MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT DR.

AMIT KUNDU

MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

1.1 Objectives and Functions

The efficiency of the production function depends solely on the functional
reliability of the production facility. Hence, the objective of maintenance is to
improve functional reliability of the production facility by:
1. Keeping breakdown time down to the minimum.
2. Keeping the manufacturing facilities in better working condition at the
lowest possible cost.
The causes of equipment breakdown are many and have to be guarded against:
1. Improper or lack of, lubrication.
2. Neglect of minor faults.
3. External factors such as voltage problems.
4. Neglect of machine vibration and awkward sounds from the machine.

1.2 The functions of Maintenance Management are:

1. To ensure availability of machine and services required by the various
departments of the plant and to make them function at the optimum
level.
2. To increase the life cycle profitability.
3. To keep the breakdown time minimum and yield optimum utilization of
plant facilities i.e. machines, equipment etc.
4. To eliminate loss in production time ad rescheduling of production which
are ultimately related to profitability.
5. To avoid sub-contracting due to non-availability of the facilities of the
plant.
6. To avoid spoiling of in-process material (e.g. when the material is
already loaded on the machine)
7. To avoid extra overhead charges due to loss in production time.
8. To provide production with the long-and short-term plant availability
requirements at minimum resource cost.

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9. To increase company profitability through its relationship with the useful

life of the plant because longer the plant life, greater is the life cycle
profitability.
10. To help meet delivery commitments to the customers by keeping the
plat in running condition.
11. To conduct analysis of failures and down-time and come up with
preventive measures.
12. To ensure accuracy of the equipment, thus maintaining the quality and
continuity of production.
1.3 Types of Maintenance
Maintenance may be classified into:
1. Corrective or Breakdown Maintenance.
2. Preventive Maintenance
3. Predictive Maintenance
4. Total Productive Maintenance.

1.3.1 Corrective or Breakdown Maintenance

Corrective or Breakdown maintenance suggests that repair/maintenance is
carried out after a particular part or equipment is out of order temporarily and
unable to perform its regular function.

In such circumstances, the particular department, say production department

calls maintenance department to fix the problem. It is the duty of the
maintenance department to make necessary repairs and to get the machine
back in order. The important thing in Breakdown Maintenance is after
attending and repairing the equipment, the maintenance engineer attends to
the machine only when another failure occurs.This type of maintenance can be
well-justified in small factories (MSME Sector), where scheduling techniques
are a financial burden and occasional demand exceeds normal operating
capacity.

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Breakdown maintenance does not interfere with production programmes. It is

affordable, practicable and economical for non-critical items whose down time
and repair costs are less than in preventive maintenance. Also, complexity in
administrative work ad record-keeping involved in breakdown maintenance is
less than in preventive maintenance.

1.3.2 Preventive Maintenance

In the earlier stages of growth of industries, maintenance was a matter of
concern only when equipment broke down. Such a situation of breakdown used
to result in serious production hold-ups and ultimately production flow used to
get upset and other equipment would stand idle unnecessarily.
Now with competition being a matter of concern, every company tries to
achieve economy by reducing production cost. This has resulted in a more
cautious approach to the maintenance of the equipment and a more scientific
way of tackling maintenance problems. These ways came to be known as
preventive maintenance. As we all know, prevention is better than cure.
Preventive maintenance basically calls for taking equipment for repair at
planned intervals, so that uncalled for breakdowns can be prevented. These
intervals are decided mainly by the complexity of the equipment and its
loading condition. Preventive maintenance is a stitch-in-time procedure.
Preventive maintenance is carried out while machines are working or shut
down.

Examples of preventive work are:

(1) Regular cleaning, greasing, lubrication etc. of the moving parts.
(2) Elimination of overload on equipment/plant services.
(3) Replacement of worn-out parts, before they fail.
(4) Equipment that is likely to fail is supported by stand-by equipment e.g.
pumps.
(5) Overhauling of the equipment.

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Thus on one hand, preventive maintenance helps in extending the life of the
equipment and reducing unexpected breakdowns. On the other hand, it ensures
accuracy of the equipment, thus maintaining the quality.

Benefits of a Preventive Maintenance System

1. The state of the equipment can reveal what changes need to be brought
about in the equipment.
2. Every equipment has a breakdown curve; working lower on the curve
adds predictability and reliability.
3. If damage is known and recognized at an earlier stage one gets more
time to plan and secure parts.
4. Early prediction shifts maintenance workload from emergency fire-
fighting to an orderly, scheduled system.
5. Decreased user problems translate into increased satisfaction.
Preventive maintenance is costly. Hence one should be careful whether to go in
for preventive maintenance or not by considering the cost of using preventive
maintenance and the cost of not using it (i.e., down-time of machine
production loss etc.) Application of preventive maintenance to all the items in
the plant/industry may be uneconomical (e.g., Nuts and bolts
1.3.3 Predictive Maintenance
As the name suggests, this is based on prediction. It makes use of human senses
or other instruments to sense the imminent failure of a particular part.
An unusual sound from the engine of a motor-bike is a sign of a problem. An
electric cable excessively hot at one end suggests trouble. Often, even a hand
touch can tell us of the problem concerned with a piece of equipment.
In such type of maintenance, the conditions are checked periodically or on a
continuous basis to take timely action to avoid further failures.
Advantages of Predictive Maintenance
1. Breakdown and consequent down-time is reduced tremendously.
2. Safety of the workers/operators is directly connected with
maintenance.

