Practical implications

Third party assessment:

the role of the
maintenance function in
an integrated
management system

This paper presents many practical implications

for maintenance practitioners and for auditors of
manufacturing systems alike in that it provides a
clearly defined framework (Table I) that
assessments of documents could be made. In
addition to that, the framework is useful to
maintenance practitioners wishing to understand
how their discipline contributes to the standards of
ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001.
Furthermore, if practitioners are to take into due
consideration the principles of the maintenance
activities trilogy, and introduce fully maintenance
planning, maintenance control and maintenance
improvement, a holistic maintenance system will
be derived that continually improves in value for
the organisation that it belongs to. In support of
such a holistic maintenance system are the
principles of auditing outlined within this paper.

Christopher J. Bamber
John M. Sharp and
Pavel Castka
The authors
Christopher J. Bamber is based at OLC (Europe) Ltd, Preston,
Lancashire, UK.
John M. Sharp and Pavel Castka are both based at the Centre
for Organisational Research (COrE), The University of Salford,
Salford, UK.

Keywords

Introduction

Management techniques, Maintenance,

Manufacturing industries

According to the authors of this paper, certain

significant effects on business are considered as the
quality, environmental and occupational health
and safety assurance demands placed on
operations by a series of growing concerns from
differing stakeholders of the business. For
instance, it is widely recognised that companies
manufacturing or processing products for sale in
the developed world are competing in a global
marketplace where customers are demanding the
highest standards of quality. Customers now, also
expect a commitment to environmental good
practice and supplies from operations that do not
expose their employees to unsafe or illegal
practices (Hodkinson, 2003). Furthermore,
pressures from other business stakeholders (such
as shareholders, owners, business partners,
government agencies and various pressure groups)
are influencing companies to demonstrate
management best practice; insisting on
compliance to legislation and regulations, while at
the same time reducing costs and reducing the
negative impacts on the environment (Bamber
et al., 1999; GRI, 2002; DTI, 2002; European
Commission, 2001). The way most companies
demonstrate to their stakeholders that they fulfil
these demands is through third party
(independent) certification of their management

Abstract
This paper discusses the significant role of the maintenance
function in an integrated management system and discusses
how the efforts of maintenance management can contribute a
value added perspective to the third party assessment process.
Due to global competitiveness, businesses are now trading
internationally and are expected to have management systems
certified through a third party to international standards
enhancing customer-supplier relationships and stakeholder
perceptions. This paper discusses several international standards
such as ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Systems standard,
ISO 14001:1996 Environmental Management Systems standard
and the internationally developed British Standards Institute
OHSAS 18001 Health and Safety Management specification and
how they might affect maintenance organisations in the future.

Electronic access
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is
available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available
at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1355-2511.htm

The authors would like to thank Bolton Business

Environmental Network (BBEN; www.b-ben.co.uk)
and The North West of England branch of The
Engineers Employers Federation (EEF;
www.eef.org.uk) for their contribution to this paper.

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

Volume 10 Number 1 2004 pp. 26-36
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited ISSN 1355-2511
DOI 10.1108/13552510410526848

26

27
C, I
P, C, I
C, I
P, C, I
P, C
P, C
P, C
P
C

Stores/spares requisitions

Regulatory/compliance tests and inspections

Energy usage/cost records

Plant justifications

Service contracts and requirements

Purchase orders/requisitions

Service/sub-contractor assessments

Emergency/accident/incident procedures

Control of substances hazardous to health (COSHH)

B
B

.
.

Volume 10 Number 1 2004 26-36

.
.

.
.

ISO 14001:1996
(Environmental management)

.
.

