Harambee university

INFORMATION SHEET

Hard ware and network

Servicing
Level IV
Learning Guide
Unit of Competence: Determine
Maintenance Strategy
Module description
This module defines the competence required to determine and operation analyze maintenance strategies and
supporting processes to achieve continuity of IT operations and business functions.
LEARNING OUTCOME
At the end of the module the learners will be able to:
LO1: Identify and Analyze Maintenance Needs
LO2: Develop Service Level Agreements
LO3: Formulate Maintenance Strategy
 Determine Maintenance Strategy LO1
LO1: Identify and analyze maintenance needs
Introduction

The definition of maintenance often stated maintenance as an activity carried out for any
equipment to ensure its reliability to perform its functions. Maintenance to most people is any
activity carried out on an asset in order to ensure that the asset continues to perform its intended
functions, or to repair any equipment that has failed, or to keep the equipment running, or to
restore to its favorable operating condition. Over the years, many new strategies has been
implemented as a maintenance strategies which is intended to overcome the problems which is
related to equipment breakdown.

Maintenance is the combination of all technical and associated administrative actions intended
to retain an item in, or restore it to, a state in which it can perform its required function. Many
companies are seeking to gain competitive advantage with respect to cost, quality, service and
on-time deliveries. The effect of maintenance on these variables has prompted increased
attention to the maintenance area as an integral part of productivity improvement. Maintenance
is rapidly evolving into a major contributor to the performance and profitability of manufacturing
systems.
 The development of Maintenance
Definition maintenance
 Maintenance is defined as: “Combination of all technical, administrative and managerial actions
during the life cycle of an item intended to retain it in, or restore it to, a state in which it can
perform a required function.

 Maintenance strategy
Definition of Maintenance Strategy
 Maintenance Strategy is a long-term plan, covering all aspects of maintenance management which
sets the direction for maintenance management, and contains firm action plans for achieving a
desired future state for the maintenance function.

 Management method used in order to achieve the maintenance objectives.

 The targets assigned to or accepted by the management and maintenance. These targets may include
availability, cost reduction, product quality, environment preservation, safety.

 A strategy is the idea of how to reach the objectives which means to take different steps or
performing activities. The overall direction, a plan which describes the activities to be performed is
described by the strategy. The content in the maintenance strategy is a mix of techniques and/or
policies which depends on factors such as the maintenance goals or the equipment that will be
maintained, the work environment and the work flow patterns (product focus, process focus).

ICT Department. Page2|8

 Determine Maintenance Strategy LO1
 A strategy (direction) is always followed, either consciously or unconsciously. When a strategy is
not stated, only followed unconsciously, the result is often a reactive approach, which causes events
and others to choose the direction. If a company does not work proactive to avoid failures or the
consequences of failures, then the maintenance is operating on a run-to-failure strategy.
 A Maintenance Strategy brings all current maintenance practices and operations together
with current industry best practice in order to provide a strategic and coherent 'road map'
for engineering to follow in order to achieve the following goals:

 Improve service provision to operations i.e. reduce breakdowns and improve productivity
 Control engineering spending and ensure adherence to budgets

 Consistently provide parts for planned maintenance and breakdowns with the lowest spares
holding value

 Improve communication between engineering and other business functions

 Ensure engineering compliance to all company and statutory standards and requirements
 To ensure engineering is focused on business objectives
 Enable engineering to take a lead in business development

Implementation of a maintenance strategy

 There are many opinions on how the strategy should be implemented, but something that
characterizes most is that there is no standard for how the implementation to take place.
That every organization has its own problems and will face its own problems. The conditions of
which will vary greatly, which makes it difficult to use standards.

 The implementation of the plans is far more than a technical project. Human change is involved,
which is the hard part. It is crucial not to ignore change management on every level within the
organization.
 There are no standard solutions for implementing an organizational change since all companies
suffer from issues specific for their company. However the most essential when implementing a
change in an organization is the level of ambition.

 An implementation as all activities involved in making the strategy work as intended. It is

advocated to uses, the five Ps, which are…

 Purpose

 Point of entry
 Process
 Project management

 participation
 Purpose – in this context the purpose covers the strategic context. In which the connection
the organizations resource capabilities is linked and fit to the requirements of its market. It also
includes the perception of, understanding of, and cope with risk involved with change. These are
all to be included in the implementation plan. Important aspects here are how to manage risks.

