Topic X Introduction to

1 Maintenance
Management
LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1. Define maintenance management;
2. Define three main expectations and objectives of second generation
maintenance management;
3. Describe the importance of maintenance management;
4. Explain three key components of maintenance management;
5. Discuss three elements of effective maintenance management; and
6. Describe three strategies for a sustainable maintenance management
programme.

X INTRODUCTION
2 X TOPIC 1 INTRODUCTION TO MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

What comes to mind when you hear the term „maintenance management‰? Do
you know that a large portion of an organisationÊs revenue goes to maintenance
costs? Studies have shown that maintenance costs may vary between 15% and
60% of the total cost of production, depending on the industry.

However, in most organisations, maintenance is not a top priority and in most

cases, the maintenance division bears the brunt when something goes wrong in
the organisation such as loss of production and revenue. It is typical to find that
even costs which are not related to maintenance would also be accounted for
as maintenance cost. For example, the cost of adding new equipment and
improvement to the existing equipment is considered maintenance cost when in
actual fact it is a capital investment.

This is why we need to know the meaning of maintenance management and its
expectations and objectives. In this topic, we will learn about the importance of
maintenance management and its three key components (maintainability,
reliability and availability). Next, we will look at the three elements of effective
maintenance management (reducing downtime, extending operation time and
optimum utilisation). Lastly, we will discuss the strategies for a sustainable
maintenance management programme (maintenance management policy,
management commitment and managing maintenance as a business).

1.1 WHAT IS MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT?

Firstly, we need to know the definition of maintenance management. Do you
know the difference between maintenance and maintenance management?
 TOPIC 1 INTRODUCTION TO MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT W 3

One thing to remember is that maintenance management is like having the mind
of a mechanic but with the ability of a manager. Imagine your car overheats and
breaks down during a family outing. At that point, you are willing to pay any
amount to a mechanic that comes by to get the car fixed in order to get your
family home safely. However, if you have been managing the maintenance of
your car regularly, you would have prevented the failure within a fraction of the
cost. However, here is something for you to remember; even new cars can break
down (see Figure 1.1)!

Figure 1.1: Even a new car can break down if you do not manage the maintenance of your
car regularly

1.2 HUMAN PERCEPTION ON MAINTENANCE

PERSONNEL
Can you name the maintenance managers in your organisation? What can
you say about them? Most often, the word „maintenance‰ carries a negative
connotation in any organisation. This is evidently seen in the level of importance
and priority given to any maintenance personnel in an organisation. They are
needed and important only when problems arise, and are usually blamed for
poor maintenance. However, when things go right, they are not praised or
rewarded as it is considered to be „their job anyway‰. Hence, many people do
not pursue maintenance management as a career of their choice.
4 X TOPIC 1 INTRODUCTION TO MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

Generally, there are three perceptions about maintenance:

(a) A cost centre to the business;
(b) Under utilised  waiting for problems to happen; and
(c) At the bottom rank of the management group.

Indeed, maintenance generates production capacity that contributes to profit. In

the past, maintenance managers were unable to document their true tangible
contribution and had difficulties proving their contribution to the business profit.
This is all now changing. The attitude of „DonÊt fix if it is not broken‰ and the
„mat grease‰ image attached to maintenance personnel need to be eliminated.

In order to change the negative perception, maintenance personnel should aspire

to be viewed as a valuable and profitable asset to the business of the
organisation. They must become more focused and sensitive to the needs and
requirements of their customers, as a way to build their success.

1.3 HISTORY AND EVOLUTION OF

MAINTENANCE
Do you know how long maintenance management has existed? Maintenance
management has evolved over the last 60 years with three main different
expectations and objectives placed on the equipment or assets. Let us look at each
of them.

The first generation of maintenance management in the early 1940Ês concedes

with the philosophy of „fix when broken‰. Then, the second generation between
the 1960Ês and 1980Ês emphasised on „higher plant reliability‰, „longer
equipment life‰ and „lower maintenance cost‰.
 TOPIC 1 INTRODUCTION TO MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT W 5

The third generation or the last two decades has placed a much higher
expectation on maintenance. It has seven characteristics as listed in Figure 1.2.