ISO 9001:2000 series

(Quality management)

OHSAS 18001:1999
(draft Health & Safety specification)

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

Christopher J. Bamber, John M. Sharp and Pavel Castka

Notes: Maintenance activity: P = Planning, C = Control, I = Improvement; Correlation: . = Strong, B = Medium, W = Weak

P, C

Asset/tool/spares register(s)

P, C, I

C, I

Machine capability assessment

Internal memorandum(s)

Maintenance requisition sheets

Maintenance operating procedures/job cards

C, I

Plant/machine/tool history

Plant/machine specifications

Training plans for maintenance

P, C, I

Safety audits/risk assessments

C

P, C, I

Training records for maintenance

P, C, I

P, I

Maintenance crews capability/skills assessments

5S audit reports (housekeeping audit)

P, C

Maintenance dept. responsibilities

Maintenance performance audit

P
P, C

Maintenance organisational structure

Improvement/project plans

Planned maintenance schedule(s)

Maintenance management activity

Maintenance policy and objectives

Maintenance engineering documentation

Table I Maintenance engineering documents: a correlation to assessment standards and maintenance activity

The role of maintenance function in an integrated management system

The role of maintenance function in an integrated management system

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

Christopher J. Bamber, John M. Sharp and Pavel Castka

Volume 10 Number 1 2004 26-36

systems. In fact, in the UK the larger customers

such as Rover, Vauxhall and BAe Systems have
long since demanded of their supply base, third
party certification to the ISO 9001 quality
management systems, and more recently have
started requesting suppliers hold certification to
ISO 14001 environmental management systems
standard.

assessed to that system. Likewise, the UK Institute

of Environmental Management indicate that the
number of firms seeking United Kingdom
Accreditation Service (UKAS) accreditation to
ISO 14001 is increasing, pointing to a rapid
increase in the demand for certification, IEM
(1996). Both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 are part of
a world trend and the spread of these standards is
staggering with global certification spanning 76
countries (Rotherby, 1995).
Many organisations are approved or seeking
third party approval to the ISO 9001 and the ISO
14001, but there is little documented on the
number of third party approvals for an
Occupational Health and Safety Management
Systems (OH&SMS). The British Standards
Institute (BSI) provides a guide to OH&SMS that
is BS 8800:1996. However, on this issue it has
been suggested that the decision of the ISO is not
to pursue the introduction of an international
OH&SMS standard (Zuckerman, 1997).
Nevertheless, the option for certification to an
OH&SMS is available and offered by certain
UKAS members, NQA (1997). The UK guide to
OH&SMS, BS 8800:1996 details two approaches
to occupational health and safety management.
First, for organisations wishing to base their
approach in accordance with the Health and Safety
Executive guidance (HSE, 1993) encompassed by
HS(G)65. Second, for organisations wishing to
base their OH&SMS on ISO 14001 the
environmental standard and as such defines the
common features in both systems.
More recently, international collaborators have
developed a specification, which gives
requirements for an occupational health and safety
(OH&S) management system, to enable an
organisation to control its OH&S risks and
improve its performance. The BSI produces the
Occupational Health and Safety Assessment
Specification OHSAS 18001. According to the
BSI, the specification OHSAS 18001:1999 has
been developed in response to the urgent customer
demand for a recognisable occupational health and
safety management system standard against which
their management systems can be assessed and
certified. Accordingly, the BSI states:

Third party certification of management

systems
A commonly held view is that assessment of an
organisations operations can demonstrate
conformance to a particular standard, identify
opportunities for improvement or corrective action
and show commitment to an accepted professional
code or best practice approach to management.
Likewise, third party certification (assessment of
the organisations compliance to a known standard
by an independent verification body) of a
companys management system is seen by business
stakeholders as an indication of the organisations
ability to comply to the requirements laid down in
the assessment standard used (i.e. certification to
ISO 9001:2000 Quality Management Systems
Standard shows a commitment to quality and that
a certain level of quality management maturity is
achieved). On the other hand, customers often
carry out second party assessment in order to
establish whether or not their supplier is able to
provide the product or service they offer, an
example of this could be a Nissan car
manufacturing plants quality assurance team
assessing whether their supplier of exhaust
assemblies are capable of meeting the quality plans
provided. Finally, first party assessment is when an
organisation examines their own processes or
systems to see if they are capable of providing a
particular service or product, a well-known selfassessment regime is the European Foundation for
Quality Management, Business Excellence Model
(Bamber et al., 2000b; Porter and Tanner, 1996;
Zairi, 1994, Hakes, 1994). Table II provides
examples to show the relationship of the three
types of assessment discussed above.
In the UK for example, British Standards
Institute (BSI) or the International Standards
Organisation (ISO) provides guidance on the
implementation and development of certain
management system models, namely for
environmental management and quality
management that provide a framework for
certification and assessment by a third party. For
instance, many organisations have their quality
management system approved to the ISO 9001
quality management systems standard and

OHSAS 18001 has been developed to be

comparable with the ISO 9001:1994 (Quality) and
ISO 14001:1996 (Environmental) management
systems standards, in order to facilitate the
integration of quality, environmental and
occupational health and safety management
systems by organisations, should they wish to do so.

