Chapter 3: Maintenance Policies

Definitions of Maintenance:
1. All activities necessary to keep a system and all of its
components in working order, i.e to maintain the capability of
the system while controlling the costs.
2. A routine and recurring activity of keeping a particular machine
or facility at its normal operating condition so that it can deliver
its expected performance or service w/o causing any loss of time
on account of accidental damage or breakdown
• Maintenance is concerned with day to day problem of keeping
the physical plant in good operating condition.
• It covers all the activities undertaken to keep equipment in a
particular condition or return it to such condition.
• Any action that restores failed units to an operational condition or
retains non failed units in an operational state.
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 Maintenance Objectives
Objectives of Maintenance:
• To increase functional reliability of production facilities
• To maximize life of equipment
• To maximize production capacity
• To achieve quality product or services by well operated
equipment
• To minimize interruptions in operations
• To minimize breakdowns
• To enhance manpower safety
• To decrease production cost.
Main Target of Maintenance: More Uptime, and less
Downtime of equipment 2
 Maintenance Objectives
The maintenance team needs to ensure that:
1. The machinery and/or facilities are always in an optimum
working condition at the lowest possible cost
2. The time schedule of delivering to the customers is not affected
because of non -availability of machinery /service in working
condition
3. The performance of the machinery /facility is dependable and
reliable.
4. The performance of the machinery /facility is kept to minimum
to the event of the breakdown. (e) The maintenance cost is
properly monitored to control overhead costs.
5. The life of equipment is prolonged while maintaining the
acceptable level of performance to avoid unnecessary
replacements.
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 3.1. Maintenance Types
Maintenance Types:

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 Maintenance Types
Types of Maintenance Activities:
Planned (Organized maintenance work carried out as per defined
procedures and having control) and Unplanned Maintenances
• Breakdown maintenance: equipment is operated until it fails and
then brought back to operating condition by repair
• Preventative maintenance: Performing scheduled/unscheduled
tasks on an equipment for optimization and preventing failure
• Corrective (Reactive) maintenance: performing maintenance
after a part failure. The most expensive type of maintenance
• Predictive maintenance: condition monitoring of an equipment in
comparison to a preset standard or baseline.
• Condition based maintenance: condition of equipment
continuously monitored so that failure may be predicted and
corrective actions are taken for failure prevention 5
 Maintenance Types
Breakdown Maintenance
• Equipment is operated until it fails and then brought
back to operating condition by repair
• Failure of equipment is unpredictable
• It includes repairs, replacement of parts, lubrication,
minor adjustments and even overhaul are done
• May work good for small industries/factories because:
– Few equipment
– Simple machines that do not require specialists
– Sudden failure does not cause serious financial loss
– Isn’t suitable for big industries/factories
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 Maintenance Types
Preventive Maintenance
• Planned proactive approach to minimize breakdowns.
“ Prevention is better than cure”
• Consistent practices to improve performance and safety of units.
• Aim is to decrease equipment downtime and number of repairs.
• Carried out at predetermined intervals or corresponding to
prescribed criteria and intended to reduce the probability of
failure or the performance degradation of an item.
Preventive maintenance includes:
– Identification of all items, their coding and documentation.
– Periodic inspection – inspection at regular interval.
– Lubrication and cleaning of equipments.
– Upkeep machine through repairs.
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– Failure analysis and planning for failure elimination
 Maintenance Types
Corrective Maintenance
• Organized work to restore failed units
• It is also known as run-to-failure maintenance
• It occurs when technician discover problem after preventive
maintenance or during work order
• It identifies, isolates and rectifies faults to keep part working
• Maintaining action for correcting or restoring failed unit.
• Very vast scope for small actions like adjustment, minor repairs
to redesign of equipments
• Usually carried out in four steps :
– 1st step : collection of data, information and Analysis
– 2nd step : identifying the causes
– 3rd step : find out the best possible solution to illuminate likely causes
– 4th step : Implement those solutions 8
 Maintenance Types
Predictive Maintenance
• Predicting failures before they occurs
• Identifying cause of / symptom of failure
• Eliminating those causes before they lead to damage of units
• A set of activities that detect changes in the physical condition of
equipment (signs of failure) in order to carry out the appropriate
maintenance work for maximizing the service life of equipment
without increasing the risk of failure.

