of various industrial instruments of the plant, such
as pyrometers, recorders, controllers, gauges (pressure, vacuum etc.), and monitoring equipment
etc. Occasionally the scope of this shop and electronic cell may appear somewhat similar as
such, in some industries these two are clubbed together.

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Wagon Repair Shop

In bigger industries, like integrated steel plants, a separate wagon repair shop in provided,
normally under maintenance in-charge, to repair and recondition different rail wagons, mould
cars, match cars and other rolling stocks. The shop may also take up reconditioning of loco
wheels and overhead cranes etc. In smaller plants, such facilities, in much smaller scale, are
merged in machine shop.

WORKING ARRANGEMENTS

During and after finalization of maintenance organization, some healthy working arrangements
and practices are considered and introduced so that the maintenance personnel of different
categories and at different levels work with reasonable independence but supporting each other
towards the common goal of improving maintenance effectiveness and equipment availability
etc. Such arrangements are simple work practices, followed by most of the big industries.
Followings are a few concepts, which should be considered

1. Engineer-Scheduler-Executor Concept. There should be separate agency to plan and

schedule the jobs, separate to execute and supervise the job and yet separate agency to carry out
monitoring and analysis of deviations and omissions, weak point analysis and other engineering
functions to initiate suitable corrective measures. Same person doing any of the two or all three
functions will create chances of omissions, deviations and improper adjustments. Depending on
the workload, the persons doing each of the three functions may be exclusive for those functions
or they may do other jobs also, but this should not increase manpower. Also, occasionally the
persons may be rotated,

2. Delegation. Delegation is a common topic for all types of jobs and establishments but is
emphasized here in maintenance organization because of various categories and levels of
maintenance personnel and their inter-dependencies. Proper delegation with suitable control
should be introduced so that each individual and crew can work with reasonable freedom and at
the same time support each other towards a common goal. Delegation in maintenance is not
allocating different jobs to different tradesmen, but is allowing the individuals to take required
decision about the job that has been allotted to him/her. The decision, of course, has to be within
the broad parameters of different job schedules, job manuals, SMPS etc. necessary facilitating
the other groups. Too much interference (poor or no delegation) or unlimited delegation, both
would create lot of problem in carrying out maintenance jobs.

3. Position Description/Job Description. Because of many varieties of disciplines, trades and

levels in maintenance organization, the position description or rough job description of various
levels and trades should be clearly defined and understood so that there is no confusion,
ambiguity or contradiction and not much overlapping. A limited amount of overlapping is,
occasionally, introduced by design to take care of some specific situations

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4. Multi-trade Concept. Though this is somewhat contradictory to skill preservation and skill
development, multi-trade concept is often introduced in most industries, except few critical areas
and specialized sections. As one example, the jobs of fitter, welder and shop maintenance groups
and few centralized maintenance groups, but the same rigger may be merged and may be
designated as 'millright' or any such designated for individual trades may be maintained in few
specialized and heavy maintenance groups and few captive shops. This concept leads to better
utilization of manpower, without unduly sacrificing the quality.

MULTI SKILLING

As briefly discussed in previous section (multi-trade concept), the concept of multi-skilling or

multi-skill (multi-trade) workmen has, recently, assumed great significance and, as such, needs
more deliberation. With increase in size, type, complexity and sophistication of equipments,
maintenance personnel also got separated into different and specialized trades to be able to
maintain those. This led to existence workmen of large number of trades today (fitters, riggers,
welders, gas-cutters, millwrights, pipe fitters, machinists, electricians, instrument mechanics,
electronic technicians etc.), all having slightly differing knowledge and skill levels.

The confusion has now arisen that a complex equipment needs jobs of different trades/ skills but
all those tradesmen cannot work on that particular equipment at the same time. If many
tradesmen work on one particular equipment, it results in many problems, such as:

 Need of more manpower,

 Need of more downtime,
 Possibility of improper job if one tradesperson does job of another trade without
acquiring multi-skill,
 Possibility of some job being leftover as one may think the other might have done that,
 Nobody being clearly accountable for subsequent failure, etc.

As such, in today's age, craft lines do not need to remain so clearly drawn. The average industrial
worker of today has qualification up to High School and developing them in multi-skill trade can
solve many of the abovementioned problems.

