Introductionto MaintenanceEngineering

Introduction
The Oxford dictionary meaning of to maintain is to

cause something to continue or to keep something in existence at the same level.

Maintenance is the process of maintaining an item

in an operational state by either preventing a transition to a failed state or by restoring it to an operational state following failure

Introduction
Maintenance engineering is typically

defined as a staff function whose prime responsibility is to ensure that maintenance techniques are effective, equipment is designed and modified to improve maintainability, ongoing maintenance technical problems are investigated, and appropriate corrective and improvement actions are taken.

PurposeofMaintenance
The purpose of maintenance is to produce

reliable plant capacity. The company vision for producing a profitable product should understand that effective maintenance provides reliable plant capacity. Some of the most important maintenance decisions are made before a company even builds a plant.

PurposeofMaintenance
Gifford Brown (1993) of Ford Motor

Company explains the 1-10-100 Rule. This rule means that every $1 spent up front during engineering to reduce maintenance eliminates a later $10 cost to maintain equipment properly or $100 in breakdown maintenance.

PurposeofMaintenance
It means that every company has to maintain

operable with due efficiency and effectiveness of its fixed assets. Encompasses all activities necessary for: - Maintain a facility or equipment in operation -Reset the operation of equipment to original condition. The maintenance impact, therefore, the quantity and quality of production.

Responsibilityofthe Maintenance

The principal responsibility of maintenance is to provide a service to

enable an organization to achieve its objectives. The specific responsibilities vary from one organization to another; however they generally include the following according to Duffuaa et al. (1998):

1. Keeping assets and equipment in good condition, well

configured and safe to perform their intended functions;

2. Perform all maintenance activities including preventive,

predictive; corrective, overhauls, design modification and emergency maintenance in an efficient and effective manner;
3. Conserve and control the use of spare parts and material; 4. Commission new plants and plant expansions; and

MaintenancePhilosophy
Based on the timing and the work

contents involved in the maintenance task, different maintenance philosophies can be put in the following categories, viz.:

MaintenancePhilosophy
1. Timing known, content known:

preplanned maintenance (PPM), planned shutdowns, routine inspections, and scheduled changeouts fall in this category;

MaintenancePhilosophy
2. Timing known, content unknown:

statutory surveys, third party inspections, and condition-based maintenance;

MaintenancePhilosophy
3. Timing unknown, content known:

anticipated maintenance work, contingency work awaiting shutdown, and run to destruction; and

MaintenancePhilosophy
4. Timing unknown, content

unknown: break-down maintenance, immediate repairs arising from inspection, and run to failure.

MaintenanceScopeChangedwith Time
In recent times, there has been tremendous

growth in maintenance concepts and techniques. The change in emphasis includes:

Decision support tools, such as hazard studies,

failure modes and effects analyses, and expert systems.

New maintenance techniques such as condition

monitoring or CMMS.
Designing equipment with emphasis on

reliability and maintainability.

A major shift in organizational thinking towards

ApproachestoMaintenance
There are several approaches to maintenance,

and different approaches are applicable based on the expected use and maintenance schedule of an item.
Economic considerations are tightly related to

maintenance and the system lifecycle; it is clear that failure to consider a designs effects on maintenance, and vice versa, can have adverse effects on profit.

ApproachestoMaintenance
Maintenance has been categorized based on the

nature and purpose of the maintenance work and on its frequency. Generally, there are four (basic) types of maintenances in use, viz., preventive, corrective, predictive, and fault-finding.

ApproachestoMaintenance
Maintenance can also be classified according to

the degree to which the maintenance work is carried out to restore the equipment relative to its original state. This leads to the following categorization:
Perfect maintenance is maintenance which restores

the equipment to as good as new condition.

ApproachestoMaintenance
Minimal maintenance results in equipment having the

same failure rate as it had before the maintenance action was initiated. This is also called the as bad as old state.
Imperfect maintenance is maintenance in which the

equipment is not restored to as good as new, but to a relatively younger state (a state in between as good as new and as bad as old).

ApproachestoMaintenance
Worse maintenance: This type of maintenance results

(unintentionally) in an increase of the equipments failure rate or actual age but does not result in breakdown.
Worst maintenance: This type of maintenance results

(unintentionally) in the equipments breakdown.