Unit:3

Maintenance Policy
 Meaning and definition
• Set of activities which help keep plant, machinery and other
facilities in good condition. A formal definition of
maintenance is “ That function of manufacturing
management that is considered with the day to day problem
of keeping the physical plant in good operating condition. It
is an essential activity in every manufacturing establishment,
because it is necessary to insure the availability of the
machines, buildings and services needed by other parts of
the organisation for the performance of their functions at an
optimum return on the investment, whether this investment
is in machinery, materials or employees.”
 Scope of maintenance
• Every manufacturing organisation needs
maintenance because, machines breakdowns,
parts wear out and buildings deteriorate over a
period of time of use.
• All segments of a factory buildings, machinery,
equipments, tools, cranes, jigs and fixtures, heating
and generating equipments, waste disposal
systems, air conditioning equipments, washrooms,
dispensaries and so on, need attention.
 Functions
• Primary functions
• Maintenance of existing plant and equipments
• Maintenance of existing plant buildings and grounds
• Equipment inspection and lubrication
• Utilities generation and distribution
• Alterations to existing equipments and buildings
• New installations of equipments and buildings
• Secondary functions
• Store keeping(keeping stock of spare parts)
• Plant protection including fire protection
• Waste disposal
• Salvage
• Insurance administration
• Property accounting
• Pollution and noise control
• Any other services delegated towards maintenance by
the plant management
Importance of maintenance management

• To establish competitive edge and to provide

good customer service, companies must have
reliable equipments that will respond to
customer demands when needed. Equipments
must be kept in reliable condition without
costly work stoppage and down time due to
repairs, if the company is to remain productive
and competitive.
• Maintenance is an important factor in quality
assurance. Inconsistencies in equipments lead
to variability in product characteristics and
result in defective parts that fail to meet the
established specifications.
• Many manufacturing organizations,
particularly those with JIT programmes are
operating with inventories so low that, they
offer no protection in the event of a lengthy
equipment failure. Beyond the cost of idle
equipment, idle labour and lost sales that can
result from a break down, there is a danger of
permanently losing market shares to
companies that are more reliable.
• Good maintenance management is important
for the company’s cost control.
• Organisations like airlines and oil refineries
have huge investments in the equipment.
Equipment failure will be disastrous for such
companies. They need proper maintenance to
keep the equipment in a good condition.
 Impact of poor maintenance
• Production capacity:
Machines idled by breakdowns cannot
produce, thus the capacity of the system is
reduced.
• Production costs:
Labour cost per unit rises because of idle
labour due to machine break downs.
• Production and service quality
Poorly maintained equipment produce low
quality products. Equipments that have not
been properly maintained have frequent
breakdowns and cannot provide adequate
service to customers.
• Employee or customer safety
Worn out equipment is likely to fail at any moment
and these failures can cause injuries to the workers,
working on those equipment.
• Customer satisfaction
When production equipment break down, products
often can not be produced according to the master
schedules, due to work stoppages. This will lead to
delayed deliveries of products to the customers.
 Objectives of plant maintenance
1. Minimizing the loss of productive time because
of equipment failure.
2. Minimizing the repair time and repair cost
3. Minimizing the loss due to production stoppage
4. Efficient use of maintenance personnel and
equipment
5. Prolonging the life of capital assets by
minimizing the rate of wear and tear
6. To keep all productive assets in good working
conditions.
7. To maximize the efficiency and economy in
production through optimum use of facilities
8. To minimize accidents through regular inspection
and repair of safety devices
9. To minimize the total maintenance cost
10. To improve the quality of products and to
improve productivity.
 Areas of maintenance
1. Civil maintenance
Building construction and maintenance,
maintenance service facilities such as water,
gas, steam, compressed air, heating and
ventilating, air conditioning, painting,
plumbing and carpentry work.
2. Mechanical maintenance
Maintaining machines and equipments,
transport vehicles, material handling
equipments, steam generators, boilers,
compressors and furnaces. Lubricating the
machines is also the mechanical maintenance
work.
3. Electrical maintenance
Maintaining electrical equipment such as
generators, transformers, switch gears,
motors, telephone systems, electrical
installations, lighting, fans, battery charging.
 Types of maintenance
• Break down maintenance or corrective
maintenance
• Preventive maintenance
• Predictive maintenance
• Routine maintenance
• Planned maintenance
• Break down maintenance or corrective
maintenance
It occurs, when there is a work stoppage
because of machine break down. Repairs are
made after the equipment is out of order – an
electric motor will not start, a conveyor belt is
ripped, or a shaft has broken.
 Objectives of corrective maintenance