Multi-skilling is the process of training maintenance employees in specific skills that cross the
traditional trade or craft lines and, then, ensuring that the work is performed. The advantage of
multi-skilling is that particular jobs, which historically require more than one craft, not
necessarily more than one individual, can be performed successfully just by one person. In multi-
skilling. individuals receive additional training, beyond the normal skills required by their trade.
Multi- skilling give advantage to the company in the form of reduced manpower cost and ease in
job scheduling which leads to time-saving and repair cost. The advantage to workmen come
inform of some incentive or pay rise.

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Multi-skilling Pitfalls

Many multi-skilling efforts have not worked as desired. They normally fail because of one or
more of the following reasons

1. Unrealistic Expectation- Management expectation that most workmen can attain and retain
many skills and that they can do anything and everything and also workmen expectation of
substantial pay increase, both may be unrealistic.

2. Vague Goals or Commitments- Many multi-skilling efforts begin without clear goal or
understanding of the company that what they expect or aim to gain. That results either finishing
the training midway or workmen continue doing their job as before.

3. Inadequate Definition of Multi-skilling- Inadequate definition of the training efforts itself can
leave the goal unclear in everyone's mind as to when and how the efforts will be accomplished.

4. Failure to Implement- This may be because of inadequate training facilities or inadequate skill
development time or inadequate communication about work change etc.

Identifying Friction Areas and Multi-skill Opportunities

In industries where strong craft line distinction exists, it is imperative to identify the skills to be
included in the programme. The most beneficial areas are those which involve jobs where two or
more crafts are required to complete a job but only one or two workmen are required to do that
job.

Such jobs are described as Friction Areas-jobs that are causing friction in productive
deployment of workmen. Friction areas can be identified from completed work history cards,
structured group interviews and multi-skill surveys etc. Although such areas may vary greatly
from place to place and industry to industry, following are the few areas where multi-skilling can
be considered as productivity improvement areas

1. Jobs combining electrical and mechanical skills (motor or mono-block pump changing).

2. Job requiring electrical/mechanical and simple welding skills (installing conduit /pipe
supports and running conduits/ pipes and pipefitting jobs etc), also minor insulation removal and
replacement on pipes/ conduits,

3. Oxyacetylene operations (heating, trimming, cutting, gas-welding, brazing, soldering),

4. Millwrights (fitting, rigging and general welding skills),

5. Forklift (or truck) operator cum material chaser, operating vehicle, procuring and handling
smaller materials and minor loading/unloading/ stacking etc.

6. Machine lubrication can be done by fitters or millwrights doing job there,

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7. Machinists should do loading/unloading of their machines and do lubrication of m/c.

8. Millwrights or fitters should do minor and rough turning/boring on small machine tools; etc.

Identifying Potential Gains

After the possible training areas have been identified, the company can determine the potential
productivity and financial savings to be achieved from the multi-skilling efforts. The
maintenance Workforce will become more versatile and adaptable by gaining values with new
technical capabilities and multi-craft skills. Possible salary increases or other incentives should
be negotiated with representatives of workmen also.

Defining and Arranging Training

Defining and arranging multi-skill training is the most important step. It must equip the workmen
with the specific skills they will need to safely and effectively perform duties formerly done by
another craft or crafts. In addition to multi-skill training, a training progression programme
(refresher courses etc.) should be followed so that the workmen retain and refine their acquired
skills.

Negotiating the Multi-skill Programme

Some time, during the training period, the management and concerned workmen (possibly along
with workmen's representative) should sit together and discuss/ negotiate the benefits for both
sides.

Implementing the Skills

Soon after completion of training, at an appropriate time, the multi-skills should be incorporated
into the actual scheduling and work performance. The company's management and workmen
both feel that they both are in "Win-Win" situation; as it offers real productivity and financial
gains to the company and also offers job-enrichment and some other incentives to workmen.

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 Figure 5: Multi-Skill Implementation

OUTSOURCING IN MAINTENANCE

The "Outsourcing" has recently assumed great significance due to emergence of BPO (Business
Process Outsourcing). However, outsourcing in small form is regularly used in form of awarding
small maintenance contracts to outside contractors to augment maintenance workforce during
shutdowns and major repairs.