Figure 1.2: Seven characteristics of third generation maintenance

Take an example of you owning a car compared to your grandparents owning a

car, if they could afford it. In earlier days, owning a car was considered a luxury
even if the car had no air conditioning or a stereo system (see Figure 1.3).

Figure 1.3: In the early days, a car was considered a luxury item
Source: http://www.harrisoncars.co.uk/heritage-images/OldPics026RWS809rear.jpg
6 X TOPIC 1 INTRODUCTION TO MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

At that time the car is expected to break down and the maintenance is always „fix
when broken‰. However, in the next generation, having a car became essential
and one with air-conditioning and other features such as radio and safety belt for
the front passenger is an added feature. It is also expected to consume less fuel
with a low maintenance cost.

Subsequently, the expectations of owning a car are very high. It has to have an
appealing look with an aesthetic finish, an exclusive interior plus accessories
such as leather seats and other digital gadgets. In addition, it must come with
state of the art safety and security features such as front and rear sensors, safety
belts for all passengers, wireless remote and many more. Figure 1.4 shows
examples of these luxury cars.

Figure 1.4: Current generation of luxury cars

Source: http://www.carlebanon.com/Newspics/ssssss.jpg

The biggest expectation is that it must be reliable with less fuel consumption,
environmentally friendly and with higher power output. Most importantly, it
must be robust and if possible require no maintenance. But in reality, these cars
are yet to exist.
 TOPIC 1 INTRODUCTION TO MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT W 7

1.4 SCOPE OF MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

Why is maintenance performed on equipment or assets? What if all equipment
were maintenance free? First, let us look at the definition of equipment.

In keeping the equipment functioning, all the components have to be collectively

functioning without failing. However, that is not always the case. Each
component may fail at different times and in the process of replacing the failed
component, another component may get damaged during the disassembly and
reassembly of the equipment.

Consequently, this will disappoint the end users of the equipment since it affects
their job objective. Therefore, maintenance management is all about meeting
the needs of in-house clientsÊ requirement by preserving the present
equipment/asset functionality and ensuring its availability and reliability by
planning for tomorrow.
8 X TOPIC 1 INTRODUCTION TO MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

1.5 KEY COMPONENTS OF MAINTENANCE

MANAGEMENT
There are three key components in maintenance management, as explained in
Table 1.1.

Table 1.1: Three Key Components in Maintenance Management

Component Description
Maintainability x The discipline of designing and developing equipment or assets that are
maintainable.
x The aspect of maintainability is very important at the design stage in which
every equipment designer should foresee the need to enable relatively low
skilled maintenance personnel to troubleshoot and restore the equipment
to its full capacity.
Reliability x The probability of an equipment or asset to perform a specified function
satisfactorily as intended without failure for a specific period under the
required operating environment.
x Reliability of an equipment or asset can be improved through
understanding the nature and the actual performance and environment
such as using microelectronics monitoring system, innovative adaptation to
user demand or even the human motivation to ensure its reliability.
Availability x The probability measure of an equipment to perform its intended function
when required at the needed timeframe, hence not under repair or fails
when it needs to be used.
x It is the performance criteria of a maintainable system to function reliably
at the intended time.

How do these three key components link with maintenance and maintenance
management? Let us look at these important notes.

Maintenance is about performing all actions in keeping a balance between

maintainability, reliability and availability.

Maintenance management is about applying the best policy, practices,

procedures and innovative techniques to perform maintenance on assets at
the most reasonable cost effective manner which leads to quality
maintenance.
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1.6 ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE MAINTENANCE

MANAGEMENT
Most production equipment owners are skilled at making strategic productivity
decisions as they know the parameters that affect their production cost. What
they do not have in their decision making equation is how reducing maintenance
cost can decrease their final production cost.

Additionally, an effective maintenance system will improve the availability of

the equipment for increased production outputs. In fact, maintenance cost can
range from 5% to 40% of the total production cost. An effective maintenance
management shall have the least cost implication to the total production cost.
These are achievable through three elements:
(a) Reduce downtime for maintenance shutdown (MTTR);
(b) Extended operation time between shutdown for maintenance (MTBF); and
(c) Optimum utilisation of all forms of maintenance resources.

