24 Machinery Component Maintenance and Repair

Although many quantitative methods exist for justifying computer-

based systems in the maintenance area, many such systems are justified
by what is called the “faith, hope, and charity” method. Maintenance
management simply has faith that maintenance can be made more effec-
tive and can be controlled better if maintenance activities and costs can be
measured. Through computers, maintenance management also hopes ef-
fective record keeping will preserve effective procedures and the mainte-
nance department will be less vulnerable to loss of key personnel because
these procedures are recorded within a computer system. The element of
charity exists because the accounting or operations departments may
have computers which are not fully utilized and are, thus, available for
maintenance-related applications.
Unfortunately, the “faith, hope, and charity” justification technique
too often has resulted in installation of systems which were thrown to-
gether on a part-time basis by data processing personnel and imposed on
the maintenance department in the total absence of any obvious mainte-
nance coverage and/or desire for such systems. The result has been im-
mediate rejection of the system by maintenance personnel and a setback
in the maintenance department’s acceptance of computer support of any
type.

Setting up an Effective System

As previously mentioned, there are a variety of computer systems be-

ing installed in processing plants. These systems can be installed either as
“stand-alone” systems or as systems which exchange data with other re-
lated systems. Just where the first system is installed depends mainly on
where help is most needed-or where computerization would produce
the most significant benefits.
With any system, however, there are certain “places to start” which
are absolutely vital to system success.
The maintenance department which hopes to realize benefits from
computer systems must start with a convinced, dedicated management
and recognize that system acceptance in the maintenance department
must be earned.
The manager who has a system designed and installed as “something
we can try to see how it works out” has wasted a lot of company money.
If the maintenance manager is not solidly convinced the contemplated
system is needed and if he is not dedicated to its success, then the system