• The main difference between preventive maintenance and

predictive maintenance is that predictive maintenance uses
monitoring the condition of machines or equipment to determine
the actual mean time to failure whereas preventive maintenance
depends on industrial average life statistics.
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 Maintenance Types
Condition Based Maintenance (CBM)
• Condition of equipment continuously monitored using
sophisticated instruments so that failure may be
predicted and corrective actions are taken for prevention
• It consists of following steps:
– Machine identification and codification
– Critical machine selection
– Fixing condition parameter
– Monitoring techniques, schedule and frequency.
– Repair schedule and execution
– Follow up
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 Maintenance Types
Condition Monitoring Techniques
• Temperature monitoring
• Visual monitoring
• Vibration monitoring
• Leakages monitoring
• Lubricating monitoring
• Noise and sound monitoring

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 Maintenance Types: Example
Eg

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 Maintenance Types: Example
Vibration Analysis:
• Analysis of the oscillatory motion in a mechanical
system.
• Example: a change in the natural frequency of a
structure can indicate a fracture in a shaft, or a slight
misalignment in a pulley, the problem might be very
small to notice, but as time progresses, it can cause
failure.
• Thus vibration analysis is a predictive
maintenance technique.

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 Maintenance Costs
Maintenance vs Cost

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 Maintenance Costs
Maintenance Cost

15
 Chapter 3: Maintenance Policies
• Preventive Maintenance vs Breakdown Maintenance

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 3.2. Preventive Maintenance
• The concept of preventive maintenance has a multitude of
meanings.
• A literal interpretation of the term is “a maintenance program
that is committed to the elimination or prevention of corrective
and breakdown maintenance tasks”.
• A comprehensive preventive maintenance program will utilize
regular evaluation of critical plant equipment, machinery, and
systems to detect potential problems and immediately schedule
maintenance tasks that will prevent any degradation in operating
condition.
• In most plants, preventive maintenance is limited to periodic
lubrication, adjustments, and other time-driven maintenance
tasks. These programs are not true preventive programs.
• Preventive maintenance is extremely important in the reduction
of maintenance costs and improvement of equipment reliability. 17
 3.2.1. Preventive Maintenance
• Usually, it is preferred to do maintenance on weekends
and holidays, when other persons are off-site.
• Maintenance should be coordinated according to the
following considerations:
– Maintenance should publish a list of all equipment needing
inspections, preventive maintenance, and the required time to perform
these tasks.
– A maintenance planner should negotiate the schedule with production
planning so that a balanced workload is available each week.
– By the end of the day before the preventive activity is scheduled, the
maintenance person who will do the preventive maintenance should
have seen the first-line production supervisor in charge of the
equipment to establish a specific time for the preventive task.
– As soon as the work is complete, the maintenance person should notify
the production supervisor so that the machine may be put back to use.
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 3.2.1. Preventive Maintenance
Two major factors that should control the extent of a
preventive maintenance program are:
1. The cost of the maintenance program compared with the
carefully measured reduction in total repair costs and improved
equipment performance;
2. The percent utilization of the equipment maintained.

