Maintenance management
Maintenance Management is an orderly and systematic approach to planning, organizing, monitoring and evaluating maintenance activities and their costs. A good maintenance management system coupled with knowledgeable and capable maintenance staff can prevent health and safety problems and environmental damage; yield longer asset life with fewer breakdowns; and result in lower operating costs and a higher quality of life.
It describes a system framework from the initial step of inventory gathering to preparing a community maintenance budget for asset maintenance planning and monitoring. Depending on the application and design, Maintenance Management Systems may have various formats and procedures, (e.g., various formats of work orders, reports and computer screens, etc.),
The Objectives of Maintenance Management
Computer based maintenance management can increase plant availability and reduce overall maintenance costs. John Hook ham describes some of the essential elements that are needed in such systems for maximum effectiveness.
Maintenance management can be considered as the direction and organisation of resources to control the availability of equipment. The tasks associated with maintenance can be divided into three main areas;
- Work Management - Work management is concerned with the logistics of organizing maintenance and has the following objectives:
- To identify, control and co-ordinate the resources (labour, spare parts, materials and tools) that are required to completer the maintenance tasks;
- To ensure that job priorities are correctly allocated;
- To locate plant failures or potential failures and provide an appropriate response.
- Plant Condition Control - Close monitoring and control of the overall plant condition is necessary to achieve a high level of plant availability. Its long-term objectives are:
- To highlight maintenance engineering problems by monitoring plant performance, diagnosing causes and providing effective solutions;
- To adapt maintenance policy as production requirements, change. This should not be restricted to changes in preventive maintenance but should encompass re-design and the application of condition monitoring techniques where appropriate.
- Cost Control - The third activity, cost control, is normally operated as part of a company’s budgetary and expenditure control system, primarily for job costing. To achieve the improvements in maintenance effectiveness and efficiency, the maintenance manager must make use of all of the available management tools.
Types of Maintenance
The word “Operation” is usually linked with “Maintenance”. To put these terms in context, Operation is the performance of work or services and the provision of materials and energy to ensure the day-to-day proper functioning of an asset, e.g., the work activities, associated chemicals and electricity to run a water treatment plant. As such, it has a direct but simple impact on the cost of operating an asset. Maintenance is the work performed on an asset such as a road, building, utility or piece of equipment to preserve it in as near to its original condition as is practical and to realize its normal life expectancy.
In general, maintenance can be classified into the following categories:
- Routine - ongoing maintenance activities such as cleaning washrooms, grading roads and mowing lawns, which are required because of continuing use of the facilities;
- Preventive - periodic adjustment, lubrication and inspection of mechanical or other equipment to ensure continuing working condition; Major projects such as floor replacement, re-roofing, or complete re-painting which are performed once every few years; and
- Emergency - unexpected breakdowns of assets or equipment. These are unpredictable or reactive type of maintenance and are more difficult to schedule than the above three categories.
Preparing a Maintenance Plan
Depending on the application and design of a maintenance system, the format and steps of preparing a maintenance plan can vary. The key steps in preparing a typical maintenance plan are:
- Prepare an asset inventory - identifying the physical features (e.g., area, material, etc.) of all assets (e.g., schools, roads, etc.) which require maintenance;
- Identify maintenance activity and tasks - defining the type of maintenance task (activity) to be performed on each asset and what work should be done under each activity, e.g.
- Activity: cleaning.
- Work to be performed: clean chalk boards, vacuum carpets, etc.;
- or,
- Activity: Preventive Maintenance (Shingle roof).
- Work to be performed: Inspect attic space for signs of dampness caused by leaks in roof. Inspect roof for loose, torn, folded or missing shingles. Repair or replace shingles as required. Inspect flashings eaves troughs and down spouts, and caulk or replace as required. Visually check soffit and facia for loose or damaged materials;
- Identify the frequency of the task - determining how often the activities should be performed (frequency of service); this is important particularly in preventive type of maintenance. Emergency or reactive types of repairs are unpredictable, but with good preventive maintenance, the frequency of emergency situations occurring may be reduced;
- Estimate the time required to complete the task - indicating how long each task should take to complete;
- Develop an annual work schedule - planning what time the maintenance work for the entire year should take place;
- Prepare and issue a work order - identifying what, when, where and by whom maintenance work is to be done; and
- Determine a Budget - determining the costs for all maintenance activities by calculating labour hours, material, equipment, and contracting costs.
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