For those interested in further reading on this

matter, correspondence between OHSAS
18001:1999, ISO 14001:1996 and ISO 9001:1994
is shown in the occupational health and safety
assessment standard and is discussed in further

28

The role of maintenance function in an integrated management system

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

Christopher J. Bamber, John M. Sharp and Pavel Castka

Volume 10 Number 1 2004 26-36

Table II Levels of assessment for organisations

Third party

Assessment level
Second party

First party

Description of
level

Totally independent body assesses

another organisation

A dependent body assesses a related

organisation

The organisation or body

assesses themselves

Application or
example

Accreditation or assessment
organisation such as BSI assesses an
organisation to a product or process
specification

A customer assesses their supplier

system

The use of the EFQM selfassessment Business

Excellence Model

Maintenance
related
application
or example

A government body inspecting the

compliance of a chrome plating plant
to local and national regulations and
legal requirements for emissions to
atmosphere
Independent condition based
monitoring (CBM) specialist with
infra-red camera

Pre-commissioning checks by the

purchasing organisation prior to
delivery of a machine from a supplier
manufacturer

Safety inspection of a rail

track (for the railway) by
the track owning
organisation

The supplier of an aero-engine

periodically checking condition of their
customers engine

Maintenance fitter carries

out condition monitoring
on their own plant and
machinery

detail by Bamber et al. (1999). ISO 9001:1994 has

now been made obsolete and is superseded by the
recently introduced version of ISO 9001:2000
quality management systems standard.

maintenance function than the actual inadequacy

of the concept or technique. The interest in total
productive maintenance which has been shown as
a historical progression from terotechnology
principles and received influence from the quality
movement highlighted by Bamber (1998), has
done much to promote the importance of
maintenance in manufacturing organisations and
likewise the concepts of both lean manufacture
and agile manufacture include the role of
maintenance as being a key to maintaining
competitive advantage (Bamber, 2002).
Within the literature and practice associated
with total productive maintenance there appear to
be several different assessment frameworks that are
used as self-assessment or third party assessment
criteria of a maintenance system. This is
particularly prevalent within manufacturing and in
the simplest of formats a 5S (housekeeping and
organisation system) audit methodology could be
used as advocated by Ho (1999) or a more
sophisticated audit framework such as discussed
by Suzuki (1992) is that used by the Japanese
Institute of Plant Maintenance (JIPM) which is
aimed at encouraging the performance of high
grade maintenance as a means to increasing
manufacturing performance. Unfortunately, these
assessments do not appear to have a widespread
impact or usage in organisations, although there is
growing evidence from the UK motor industry
that major motor manufacturers are demanding
TPM assessments to be carried out and indeed
second party assessments (customers assessing
their suppliers) using similar criteria to the JIPM
framework are taking place. Nevertheless, Sharp
and Kutuocuoglu (1997) have noticed,
particularly over the last 15 years, that
manufacturing industries have used many differing

Assessments of maintenance practice

The traditional maintenance role has been
considered by Sharp and Kutuocuoglu (1997) as a
support function, non-productive and not a core
activity, adding little value to the business, while
other efforts according to Bamber (1998), to
improve the performance of maintenance
functions such as advocated by the Terotechnology
(see Blau et al. (1997) or BSI (1984) for more
information on this approach) concept have failed.
Although it was never widely considered, BSI
(1984) the Terotechnology standard BS 3811:
1984 could have been used as an assessment or
even a developmental model for maintenance
practice across the supply chain and over a product
life cycle, the BSI definition of Terotechnology
being:
A combination of management, financial,
engineering, and other practices applied to physical
assets in pursuit of economic life-cycle costs
(LCC). Its practice is concerned with the
specification and design for reliability and
maintainability of plant and machinery,
equipment, buildings, and structures, with their
installation, commissioning, maintenance,
modifications, and replacement and with feedback
of information on design, performance and costs.