• If the cost of preparation for a preventive-maintenance

inspection is essentially the same as the cost of repair after a
failure accompanied by preventive inspections, the justification is
small and no need of PM inspection (repair after failure – ok).
• If, on the other hand, breakdown could result in severe damage to
the equipment and a far costlier repair, the scheduled inspection
time should be considered. 19
 3.2.1. Preventive Maintenance
• Periodic inspections of small electric motors and power
transmissions can easily exceed the cost of unit
replacement at the time of failure.
• A maintenance program of unit replacements can result in
considerably lower maintenance costs where complete
preventive maintenance is impractical.
• E.g.: In a plant using many pumps, a maintenance
program of standardization, coupled with an inventory of
complete units of pumps most widely used, may provide a
satisfactory program for this equipment.
• This spare-tire philosophy can be extended to many other
components or subassemblies with gratifying results.
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 3.2.1. Preventive Maintenance
• Sometimes, instead of using a centrally administered formal
preventive program, qualified machinists/mechanics are assigned
to individual pieces of equipment as mechanical custodians.
• Operating without clerical assistance and with a minimum of
paperwork, these men can effectively reduce maintenance costs
and breakdowns (because of familiarity with equipment and ability to sense
mechanical difficulties in advance).
• Periodic shutdown for complete overhaul of a whole production
unit is another method of minimizing breakdowns and
performing maintenance most efficiently.
• Unfortunately, this is a difficult approach to sell to management
of a 7-day, around the - clock manufacturing plant not
accustomed to this method.

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 3.2.2. Repair Policies
• A repair policy specifies the anticipated extent to which the repair
of a system will be accomplished.
• The repair policy may dictate that an item should be designed to
be non-repairable, partially repairable, or fully repairable.
Non-repairable Item:
– A non-repairable item is discarded when failure occurs.
– No repair is done and the item is replaced by a spare.
– The residue is then dispositioned as a "throwaway" or is reclaimed and
recycled for other uses.
– Ensure that failure has actually been confirmed prior to discarding the
applicable unit.
– If failure is only suspected but not confirmed, there is a good possibility of
discarding a good unit, which can be costly.
– The system should be designed such that the units are easily removable.
– Spare units must be stocked at a location close to the point of need.
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 3.2.2. Repair Policies
Partially Repairable Item:
– A partially repairable system may assume various forms.
– The unit repair is accomplished when failure occurs.
– Unit repair constitutes the removal and replacement of
assemblies, and the assemblies are repaired through the
removal and replacement of modules and/or circuit boards.
These, in turn, are discarded at failure.
– A need exists to design the equipment for easy and positive
failure identification and for the rapid removal and
replacement of the applicable item once the failure has been
confirmed.

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 3.2.2. Repair Policies
Fully Repairable Item:
This policy reflects a requirement for the greatest amount
of logistic support in terms of:
- test and support equipment,
- spare/repair parts,
- personnel and training,
- technical data coverage, and
- facilities.
The overall policy selection must consider life-cycle cost
in the decision-making process.

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 3.2.4. Statistical Approach
Statistical or Past-Performance Method:
• A maintenance statistical plan is based on averages of past man-
hours expended on jobs.
• It does not give an accurate measurement and in reality, is
nothing more than an index.
• To obtain standard times for maintenance, it first becomes
necessary to make some job classifications into which all hours
worked are recorded and charged to separate jobs in the various
classifications.
• The average time clocked in on the jobs under each classification
becomes the standard.