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3. Product rejection rate is decreased as machined are in good condition

and quality.
4. Better product-quality is assured.
5. The life of equipment and hence of the plant is increased.
6. Maintenance directly adds into profitability.
7. Overhead charges are reduced.
The ideal situation in maintenance is to be able to peer inside your components
and replace them right before they fail. Technology has been improving
significantly in this area. Tools are available that can predict corrosion, failure
on a transformer or detect a bearing failure weeks before it happens.
Predictive maintenance is a maintenance activity geared towards indicating
when a piece of equipment is on the critical wear curve and predicting its
useful life.
1.3.4 Total Productive Maintenance
Total Productive Maintenance means where an organization makes the operator
or partner in the maintenance effort. This idea succeeds because it forces
every organization to realize that they have to use more and more of the
capabilities of every worker in order to remain competitive. In any industry,
the machine operator is the key player in a total productive maintenance
environment. There is less reliance on the maintenance department for basic
maintenance.
Total productive maintenance recruits the operators into the maintenance
function to handle basic maintenance tasks and to be the champions of the
machine’s health.
The maintenance department becomes an advisory group to help with training,
setting standards, doing major repairs, and consulting on maintenance
improvement ideas. Under total Productive Maintenance, maintenance
becomes very closely aligned with production.
Total productive maintenance uses the operators to perform all of the routine
maintenance including cleaning, bolting, routine adjustments, lubrication,
taking readings, start-up/shut-down, and other periodic activities. The

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maintenance department becomes specialist in major maintenance, major

problems and problems that span several work areas, as well as training. The
operator goes through seven steps to reach full autonomous maintenance.
1. Initial Cleaning
2. Maintenance Prevention
3. Establish consistent Standards
4. Inspection
5. Autonomous Inspection
6. Organization to support ongoing Total Productive Maintenance
7. Full – functioning Total Productive Maintenance
The dual goal for total productive maintenance is zero defects and zero
breakdowns. To achieve this goal, total productive maintenance has the
following four elements:
1. Maximum overall equipment effectiveness. Total Productive maintenance
has a very strict definition of effectiveness. One of the tenets of total
Productive Maintenance is that sloppy reading of effectiveness can cover up
opportunity for production improvement.
2. Establish a shared system of preventive maintenance for the
equipment’s complete life (take into account the life cycle of the
equipment). Preventive maintenance should be modifiable to suit the life
stage of the equipment. Without this, preventive maintenance tasks might
not reflect the failure modes of equipment in that condition. Shared
preventive maintenance divides the tasks between production and
maintenance.
3. It must be implemented by all departments. Total Productive Maintenance
is not really just a maintenance programme, but rather a partnership of
maintenance and production.
4. Total productive maintenance is based on the promotion of preventive
maintenance as a motivational technique through autonomous maintenance
groups.

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Measuring Equipment Effectiveness

Many organizations do not – or cannot – capture accurate information about run
time, slowdowns, minor stoppages, and defects. Total Productive Maintenance
relies on good record-keeping in six areas of loss. Total productive
maintenance can be summarized as attention to (and elimination of) the six
losses of production detailed below.
Downtime
(1) Equipment failure from breakdowns: This is the biggest element which is
directly the responsibility of maintenance. With total Productive
Maintenance, first – line maintenance activity is transferred to operations.
Proper design ensures reductions in breakdown-related downtime.
(2) Set up and adjustment: The stated goal is single-digit-minute set-up times.
This allows up to nine minutes for set up. Adjustments are simplified or
eliminated from the system.
Speed Losses
(3) Idling and minor stoppages due to abnormal operation of sensors, blockage
of work on chutes etc. These slowdowns are tracked and analysed to see
what is really happening. Analyses of root causes and of processes are
ongoing until the system no longer has losses in these areas.
(4) Reduced speed due to discrepancies between design and actual speed.
Design speeds are reviewed and actual speeds are observed. The
comparison, if favourable, initiates a design and engineering review.
Defects
(5) Process defects due to scraps and quality defects to be repaired. Quality
problems are not tolerated. Deep analysis is undertaken until these losses
approach zero.
(6) Reduced yield from start-up to stable production. The production process is
traced and watched for start-up problems. Stable production should follows
start-up very closely.