Furthermore, the failure of these approaches to

maintenance management, according to the
authors of this paper, is more to do with the lack of
senior management commitment to the

29

The role of maintenance function in an integrated management system

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

Christopher J. Bamber, John M. Sharp and Pavel Castka

Volume 10 Number 1 2004 26-36

approaches to improving maintenance

effectiveness. Accordingly, the Department of
Trade and Industry in the UK recognise that
maintenance of assets and machines is an essential
part of the operations function and an effective
maintenance strategy can significantly contribute
through adding value to manufacturing, DTI
(1988). This recognition that maintenance
activities could add value to a business is reflected
in the ISO 9001:2000 standard and the ISO
14001:1996 which both consider that key
processes should be maintained to assure
performance, accordingly maintenance
management systems are now taking on a new role
of enabling and supporting certified management
systems. The maintenance management directions
discussed within this section are continually
shaping the role of the maintenance organisation
into a value-adding element able to contribute
strategically to business performance and
improvement.

the approach taken in this paper even though the

bolting together of several management systems
will lead to some commonality, and hence
reduction in waste. It is considered that true
value will be added by developing a management
system, which can sustain and develop business
needs and as an outcome satisfy accreditation
audits. There is evidence according to Wilkinson
and Dale (1998) that whilst certification bodies
have not been active in promoting integration
they are now showing interest, hence no
precedent exists for an audit methodology of a
fully integrated management system.
Nevertheless, one of the authors (Bamber) of this
paper has both considerable managerial systems
audit experience and health and safety risk
assessment practice, while at the same time the
authors advocate the value adding role of the
maintenance department within an integrated
system.
It has been suggested by Bamber et al. (2000a);
Ho and Fung (1994, 1995); Porter and Tanner
(1996); Zairi (1994) and Willmott (1997) that
total productive maintenance (TPM) and hence
world-class maintenance practice, provides the
hub of an integrated manufacturing management
system and can support the operational elements
of management certification systems. This
approach to integrated management within a
manufacturing environment places the
maintenance function at the heart of the system of
manufacture. This is not a surprising approach to
management systems integration, as the goals of
TPM and the improvement focus of a TPM
programme, coupled with the practical
application of manufacturing management
techniques, cements ISO 14001 Environmental
Management, ISO 9001 Quality Management
and OHSAS 18001 Occupational Health and
Safety Management requirements together. A
representation of an integrated certifiable
manufacturing system incorporating TPM and
5S (housekeeping and organisation philosophy) is
shown in Figure 1, which shows the sub-system
relationships and the improvement focus and
goals of the system. In terms of system thinking, a
system is defined first, by the goals and objectives
of that system, thus in the example expressed by
Figure 1 the goals of zero defects; zero accidents,
zero dirt and zero breakdowns along with the
objectives of continual improvement of
productivity, quality, cost, delivery, safety and
morale define the ideal integrated manufacturing
system. This approach to maintenance
management puts a greater emphasis on the role
of maintenance in the modern manufacturing
organisation, which communicates a higher value

Systems integration incorporating the

maintenance function
A system has been described as a set of
interrelated and interconnected set of processes
aimed at providing a common goal or objective,
(Von Bertalanffy, 1968; Bamber, 2002).
Common to all management systems is a set of
core management principles, which are focused
to deliver a common goal (or the shared vision as
described by Senge, 1997). This shared vision is
then used to develop the policy and strategy
where some areas of commonality exist between
the various management systems. At the
operating level, each management sub-system
has unique processes, which are undertaken to
add value to the business and support business
objectives. Key processes, within manufacturing,
often include machinery and plant producing
product for sale to their customers, which needs
maintenance. Successful business integration at
all levels and across all disciplines has been
recognised as an important factor for
competitiveness of a manufacturing business
(Bitici, 1998). This business integration
approach however, to add-value, is not limited to
a manufacturing scenario and evidence exists for
the application to railway engineering
management, (Chan et al., 1998), and service
organisations, (Karapetrovic and Willborn,
1998b). The perception of integrated
management systems, at the most basic of
understandings, is one where two or more
systems are brought together and linked
(Karapetrovic and Willborn, 1998b). This is not