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 3.2.4. Statistical Approach
• A typical statistical plan for a machine shop might
commence with the classification of completed job orders:
– Standing orders: Permanent orders assigned to highly repetitive
tasks – e.g. the recurring repair of paint cups for automatic color-
banding equipment or the constant straightening of guide pins for
specific assembly equipment.
– Repair orders: Machine-shop orders requiring less than 24 hrs.
labor on items such as repair, adjust, standard part replacement, etc.
(this order is not used in making new parts).
– Work orders: Machine-shop orders to cover all types of work other
than that covered by standing orders or repair orders, but not
exceeding a specific money value, e.g. $1000. (This amount will
vary with each plan.)
– Project orders: Machine-shop orders which apply to jobs where the
total estimated cost exceeds the work-order value ($1000).
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 3.2.4. Statistical Approach
• The next step is to obtain hours worked against individual jobs
occurring within the classifications of maintenance orders.
• A dispatch job-card system requiring clocking in and out is
essential for the accumulation of these data.
– A job number is issued for each job, the job number is then recorded on
the paperwork authorizing the job.
– The workers’ time is charged on each job card (by clock rings, verbal
reporting, etc.).
– Check to see that total job times balance total working time reported daily.
– All hours against each job must be accumulated and totaled as the job is
completed.
• At this point a decision must be reached as to the length of the
recording period required in order to establish standard man-
hours for the various classifications of work.
• A year is usually considered a representative period of time.
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 3.2.4. Statistical Approach
The final step is the development of the standard data
from the historical record.
• These data usually end up in one of four job categories:
1. Standing Orders:
The total man-hours worked during the base period are accumulated
and the average number of hours per working day is computed
against each standing order.
• This figure is then the permanent standard for this type of order.
• Additional allowances must be made on these jobs to compensate
for any increased volume of activity due to increased production
requirements.
• This will have to be on a ratio basis as established by production
during the base period.
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 3.2.4. Statistical Approach
2. Repetitive Jobs:
• Standards are calculated for these jobs based on the average man-
hours expended for the jobs during the base period.
• Duties will have to be defined so that the standard will be applied
to jobs having the same content as those studied during the base
period.
3. Non-repetitive Jobs:
4. Repair Orders:
• All hours on this type of order, as previously defined, are
accumulated during the base period.
• This figure divided by the total number of repair-order jobs gives
a standard repair-order time.

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 3.2.4. Statistical Approach
5. Work Orders:
• Orders are accumulated into groups according to the actual hours
needed for completion, those requiring 8 hrs., 8 to 24 hrs., and so
on for groups.
• In each of these classifications the total hours worked are
accumulated against the total number of jobs and the accumulated
hours are divided by the total number of jobs, giving the standard
under each category.
• The average job time in each classification becomes the standard
time in each case.
• To use these standards, an estimator must judge, in advance, the
category into which each non-repetitive job will fall.

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 3.2.4. Statistical Approach
6. Estimated Jobs:
• Any job judged as requiring more than 100 hrs. for completion
becomes an “estimated job”.
• All project orders are contained in this category.
• The allowed standards for these jobs are based on the estimate of
required man-hours.
• In a few instances standard data which have been accumulated
within the base period can be used to guide the estimator.

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 3.2.5. Replacement Models
• Disposable modules are designed to be discarded rather than
repaired after a failure.
• They are used in situations when repair is costly or impractical.
• Their advantages outweigh the disadvantages, and maintainable
modules require significant expenditure in materials, labor time,
and tools.
• The important benefits of a disposal-at-failure design include:
– simpler and more concise trouble-shooting approaches;
– smaller, simpler, and more durable modules with a more reliable
design;
– fewer types of spare parts required;
– reduction in required tools, personnel, facilities, and repair time;
– improved reliability due to the sealing and potting methods; and
– better standardization and interchangeability of modules.
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 3.2.5. Replacement Models
• Some of the drawbacks of a disposal-at-failure design
are:
– an increase in inventory required because of need to have
replacement modules on hand at all times,
– inability to redesign disposable modules,
– reduction in module performance and reliability because
of production efforts to keep them inexpensive to justify
their disposal,
– reduction in available data on maintenance and failures,
and
– increase in unnecessary replacements.

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 3.3. Failure Lists
• Few of the basic reasons of failure are as given below:
1. Fatigue Failures:
• When fluctuating loads/fatigue loads are applied, such as those in
hydraulic cylinder or in an automotive connecting rod, the fatigue
strength of the material comes in to play.
• When the fatigue strength is exceeded, a crack can develop.
• This fatigue crack can slowly work its way across a part until a
fracture occurs.
• True Brinelling: failure occurs when loads exceed the elastic
limit of the ring or bush material.
• Brinell marks are indentations at ball/ roller/ bushes frequently
caused by any static overload or severs impact.

