Organization of Maintenance

Force
 Organization
PURPOSE
ORGANIZING IS THE PROCESS OF ARRANGING RESOURCES (PEOPLE,
MATERIALS, TECHNOLOGY ETC.) TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE THE
ORGANIZATION’S STRATEGIES AND GOALS
A FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF AN ORGANIZATION IS THAT THE PIECES AND
FUNCTIONS MUST FIT TOGETHER AND THERE SHOULD BE EFFECTIVE
COORDINATION BETWEEN FUNCTIONS FOR SUCCESSFULLY ACHIEVING THE
TARGETED GOALS.
Organization of Maintenance
Force
It is an integrated set of processes that an organization uses to optimize the
productivity of its employees on the individual, departmental, and entity-wide
levels.

It is a continual process used to align the needs and priorities of the organization
with those of its workforce to ensure it can meet its legislative, regulatory, service
and production requirements, and organizational objectives.
Organization of Maintenance
Force
Provide effective path towards common goal
Helps to complete work on time
Distributes the duties properly
Maximize the efficiency of teams
Accurate distribution of time and materials to specific jobs
Need of Organization of
Maintenance Force
All industries requires some level of organization in maintenance force to encounter
and resolve problems in different processes and equipments.
Organizing maintenance force ensures the right path to resolve the problems.
There is no definite organizational structures in use. Different industries use
different techniques to develop and organize their maintenance force.
A fundamental principle of organization is to effectively coordinate between
functions at different levels.
Maintenance Force
Material and Spare Parts Management
Management and Labor Relations
Quality of Leadership and Supervision
Education and Training
Incentives
Maintenance Organization Objectives and Responsibility

A maintenance organization and its position in the plant/whole organization is

heavily impacted by the following elements or factors:

• Type of business, e.g., whether it is high tech, labor intensive, production or

service;
• Objectives: may include profit maximization, increasing market share and other
social objectives
• Size and structure of the organization
• Culture of the organization
• Range of responsibility assigned to maintenance.
 Planning:
Setting performance
objectives & developing
decisions on how to achieve
them

Controlling:
Measuring performance of
the maintained equipment
and taking preventive and
corrective actions
Organizing:
Creating structure, setting
Leader’s tasks; dividing work,
Influence arranging resources &
coordinating activities to
perform maintenance tasks

Implementing:
Executing the plans to
meet the set performance
objectives
Maintenance work types Operation business plan:
• Maintenance organization must be • Maintenance structure that meets the
organized to provide different type of demands of operation functions (plant) and
maintenance tasks like, emergency, can support that mode of operation.
preventive maintenance, periodic
maintenance and others.
structure
Factors effecting Maintenance organizational
Key consideration for Organizational structure

 Setting organizational principles and rules

 Maintenance management is structured in parallel to operations management.
 Is not subordinate to operations.
 Supportive service Vs. subordinate service
 Defined roles and responsibilities.
Good organization

A few basic concepts of good organization that should be kept in mind in developing an
organization are:
 A reasonably clear division of authority with little or no overlap.
 Vertical lines of authority and responsibility should be kept as short as possible. In other
words, a level which simply transmits information up and instructions down should be
eliminated.
 Keep optimum number of persons (3 to 6 is the average value) reporting to an individual.
 Fit the organization to the personalities involved. This means that the organization
structure should be flexible and it may be revised periodically to fit changing personnel
and conditions.
 Organization structure depends on

The basic organization structure of maintenance department depends upon:

 (a) Types of maintenance activities to be looked after:
 The wider the maintenance field to be covered, the bigger is the organization.
 (b) Continuity of operations:
 The size of the maintenance force and therefore the structure of maintenance
organization depend upon:
 i. Whether it is a four, five or six working days week, and
 ii. Whether the plant runs in one, two or three shifts.
 (c) Size of the plant:
 The organization structure of the maintenance department varies with the size of plant. The
larger the plant the more the number of persons in the maintenance force.
 (d) Compact or dispersed plant:
 A plant spread in a wider area needs decentralization and may require several parallel
maintenance organizations. A compact plant may need only one such Organization.
 (e) Nature of industry, i.e., whether it is primarily an electrical, electronics, chemical or
a mechanical industry.
 (f) State of training and reliability of work force.
Factors to be considered

 The plant is to be maintained at a level consistent with low cost and high productivity;
 Supervisors should be appointed according to the duties and responsibilities involved; and
 Modern age indicates greater need of newer engineering techniques and skills.
 Determinants of a Maintenance Organization

Maintenance Capacity Planning

Centralization vs Decentralization

In-house vs Outsourcing
Maintenance Capacity Planning

It determines the required resources for maintenance including the

required crafts, administration, equipment, tools and space to execute
maintenance load efficiently and meet the objectives of the
maintenance department.