30

The role of maintenance function in an integrated management system

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

Christopher J. Bamber, John M. Sharp and Pavel Castka

Volume 10 Number 1 2004 26-36

Figure 1 A representation of an integrated certifiable manufacturing system incorporating TPM and 5S

adding status to the maintenance activities, and

hence the maintenance engineering role.

process. Furthermore, Table III has been

discussed by operations professionals during
postgraduate and professional courses and has
been held up to a certain degree of scrutiny.
Likewise, identified within Table III are some of
the expectations that may be placed on
maintenance engineers operating in an
environment typifying that of a manufacturing
organisation subscribing to an integrated certified
management systems approach. Figure 1 and
Table III show that the modern maintenance
engineer is expected to contribute fully to the
continuous improvement of operations, working
cross-functionally and across disciplines on
environmental, quality or health and safety
projects.
Furthermore, because there is a requirement
to involve, communicate and develop the
improvement initiatives of the manufacturing
facilities it is envisaged that the modern
maintenance engineer can play a crucial and
valuable training and facilitation role toward
developing all production associates. This view
that maintenance staff can play a critical role in
training and development of production
associates along with contributing to continuous
operational improvements is seen in the

Certified management systems affecting

the modern maintenance organisation
It was discussed earlier in this paper that the many
global forces affecting business are driving change
throughout organisations and for the modern
maintenance organisation this has a profound
affect on their role. For instance, the relatively new
management systems standards ISO 14001
(Environmental) and OHSAS 18001 (Health and
Safety), coupled with the standard ISO 9001
(Quality) could signify for the modern
maintenance organisation an emphasis toward the
issues outlined in Table III. Table III has been
developed during case study research involving
UK aerospace organisations and the assessment of
agile capability within UK aerospace
manufacturing organisations. These aerospace
organisations involved with the research are
familiar with the stringent requirements of the
aerospace manufacturing sector and as such play a
vital role in helping understand the role of
maintenance departments in a certification

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The role of maintenance function in an integrated management system

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

Christopher J. Bamber, John M. Sharp and Pavel Castka

Volume 10 Number 1 2004 26-36

Table III Key roles of the modern maintenance organisation: a certified management systems perspective
Issues of management certification systems
affecting the role of the modern maintenance
organisation
To ensure compliance to exacting specifications
The creation and adherence to operating, start up
and close down procedures for plant
Process evaluation, monitoring, capability
assessment and improvements
Defining and communicating operational
requirements and definitions
Performance measurement and evaluation including
audit and assessment

OHSAS 18001:1999 (draft

Health & Safety
specification)

ISO 9001:2000 series

(Quality management)

ISO 14001:1996
(Environmental
management)

Facilitating the health and safety of the workers

Facilitating health and safety of the community

Contributing to the protection of the environment

Identification and elimination of wastes

A commitment to prevention of pollution

Compliance to legislation and regulations

W
W

W
.

Notes: . = Defined requirement; W = Implied requirement

Source: Adapted from Bamber et al. (2002)

Figure 2 Maintenance activities towards satisfying management

systems certification

philosophy of total productive maintenance,

(Sharp and Kutuocuoglu, 1997). Additionally,
once quality, environmental or health and safety
improvements have been made, it is important
that adequate controls are in place to ensure that
the benefits of the improvements are maintained.
For the maintenance organisation such controls
may be integrated into a planned maintenance
system that involves routine monitoring,
calibration, repairing and replacement of plant
and components to ensure continued capability
and compliance to exacting standards as
indicated in Table II. This method of
maintenance engineering management is
analogous to the Juran (1988), Quality
management trilogy of planning, control and
improvement and is represented in Figure 2 as a
maintenance management system that adds value
to the operations of a manufacturing
organisation.