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 3.3. Failure Lists
2. Corrosion:
• Corrosion can greatly affect / reduce the fatigue strength and
increase chances of failure.
• Corrosion results from the chemical attack on parts/ materials by
hostile fluids or atmospheres.
• Symptoms include red/ brown areas on rolling elements,
raceways, cages & other components.
• Corrosion usually results in increased vibration followed by wear,
with subsequent increase in radial clearance or loss of preload

35
 3.3. Failure Lists
3. Ductile Overload Failure & Brittle Overload Failure:
• A "ductile failure" is one where there is a great deal of distortion
of the failed part.
• Commonly, a ductile part fails when it distorts and can no longer
carry the needed load, like an overloaded steel coat hanger.
• A "brittle fracture" is one when a part is overloaded and breaks
with no visible distortion.
• This can happen because the material is very brittle, such as grey
cast iron or hardened steel, or when a load is applied extremely
rapidly (like heavy shock) to a normally ductile part.
• In a brittle overload failure, separation of the two halves (or more
pieces) isn't quite instantaneous, but proceeds at a tremendous
rate, nearly at the speed of sound in the material.
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 3.3. Failure Lists
4. Stress Concentration:
• A stress concentration is a physical or metallurgical condition
that increases the local stress in the part by some factor; such as a
small hole or a fillet in a machined component, where the
dimensions changes.
• It has a great effect on crack initiation because of its effect on
increasing the local stress.
• If a part is relatively lightly stressed, the cracking will start at
only one point.
• However, if a shaft is more heavily loaded, then cracks can start
in several places and work their way across the part.

37
 3.3. Failure Lists
5. Contamination:
• In addition to other cases, contamination is one of the leading
causes of premature bearing failure.
• Symptoms of contamination are dents or scratches embedded in
the bearing raceway and balls/ rollers, resulting in undue bearing
vibration and wear.
• Contaminants may include airborne dust, dirt or any abrasive
substance that gets in to the bearing.
• Principal sources are dirty tools, contaminated work areas, dirty
hands and foreign matter in lubricant or cleaning solutions.

38
 3.3. Failure Lists
6. Wear:
• A variety of mechanisms result in loss of material by mechanical
removal leading to failures.
7. Hydrogen Embrittlement:
• Hydrogen can be introduced in to the material in service or
during materials processing.
• Hydrogen embrittlement is an insidious type of failure as it can
occur without an externally applied load or at loads significantly
below yield stress.
• Hydrogen embrittlement failures are frequently unexpected and
sometimes catastrophic.
• Liquid metal embrittlement is the decrease in ductility of a metal
caused by contact with liquid metal. Very small amounts of liquid
metal are sufficient to result embrittlement. 39
 3.3.1. Failure Generation
Failures may be generated or induced at various stages of equipment
life-cycle, such as:
1. Design Stage
• Some failure may be induced because of design efficiencies; e.g.
some omissions or incorrect assumptions of duty condition or
factor of safety etc.
2. Manufacturing Stage
• For making a product cheaper, the manufacturer, sometimes,
takes lower safety factor and design properties and deviates from
required close tolerances.
• Occasionally, due to non-availability of some material, the
manufacturer uses inferior material so that the cost does not
increase and delivery is not delayed.
• This causes failure at operation stage. 40
 3.3.1. Failure Generation
3. Erection Stage
• Equipments are, sometimes, not erected as per laid-down
procedures and precautions, in order to reduce cost or time.
• Few of the common omissions are:
• inadequate stress relieving after major welding,
• no pre-stressing of big bolts and non-use of facilities like torque
wrenches for uniform tightening etc.
• Such omissions, though not easily noticeable during inspection
and commissioning stage, induce failure at operation stage.

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 3.3.1. Failure Generation
4. Commissioning Stage
• During commissioning stage, proper procedure is not followed
and full load test is not done, either to save time or due to non-
availability of full load at that time.
• Sometimes the equipment is accepted conditionally, even without
few inspection and monitoring appliance, which later becomes a
permanent feature.
• Such inadequate commissioning prevents surfacing of inbuilt
defects timely.