ICT Department. Page3|8

 Determine Maintenance Strategy LO1
 Point of entry – This aspect highlights different organizational structures ability to change,
it should be noted however, that each has its strengths and weaknesses and to propose
an organizational structure is therefore difficult to do. Further, also it is important to heed the
fact that an implementation process can be politically sensitive within the organization or
company.
 Process- This step covers the methodology of implementing formulation of the strategy. That
is, the means and methods and the approach which are to be taken to formulate the strategy .
This focus area should also take into account the cost of implementation.
 Project management - implementing a strategy is a big project and need to be treated as
such. it is more of a program than a project. A project has a defined start and end point, a goal
and defined resources. A program does not; rather it is an ongoing process. It should include
documentation of stakeholders, resource and time planning, controls, communication
and reviews.

 Participation - Dedicated employees are obtained if those affected by the change also may be
part of the process to develop the implementation stage. Bringing in too many staff may however
have the effect that the change resemble today's situation too much as many may be limited by
current experience.

Maintenance Management
Maintenance management is a support organization, in a world-class organization the mission of
maintenance is to achieve and sustain optimum availability of the business productive assets
(plant, equipment, vehicles etc.). The product that maintenance delivers is uptime, i.e. availability,
See (Figure A), explaining the connection between

 Mission – what to achieve,

 Vision – where to go and the policies, goals and

 Strategies –the how to do it.

Maintenance management generally consists of the following basic concepts,

1. Setting aims and objectives

2. Providing the means of attaining those aims and objectives
3. Decision making

The maintenance function must integrate five major factors in order to achieve optimum costs for
upkeep and repair, and those factors are,
1. People 4. Practices

2. Policies 5. Performance evaluation

3. Equipment

ICT Department. Page4|8

 Determine Maintenance Strategy LO1
The role of Maintenance Organization
The role of the maintenance organization is in contrary to the popular belief; it is to maintain
the equipment of the plant i.e. to be proactive and not to repair it after failure i.e. reactive. However,
all catastrophic failures cannot be avoided and maintenance must therefore continue to react
quickly to unexpected failures. Optimum reliability is one part which determines the production
capacity of the plant. Maintenance organization primary function is to ensure that all equipment
and systems always are in good operating condition and on line, in other words to reduce
disturbances.

Production Disturbances
 Production disturbances are a concept which is differently defined dependent on from
which perspective the disturbances are regarded;

 Maintenance perspective – Disturbances seen as technical errors or interruption.

 Production perspective – Disturbances seen from the aspect of efficiency.

 Security perspective – Disturbances seen from the aspect of risks and consequences.
 Quality perspective – Variation in product quality is the focus.

Maintenance improvement
 Maintenance organizations are often so busy maintaining equipment that efforts to plan and
eliminate the need at its source are forgotten. Efforts in reliability engineering should emphasize
elimination of failures that require maintenance which is an opportunity to pre-act instead of
react. The first and most valuable digit to eliminate or reduce the need for maintenance is
maintenance improvement efforts. In order to work in a systematic and structured way with
improvements it is important to define what a production disturbance is. Naturally, it is difficult to
control and improve what is not measured and followed-up. It is required to cooperate when
working with improvements and it is then important to have a common view of the
production disturbances.

Types of Maintenance strategies

There are different types of maintenance strategies that can be used to maintain equipment and
systems. Some of the most common types of maintenance strategies include:
 Corrective maintenance
 Preventive maintenance
 Condition-based Maintenance

 Predictive maintenance
 Run-to-failure (RTF) maintenance
These strategies can be used alone or in combination with each other depending on the specific
needs of the equipment or system being maintained.

ICT Department. Page5|8

 Determine Maintenance Strategy LO1
1. Preventive maintenance (PM): This is a maintenance strategy that involves performing
regular maintenance on equipment to prevent breakdowns and other issues. PM is usually
done on a schedule or after a certain number of hours of operation.
It is the regular and routine maintenance of equipment and assets in order to keep them
running and prevent any costly unplanned downtime from unexpected equipment failure. This
approach to maintenance management is predominantly recurring or time-driven tasks
performed to maintain acceptable levels of availability and reliability .
“Maintenance carried out at predetermined intervals or according to prescribed
criteria and intended to reduce the probability of failure or the degradation of the
functioning of an item.”