management system, is an integrated and holistic

maintenance system that would add value to the
manufacturing system and therefore add value to
the organisation. However, to ensure that these
maintenance activities and events are auditable as
required by a third party assessment authority it is
essential that an appropriate documentation and
recording system be in place. Furthermore, the
maintenance documentation and recording system
should aim to satisfy the requirements of the
quality, environmental or health and safety
assessment requirements.
Maintenance documentation, data and
records may be in the form of a computerised
maintenance management system (CMMS) or
take the form of lists, logs, tables or charts.
Nevertheless, whatever the format of

Third party assessment incorporating the

maintenance organisation
A maintenance system that subscribes to a
philosophy that encompasses thorough planning,
control and improvement activities, it is argued by
the authors of this paper, would be well on the way
to satisfying the maintenance requirements of
management systems certification. Consequently,
a maintenance system as depicted by both
Figures 1 and 2, operating within a certified

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The role of maintenance function in an integrated management system

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

Christopher J. Bamber, John M. Sharp and Pavel Castka

Volume 10 Number 1 2004 26-36

documentation it is essential that these are

auditable and consequently fulfil the
requirements of the appropriate clauses or
sections of the assessment standards.
Furthermore, from an auditors (auditor
interested in assessment of an integrated system)
perspective the maintenance organisation
documents, data and records must clearly
illustrate a commitment and support toward the
quality, environmental or health and safety
policies, objectives, targets or standard operating
procedures of the organisation.

relationship identified. Alongside that review the

relationship was informed from (Bamber)
managerial operational experience in
manufacturing spanning over 15 years
responsibility for those disciplines and
implementation of systems.
The content of Table I further supports the
important role maintenance could play when
demonstrating commitment to internationally
recognised standards. For example, at the top part
of the Table is shown maintenance policy and
objectives, which is indicated as having a strong
correlation with the three listed standards of
quality, environmental, and occupational health
and safety, while it is indicated as being
predominantly a planning maintenance function.
The importance of the maintenance policy and
associated objectives in an integrated system, as
shown in Table I, is considered by the authors as
supported by an expert in maintenance
management theory and practice, Coetzee (1999),
in his holistic approach to the complexity of
organisations and the role of maintenance within
organisation. Consequently, Coetzee (1999)
discussed the strategic role of the maintenance
organisation and suggested:

Maintenance organisation and

engineering documentation
It has been suggested in the above paragraphs
that a maintenance organisation can support
management systems certification by following
the practice of maintenance planning, control
and improvement. However as also suggested,
such a system for auditing purposes must be
supported with appropriate auditable practice,
documents and records that demonstrate that an
effective system exists. Accordingly, some of the
essential documents that are typically generated
and controlled by maintenance engineers and the
correlation to the quality, environmental and
health and safety assessment standards could
include those given in Table I. It should be noted
that Table I has been developed in conjunction
with quality, environmental and health and safety
professionals in conjunction with maintenance
management professionals, facilitated by the
authors of this paper during various research
projects over a two-year period. Nevertheless, the
content of Table I is not considered exhaustive or
applicable to all organisations, however it
indicates the comprehensive nature of the
modern maintenance department activities and
hence highlights the important role maintenance
can and often does play in the manufacturing
organisation.
The relationships in Table I have been obtained
following a critical review of each standard and
specification and comparison to the maintenance
engineering documentation listed in Table I. That
critical review was carried out by one of the
authors (Bamber) who is an acknowledged expert
in implementing ISO 9001:2000 and ISO
14001:1996 with over 50 implementations being
facilitated by him. In addition, that review
included formal discussions with members of
Bolton Business Environmental Network (BBEN)
and The North West of England branch of The
Engineers Employers Federation (EEF) in order
to verify the levels of correlation given to each

The maintenance organisation is an organism of

which the various parts must function in full
harmony towards the achievement of a maximum
contribution towards the goals of the business, and
such harmony cannot be achieved by implementing
highly sophisticated (and localised) solutions to
problems experienced in sub-parts of this
organism.