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 3.3.1. Failure Generation
5. Operation Stage
• Many faults generate at this stage due to wrong operating
practices and inadequate care and upkeep, such as:
• Overloading of machine,
• no or improper cleaning and lubrication of machine,
• bypassing limit-switches and built-in test equipments,
• not immediately reporting and correction of minor defects and
• continuing production in that condition etc.
are few examples to generate fault at this stage.

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 3.3.1. Failure Generation
6. Maintenance Stage
• Defects are also generated at maintenance & repair stage by using:
– incorrect dismantling procedure,
– use of improper tools,
– improper cleaning and lubrication,
– non-uniform tightening and improper torques on bolts and
– use of inferior consumables and parts etc.
• Because of these, faults will surface out in subsequent operation
and maintenance stage.
7. Environmental Degradation
• Many defects are generated because of change in environmental
conditions, such as more corrosive and abrasive fumes and dusts,
more moisture, more radiation and magnetic fluxes and more
heated environment etc.
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 3.3.1. Failure Generation
Basing on the above-mentioned stages, the failures can be classified
in to following categories:
– Failures based on inherent reliability characteristics (design
failure).
– Dependent failure: chain effect or secondary failure as a result
of design defect or otherwise,
– Manufacturing or burn-in failures: include failures due to
poor manufacturing, erection and commissioning etc.
– Wear-out failures: including fatigue failures etc.
– Operation induced failures,
– Maintenance induced failures,
– Equipment damage: due to accident, environment degradation
or otherwise etc.
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 3.3.2. Failure Reporting & Collection
• The faults generated at various stages in different equipments are
to be recorded, reported and collected at centralized planning
section for analysis and planning further action.
• Some ways of reporting and collection of failures followed are:
– Operators & operating personnel
– Maintenance personnel
– Centralized inspection agencies & Inspection schedules: centralized
inspectors, lubrication cell, hydraulic cell, building and structural
inspection cell, safety, house-keeping and environmental inspection cells
and other such agencies (all may have different inspection schedules).
– Report of built-in test equipments,
– Report of other on-line and off-line monitoring equipments: may be
coordinated through centralized condition monitoring cell or through
regular maintenance staff.
– Left-over jobs/ problems from previous PM or major repairs, deferred for
want of time or spares or facilities, etc.
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 3.3.2. Failure Reporting & Collection
• The failures, so received from various agencies,
are to be:
– compiled equipment-wise and area-wise and
– analyzed for taking corrective and preventive actions.
These jobs may be grouped in to the following
categories:
– Fault (Failure) Detection,
– Fault Diagnosis and Failure Analysis.

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 3.3.3. Failure/Fault/Defect Analysis
• It involves investigation of reasons for failures.
• We may use different types of visual inspection, electrical
testing, non-destructive evaluation, destructive evaluation and
other examinations.
• In industry, few of the jobs involved in failure analysis may be:
– Proper Failure mode Determination,
– Fracture analysis, including Fractography,
– Fatigue analysis,
– Overload,
– Ductile and Brittle Failure,
– Chemical attacks,
– Corrosion and contamination analysis,
– Stress corrosion cracking,
– Particle analysis/ Identification,
– Filter residue analysis, 48
 3.3.3. Failure/Fault/Defect Analysis
• Jobs involved in failure analysis may be (continued):
– Welding, Soldering & Brazing analysis,
– Vibration analysis,
– Process/ manufacturing problem analysis,
– Reverse engineering of components,
– Material selection/ Processing/ Design problems,
– Evaluation of life cycle test failures,
– Plastic & rubber investigation,
– Finite element analysis & Engineering mechanics analysis,
– Operational dynamics analysis,
– Engineering calculations,
– Atmospheric testing, etc.
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 3.3.3. Failure/Fault/Defect Analysis
• The final part of the failure analysis includes:
– defining the failure properly,
– finding out function of defective units,
– finding alternative means to achieve the function if needed,
– shutdown losses and costs etc.
• After analyzing the failures and its frequency/pattern,
different maintenance strategies can be adopted.
• Many specialized failure analysis methods/ techniques
are being practiced in industries for improving the
maintenance and, thus availability and reliability etc.

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