E.g., include keeping your computer clean and dust-free, installing antivirus software, and
updating your operating system and other software regularly.
2. Predictive maintenance (PdM): This is a maintenance strategy that uses data analysis tools
to predict when equipment will fail. PdM can help organizations avoid unplanned downtime
and reduce maintenance costs.
This involves using data analysis tools to predict when a component is likely to fail, so that it
can be replaced before it causes problems.
3. Corrective maintenance: This is a maintenance strategy that involves fixing equipment after
it has failed. Corrective maintenance can be expensive and time-consuming, but it is
sometimes necessary when other maintenance strategies fail. “Maintenance carried out after
fault recognition and intended to put an item into a state in which it can perform a required
function.” This management type is simple and straightforward, “fix it when it breaks” i.e.
the things are fixed either after failure or during failure . This maintenance type is emergency,
repair, unscheduled and remedial tasks.
Exapmles include replacing a faulty hard drive or power supply, or reinstalling an operating
system that has become corrupted.
4. Condition-based maintenance (CBM): This is a maintenance strategy that involves
monitoring the condition of equipment to determine when maintenance is needed. CBM can
help organizations avoid unnecessary maintenance and reduce costs. CBM consisting of
performance and parameter monitoring and the subsequent actions. The performance and
parameter monitoring may be scheduled, on request or continuously.
Examples include monitoring the temperature of your CPU or GPU, or checking the SMART
status of your hard drive.
5. Run-to-failure (RTF): This is a maintenance strategy that involves running equipment until
it fails and then repairing or replacing it. RTF can be risky because it can lead to unplanned
downtime and higher repair costs.

ICT Department. Page6|8

 Determine Maintenance Strategy LO1
These are just some of the most common types of maintenance strategies used by organizations.
Each strategy has its own advantages and disadvantages, so it’s important to choose the right one
for your organization’s needs.
Summary
1. Preventive maintenance - includes regular and periodic (time-based) schedules.
2. Corrective maintenance - occurs when an issue is noticed.
3. Condition-based maintenance - occurs when a situation or condition indicates maintenance is needed.
4. Predictive maintenance - is data-driven and impacted by preset parameters.
5. Run-to-failure (RTF) maintenance - is a deliberate choice to let an asset fail before repairing it.

Figure . A presentation of 16 different aspects important to gain understanding of maintenance

management

ICT Department. Page7|8

 Determine Maintenance Strategy LO1

Self-Check – 1 Writing Test

Directions: Answer all the questions listed below.

1. Maintenance consists of the following action(s)

(A) Replace of component (C) Service of component

(B) Repair of component (D) All of the above

2. The time elapsed from the point the machine fails to perform its function to the point it
is repaired and brought into operating condition is known as

(A) Down time (C) Both (A) and (B)

(B) Break Down time (D) Idle time
3. The down time cost consists of

(A) Loss of production (C) Reduction in sales

(B) Wages paid to the workers (D) All of the above
4. The following is not a classification of maintenance

(A) Corrective maintenance (C) Scheduled maintenance

(B) Timely maintenance (D) Preventive maintenance
7. The goes on increasing with the increase in degree of maintenance efforts
(A) Cost of down time (C) Labor and Overhead Cost
(B) Cost of spares and maintenance (D) All of the above
8. With the increase in preventive maintenance cost, breakdown maintenance cost

(A) Increases (C) Remain same

(B) Decreases (D) Any of the above
10. Down time in hours / Available hours
(A) Maintenance effectiveness (C) Effectiveness of maintenance planning
(B) Frequency of breakdown (D) None of the above
1. What are the types of computer maintenance? And compare and contrast briefly.
2. What are maintenance strategies?
3. How do you develop a maintenance strategy?
4. What is the Responsibility of Maintenance Management Includes?
5. What is Maintenance Scheduling?
6. Explain the importance of computer maintenance?
7. What is the difference between Corrective maintenance and Preventive maintenance?
8. Explain the purpose of Maintenance strategy?
9. Why do we need maintenance strategy?
10. What is the role of Maintenance in Maintaining?

ICT Department. Page8|8