In other words, the maintenance policy and

objectives should be complementary and fully
supportive of the business goals and objectives,
and furthermore if assessment against standards is
a need of the organisation then the maintenance
policy and objectives must demonstrably support
this with appropriate evidence.
Furthermore Coetzee (1999) provides a
diagrammatic representation, shown in Figure 3,
of the various main areas depicted in the
maintenance cycle and discusses the most
important area is the maintenance policy, which
dictates the maintenance procedures and
consequently to which the maintenance plan is
subordinate, and so forth. Similarly, Bamber et al.
(2002) when commenting on integrated
management systems provided a documentation
structure, as shown in Figure 4, from an
organisation that had integrated the needs of ISO
14001 within the existing organisational
documentation.
The similarity between Figures 3 and 4 is that
the policy, whether it be maintenance or any other
organisational policy (i.e. quality policy) is aimed
at driving the organisational activities, whether

33

The role of maintenance function in an integrated management system

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

Christopher J. Bamber, John M. Sharp and Pavel Castka

Volume 10 Number 1 2004 26-36

Can maintenance management benefit

from third party assessment?

Figure 3 Implementation order

This paper has discussed the role of maintenance

toward third party certification in an integrated
management system and highlighted the
organisational benefits of fully understanding that
role, conversely, it is also recognised that
maintenance management can benefit from third
party assessment. For instance, as described earlier
in this paper, in Japan the Japanese Institute for
Plant Maintenance (JIPM) offer an assessment
based on the Nakajima (1988) total productive
maintenance assessment tool and it is widely
known that benefit can be made from such
assessments. However, from the perspective of this
paper the assessment (to ISO 9001, ISO 14001
and OHSAS 18001) of a manufacturing
organisation is not focused on maintenance but is
aimed at supporting the assessment with providing
evidence of an effective maintenance system. The
benefits of fully understanding this support role do
a great deal to raise the profile of maintenance
management in the organisation being assessed
and in manufacturing generally. Additionally, third
party assessment that clearly takes into
consideration the role of maintenance, according
to the authors of this paper, will lead to benefits for
maintenance management and the maintenance
system in many ways, such as:
.
providing an independent review of
maintenance practice;
.
highlighting areas of weakness in maintenance
management that may need addressing;
.
identifying best practice maintenance
management in order to communicate that
throughout the organisation;
.
verifying that maintenance is addressing the
critical issues associated with quality, health
and safety and environmental management;
and
.
confirming the role of maintenance as a value
adding part of the organisation.

Figure 4 Documentation structure of a company after ISO 14001 systems

integration

they be maintenance operations or production

activities. While the importance of the higher-level
maintenance documents have been discussed, the
importance of lower level or operational
documentation is still considered essential and
therefore no less important. Table I shows various
maintenance documents such as maintenance
procedures, maintenance requisition sheets,
compliance tests and inspections, training records
for maintenance and service contracts which, to
the third party assessor is valuable documentary
evidence that maintenance management occurs.
The difference in the two figures is because of the
focus of approach to the diagrams, as Coetzee
(1999) represents the cycle of activities while
Bamber et al. (2000b) aims to represent the
hierarchy of documentation. Nevertheless, there is
enough commonality between them to show that
the role of maintenance can and should support
any management system within a manufacturing
or processing business.

Notwithstanding, the fact this list is only a short

list and expected to be a list of benefits, the authors
acknowledge that maintenance management can
benefit enormously from third party assessment,
principally because it is an independent
assessment of actual practice. Furthermore, with
Table I as a guideline or signpost document for
auditors and assessors of maintenance
management, a thorough audit of documentation
can take place and hence provide confidence, or
otherwise, that due care in record keeping and
analysis of records is adding value to the
organisation.