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Today, often it is preferred to increase the level of maintenance productivity by outsourcing for
maintenance partners. Associating with professional maintenance people, give a company the
advantage to address their issues with those experts who face and meet these challenges on a
daily basis. In addition, outsourcing, also, enable a company to gain greater control over
maintenance results. However, it is important to note that the following key elements have to be
highlighted to achieve the optimum benefit from these outsourcing activities

1. Performance measurements are developed and clearly communicated,

2. Planned maintenance is established as the focus of the operation,

3. Maintenance becomes a competitive advantage.

4. Both manufacturer and maintenance contractor desire a mutually beneficial relationship,

5. Maintenance best practice are established and tracked.

In the outsourcing or maintenance partnership scenario, performance guarantees and continuous

improvement goals provide greater control over maintenance results and assured production
goals are being achieved. In addition to saving cost, expertise of the external agency is also
achieved.

Types of Outsourcing

Today different types of outsourcing are followed in different organizations, depending on their
specific needs. Few of those are given herewith

1. Awarding small job contracts: to augment maintenance force during shutdowns or other
additional needs,

2. Outsource Regular Diagnostic CM activities: Suppliers or their agents carry and install
permanently, maintain and operate diagnostic and monitoring equipments/ instruments and
inform the monitoring results in different forms at regular intervals to plant personnel.
Calibration of those equipments is also arranged by them, along with plant representatives, from
external national or private laboratories or test houses.

3. Outsourcing of Regular Maintenance: All day to day and planned maintenance is awarded to
specialized outside agencies and they keep their men suitably and submit checklists and other
reports to plant regularly. Plant keeps only very few personnel to occasionally oversee the
activities and monitor reports submitted by that agency or agencies. Spares etc. are arranged by
plant.

4. Build, Operate and Maintain (BOM): This is mainly applicable for facilities, such as supply,
Air and other gas supply, Fuel (solid, liquid or gas) supply and Electrical power supply etc. The

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contractor builds, operates and maintains the facility and recovers the cost from selling their
supply to the plant. The facility may be built within the plant premises or nearby outside.

SELF-DIRECTED WORK TEAMS

Lean production is, now, displacing conventional mass production throughout the world. Human
resource development practices play a critical role in any company's programme to develop and
institutionalize lean method on the shop floor. One approach, that has been successful in many
industries, involves organizing production workers into a self-directed or self-managed teams to
do all connected jobs.

Teams, consisting of workmen, ranging between 5 to 15, depending size of process/ job, take
responsibility of an integrated, customer driven, production processes/ jobs. The team members
cross-train in many of the disciplines/ tasks within the defined process/ job and gradually expand
their capabilities to include support and some administrative roles. Within the overall
organization, the teams may attain some sort of autonomous nature.

Lean production and self-directed work teams were developed historically, at different times and
at different parts of world. Though the two concepts share somewhat common grounds, many
lean production teams extended the boundaries of their works to encompass not only 'KAIZEN'
but also some administrative and managerial tasks and, as a result of that, they created a truly
self-directed work teams, under the banner of lean production teams.

Figure 6: Differences Between Lean Production Team and Self-Directed Team

Developing self-directed work teams consists of four major steps-(a)- Cross-training and multi-
skilling. (b)- enhancing teamwork skill, (e) participating in proactive improvement efforts and
(d)- developing administrative and support function skills. The team members should be
motivated employees, should overcome the resistance to change, should aim for continuous

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improvement and should have suitable incentive system. Figure 6 shows briefly the difference
between the lean production teams and self-directed teams.

However, the concept of "self-directed teams" appear to have some overlapping with "Total
Productive Maintenance Teams" and involves lot of 'Multiskilling' and affects the maintenance
organization accordingly. Still there are some differences between the two. Both direct towards
economic excellence.

QUESTIONS FOR PRACTICE

1. Discuss the role/responsibilities of centralized maintenance groups and shop maintenance

groups.

2. Describe relative merit and demerits of centralized and decentralized maintenance systems.

3. What is multi-skilling? What are advantages and disadvantages of multiskilled?

4. What are the factors that are to be considered for deciding maintenance organization in any
industry?

5. What are the different captive shop facilities in most industries in India?

6. What are the objectives of maintenance organization and what different types of organizations
are in use in Indian industries?

7. What is outsourcing in maintenance and what types of outsourcing are practices in general
industries?

8. Comment briefly on line and staff organization and functional organization.

9. What process and cares to be considered for introducing multi skilling?

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