Critical aspects of maintenance capacity are the numbers and skills of

craftsmen required to execute the maintenance load.
Basic Organizational Structure

 Centralized Organizational Structure

 Decentralized Organizational Structure

 Matrix (Hybrid) Organizational Structure

 Decentralized Maintenance structure

In a decentralized maintenance organization, departments are assigned to specific

areas or units. This tends to reduce the flexibility of the maintenance system as a
whole.

In some cases a compromise solution that combines centralization and

decentralization is better.
This type of hybrid is called a cascade system.
Decentralization is a type of organizational structure in which daily operations and
decision-making responsibilities are delegated by top management to middle and
lower-level mangers within the organization, allowing top management to focus
more on major decisions.

For a small business, growth may create the need to decentralize to continue
efficient operations.

Decentralization offers several advantages, though relinquishing control may be

difficult for a business owner accustomed to making all the decisions.
Centralized Organization Structure

A management structure where decision making is done at higher

consolidated levels by those with a broader perspective that includes
having amassed considerable knowledge and information about what
needs to be done.

In a centralized organization, decisions made by higher management

are typically communicated to lower organizational tiers who are then
expected to accept and move forward in a way consistent with those
decisions
• Centralization vs Decentralization
All crafts and related maintenance functions
report to a central maintenance manager as depicted in Figure

The strengths of this structure are:

1-It allows economies of scale;

2-It enables in-depth information of Maintenance activities in each area
3-skill development;
4-enables departments (i.e., a maintenance
department) to accomplish their functional goals (not the overall
organizational goals).
5-This structure is best suited for small to medium size
organizations.
Matrix structure
In this structure, crafts are allocated in some proportion to production units or area
maintenance and to a central maintenance function that support the whole plant or
organization.
Matrix(Hybrid) Structure

 Decentralized decision making

 Better project coordination
 Improved environment monitoring and resultant response to change
 Flexible utilization of manpower and other resources (including support services) are
some of the advantages of matrix structure.
 On the other hand, this structure requires high administrative costs, creates confusion over
authority and responsibility, enhances interpersonal conflicts and overemphasizes group
decision making.
Material and Spare Parts Management

The responsibility of this unit is to ensure the availability of material and spare parts
in the right quality and quantity at the right time at the minimum cost.

In large or medium size organizations this unit may be independent of the

maintenance organization; however in many circumstances it is part of maintenance.
It is a service that supports the maintenance programs.

Its effectiveness depends to a large extent on the standards maintained within the
stores system.
The duties of a material and spare parts unit include:
1. Develop in coordination with maintenance effective stocking polices to minimize
ordering, holding and shortages costs;
2. Coordinate effectively with suppliers to maximize organization benefits;
3. Keep goods inward, receiving, and safe keeping of all supplies;
4. Issue materials and supplies;
5. Maintain and update records; and
6. Keep the stores orderly and clean.
Establishment of Authority and Reporting

Overall administrative control usually rests with the maintenance department, with
its head reporting to top management. This responsibility may be delegated within
the maintenance establishment.

The relationships and responsibility of each maintenance division/section must be

clearly specified together with the reporting channels.

Each job title must have a job description prescribing the qualifications and the
experience needed for the job, in addition to the reporting channels for the job.
Management and Labor Relations

The success of an undertaking depends significantly on the care taken to form a

community of well-informed, keen, and lively people working harmoniously
together.

Participation creates satisfaction and the necessary team spirit. In modern industry,
quality of work life (QWL) programs have been applied with considerable success,
in the form of management conferences, work councils, quality circles, and joint
conferences identified with the activities. The joint activities help the organization
more fully achieve its purposes.
Education and Training

Nowadays it is also recognized that the employers should not only select and place
personnel, but should promote schemes and provide facilities for their further
education and training, so as to increase individual proficiency, and provide recruits
for the supervisory and senior grades.

For senior staff, refresher courses comprise lectures on specific aspects of their
work; they also encourage the interchange of ideas and discussion.
The organization must have a well defined training program for each employee.

The following provides guidelines for developing and assessing the effectiveness of
the training program:

• Evaluate current personnel performance;

• Assess training need analysis;

• Design the training program;

• Implement the program; and

• Evaluate the program effectiveness.

Incentives

The varied nature of the maintenance tasks, and differing needs and conditions
arising, together with the influence of production activity, are not attuned to the
adoption of incentive systems of payment.

In some case, maintenance incentives can be included in

output bonus schemes, by arranging that continuity of production, and attainment of
targets, provides rewards to both production and maintenance personnel.
CONCLUSIONS
Organizing as one of the four functions of management. It
is the process of arranging resources (people, materials, technology, etc.) together to
achieve the organization’s strategies and goals.

Maintenance organization structuring is the way various part of the maintenance

organization is formed including defining responsibilities and roles of units and
individuals.

A set of criteria are provided to assess and design organization structures and the
main issues to be addressed are outlined. The issues include centralization,
decentralization and outsourcing.

The chapter describes 3 types of organization structures. In addition, several

functions that could support maintenance organization such as material and spare
management, training and the management of labor relations are presented.