1. To get equipment back into operation as

quickly as possible in order to minimize
interruption to production.
2. To control the cost of repair crews, including
regular time and overtime labour cost.
3. To control the cost of the operation of repair
shops
4. To control the investment in replacement
spare parts that are used when machines are
repaired
5. To control the investment in replacement
spare machines.
6. To perform the appropriate amount of repairs
at each malfunction
 Preventive maintenance
It is undertaken before the need arises and aims
to minimize the possibility of un anticipated
production interruptions or major break
downs.
Preventive maintenance consists of
• Proper maintenance and installation of
equipment
• Periodic inspection of plant and equipment to
prevent break downs before they occur.
• Repetitive servicing
• Adequate lubrication
 Features of preventive maintenance
programme
• Proper identification of all items to be included in
the programme
• Adequate records covering, volume of work and cost
• Inspections on a definite schedule
• Use of check lists by inspectors
• An inspection frequency schedule
• Well qualified inspectors
• Use of repair budgets for major items of equipment
• Administrative procedures that provide necessary
fulfillment and follow up on programme
 Benefits of Preventive Maintenance

• Greater safety for workers

• Decreased production downtime
• Fewer large scale and repetitive repairs
• Less cost for simple repairs made before break
down
• Better spare parts control
 Predictive Maintenance
In this sensitive instrument such as vibration
analyzers, amplitude meters, pressure,
temperature and resistance gauges are used
to predict trouble.
 Routine Maintenance
1. Running maintenance: The maintenance
work is carried out while the equipment is in
the operating condition. Ex: Greasing or
lubricating the bearings while the machine is
running.
2. Shut down maintenance: The maintenance
work is carried out when the machine is out
of service.
 Planned Maintenance
Break down of a machine does not occur in a
planned manner but maintenance work can
be planned well in advance. It is also known as
scheduled maintenance or productive
maintenance. It involves the inspection of
plant and equipment, machinary and
buildings.
MAINTENANCE POLICY
 Maintenance Policy
• Maintenance policy must answer the
questions of the extent of activities and the
size of the maintenance department
• Small plants use the maintenance department
for simple repair and replacement,(addition to
the building) major non production
engineering job in these plants is assigned to
outside specialist.
• Large companies with more specialized staff
tend to turn over all major non production
engineering jobs to their maintenance
departments.
• In some companies, responsibility for planning
and suggesting building construction changes
is placed with the maintenance department,
but actual construction is let to outside
contractors.
• With regard to equipment maintenance, two
practices vary
1. Have a well planned and organized
maintenance programme designed to secure
maximum life and utilization of machinery.
2. To adopt a policy of minimum maintenance
and maximum wear.
 Issues in establishing maintenance policy

1. Contract out some work during peak periods to

avoid getting too far behind and also to avoid
hiring temporary extra help
2. Replace machine and equipment at the
optimum time.
3. Defer some maintenance work until slack
periods so as to keep the work force intact
during such periods. Overhaul work and painting
projects are often handled on that basis. utility
 Organization for maintenance
Works Manager

Mfg.Suptd Plant Chief Industrial Production

Engineer Supervisor Control
Supervisor

Utlities Jod and Cost Maintenanc

Maintenance House Keeping
Engineer Job e
Engineer and Protective
Supervisor Supervisor Supervisor
 Maintenance
Supervisor

Maintenanc
Maintenanc Maintenance
e foreman Maintenance
e foreman foreman,
Repair Foreman,
Electricians carpenters, Shop
Crew Oilers Plumbers,
Helpers Masons, Painters, Foreman,
Welders, Helpers Pipe Fitters, Mechanics
Helpers
 Control of Maintenance
• Maintenance work must commence only after
it has been authorized by a responsible official
• Maintenance schedule must be prepared
stipulating the timing of maintenance and
number of staff required
• Maintenance budget must be prepared and
used to determine whether the actual
expenses are within estimates
• Materials must be issued by the storekeeper
against proper authorization from the
maintenance department
• Equipment records must be maintained.
Information from the records will be useful
when ordering parts
• Management should give serious thought to
certain issues – issues which have bearing on
maintenance cost
• The questions are
1. How much maintenance is needed?
2. What size maintenance crews should be used?
3. Can maintenance be sub contracted?
4. Should maintenance staff covered by wage
incentive scheme?
5. Can effective use be made of computers for
analyzing the scheduling activities?
 Trends in Maintenance
• Increasing attention is being paid to the design
of buildings, facilities, processes to eliminate as
much maintenance as possible.
• Greater emphasis on manufacturing system
reliability and procurement of equipment with a
prescribed level of quality assurance.
• Maintenance engineers will be using statistical
tools to pinpoint problem areas, so as to justify
the need for equipment replacement periodically
• Maintenance staff to be upgraded to cope
with the challenges of complex manufacturing
systems.
• Special training programmes have sprung up
to give maintenance workers, the skills
necessary to service and repair today’s
specialized equipment.
• Other technologies are developing that promise to
reduce the cost of maintenance , while improving
the performance of production machines
• An example is the network of computerized
temperature sensing probes connected to key
bearings in a machine system.
• When bearings begin to fail, they overheat and
vibrate, causing these sensing system to indicate
that a failure is imminent. (coming up)
• The massive damage to machine that can
happen when bearings fail can be avoided