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The role of maintenance function in an integrated management system

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

Christopher J. Bamber, John M. Sharp and Pavel Castka

Volume 10 Number 1 2004 26-36

Conclusions

Bamber, C.J., Sharp, J.M. and Hides, M.T. (2002), The role of the
maintenance organisation in an integrated management
system, Managerial Auditing Journal, Vol. 17 No. 1/2,
pp. 20-5.
Bamber, C.J., Sharp, J.M., Davies, J. and Hides, M.T. (2000b),
The use of business excellence models and performance
measurement within UK aerospace manufacturing small
to medium size enterprises (SMEs), in Ho, S. (Ed.),
Proceedings of 5th International Conference on ISO 900
and TQM.
Bitici, U. (1998), Measuring the integrity of your business,
Management Decision, Vol. 33 No. 7, pp. 10-18.
Blau, P.M., Falbe, C.M., McKinnley, W. and Tracey, P.K. (1997),
Technology and organisation in manufacturing,
Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 20-40.
BSI (1996), BS 8800: 1996 Occupational Health and Safety
Management Systems, British Standards Institute, London.
BSI (1999), OHSAS 18001:1999 Occupational Health and Safety
Assessment Standard, British Standards Institute (BSI),
London.
Chan, Y.K., Gaffney, P., Nailey, K. and Ip, W.H. (1998), The
establishment of an integrated management system a
paradigm for railway engineering management, The
TQM Magazine, Vol. 10 No. 6, pp. 420-4.
Coetzee, J.L. (1999), A holistic approach to the maintenance
problem, Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering,
Vol. 5 No. 3, pp. 276-81.
DTI (1988), Effective Maintenance A Route to Increased
Profitability, Managing into the 90s Series, Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI) Publication, London.
DTI (2002), Business and Society. Corporate Social Responsibility
Report 2002, Department of Trade and Industry (DTI),
London.
European Commission (2001), Promoting a European
framework for corporate social responsibility, Green
Paper, European Commission, Directorate-General for
Employment and Social Affairs.
GRI (2002), Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, Global
Reporting Initiative (GRI), available at:
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Hakes, C. (1994), The Corporate Self-Assessment Handbook for
Measuring Business Excellence, Chapman & Hall, London.
Ho, S. (1999), The 5-S auditing, Managerial Auditing Journal,
Vol. 14 No. 6, pp. 294-302.
Ho, S. and Fung, C. (1994), Developing a TQM excellence
model, The TQM Magazine, Vol. 6 No. 6, pp. 24-30.
Ho, S. and Fung, C. (1995), Developing a TQM excellence
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Hodkinson, P. (2003), Check your response, World, January,
pp. 28-30.
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ISO (2000), ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems
Requirements, International Organization for
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ISO (1994), ISO 9001:1994 Quality Management Systems
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Standardization, Geneva.
ISO (1996), ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems
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Juran, J.M. (1988), Quality Control Handbook, 4th ed., McGrawHill, New York, NY.

The emphasis organisational stakeholders place on

systems certification as a means of demonstrating
levels of commitment to quality, environmental or
health and safety management means a new
direction for the modern maintenance
organisation. This new emphasis directs the
maintenance function to take an approach to
maintenance management that is more integrated
and holistic than previously taken. This integrated
and holistic approach communicates a higher
value-adding role for the modern maintenance
engineer that is ultimately stakeholder led. This
paper has therefore indicated that the maintenance
activities of a manufacturing organisation are vital
for successful certification, and hence conversely
indicates that a poor maintenance system will
inhibit the chances of successful management
systems certification.
The maintenance organisation has been
discussed as an enabler of management systems
certification within a manufacturing organisation.
A good maintenance management system that
aims to satisfy the maintenance requirements of
certifiable management systems includes the
maintenance activities of planning, control and
improvement. Management systems certification
and in particular the audit requirement would
demand that the maintenance engineer keeps
adequate and relevant records. These records take
the form of both documentation and data and
must demonstrate to external assessment
authorities that the maintenance activities are
adequately supporting the policies, goals and
targets of the organisation, which provide the
maintenance strategy. Furthermore the records
must demonstrate the documented evidence that
shows operational maintenance activities are
contributing to control and improvement of the
organisations quality, environmental and/or health
and safety performance.

References
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35

The role of maintenance function in an integrated management system

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering

Christopher J. Bamber, John M. Sharp and Pavel Castka

Volume 10 Number 1 2004 26-36

Karapetrovic, S. and Willborn, W. (1998), Integration of quality

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Further reading
Karapetrovic, S. and Willborn, W. (1998), Connecting internal
management systems in service organisations, Managing
Service Quality, Vol. 8 No. 4, pp. 256-71.

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