1.7 STRATEGIES FOR A SUSTAINABLE

MAINTENANCE PROGRAMME
There are three strategies that should be followed by an organisation in order to
attain a sustainable maintenance programme as listed in Figure 1.5.

Figure 1.5: Three strategies to attain sustainable maintenance programme

Now, let us look at each of these strategies.

10 X TOPIC 1 INTRODUCTION TO MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

1.7.1 Maintenance Management Policy

What can we say about maintenance management policy?

A maintenance management policy should clearly describe the vision,

mission, objectives and goals of the related activity.

The policy will serve as a general guideline for an individual to extend his or her
creativity and ingenuity within the organisation to achieve the policy
ingredients. The existence of a policy will upgrade the activities as management
driven.

1.7.2 Management Commitment

The second strategy to attain a sustainable maintenance programme is
management commitment. A sound maintenance policy must have the approval,
blessing and commitment from the top management to ensure the objective of
the maintenance programme is pursued seriously and aggressively by all
employees. This is the reason why commitment is considered an important
strategy in a maintenance programme.

ACTIVITY 1.1
Can we measure the commitment given by all the employees? How
do we make sure that they are dedicated and consistent all the time?

1.7.3 Managing Maintenance as a Business

Recent surveys have shown that approximately 1/3 of the actual reported
maintenance cost is either non-maintenance cost or in some cases wasted cost
due to improper maintenance management. This ineffectiveness not only impacts
the production and operation cost but also affects the quality of the production,
hence resulting in the industry unable to get a fair share in the global market.

Evidently, there is a growing need for every industry to consider maintenance as

a business entity than merely being a cost centre. The shift in paradigm will lead
to managing maintenance as a business.
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A successful business driven strategy will be a customer focused business. This is

also true in maintenance. Maintenance business shall be based on providing the
most cost effective quality service. Since it has a direct effect on the organisation
profitability, maintenance management should adapt the business approach
culture. Similar to any business model, the maintenance business shall develop
its own cost and forecast income budget documented into a maintenance
business plan. This will enable the top management to foresee the need and
contribution of the maintenance business to the entire company mission.

Now, let us do Self-Check 1.1 to test your understanding of this topic before we
move on to the next topic.

SELF-CHECK 1.1

1. Explain the meaning of maintenance management.

2. Maintenance management has evolved over the last 60 years.

Briefly describe the three main different expectations and
objectives placed on the equipment or assets in the second
generation of maintenance management.

3. Discuss the importance of maintenance management to an

organisation business activity.

4. Illustrate and relate the three key components of maintenance

management.

5. List the three elements of effective maintenance management.

6. Briefly describe the strategies which should be followed by an

organisation in order to attain a sustainable maintenance
programme.

You have just learned the basic concepts of maintenance management. Now,
what can you conclude about maintenance management? You can say that:

 Maintenance is keeping equipment functioning at any cost.

 Maintenance management is enabling an equipment to function at its basic

condition at the least cost.
12 X TOPIC 1 INTRODUCTION TO MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT

 Three expectations and objectives of the second generation of maintenance

management are higher plant reliability, longer equipment life and lower
maintenance cost.

 Maintenance management is about meeting the needs of in-house clientsÊ

requirement by preserving the present equipment/asset functionality and
ensuring its availability and reliability by planning for tomorrow.

 The three key components of maintenance management are maintainability,

reliability and availability.

 Three elements of effective maintenance management are reducing

downtime, extending operation time and optimum utilisation.

Lastly, you learnt that there are three strategies for sustainable maintenance
management programme: maintenance management policy, management
commitment and managing maintenance as a business.

Availability Maintenance management

Maintainability Reliability

Patton, J. (1988). Maintainability for maintenance management (2nd ed.). New

Orleans: Instrument Society of America.
Westerkemp, T. A. (1993). Maintenance MangerÊs standard manual. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall.