International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)

Volume 7, Issue 3, MayJune 2016, pp.150160, Article ID: IJMET_07_03_014

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FACTORS RELATED TO HUMAN

RESOURCES AFFECTING THE
MAINTENANCE EFFECTIVENESS IN
TANZANIAN INDUSTRIES
Joseph N. Mkilania
Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology,
P. O. Box 2958 Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
ABSTRACT
The study on factors related to human resources affecting maintenance
effectiveness have been carried out for the purpose of investigating them and
their effects on maintenance effectiveness, which in turn affect industrial
output in terms of quality and capacity for Tanzanian industries.
The methodology used to attain the study objectives was synthesis of
literature and analysis of identified factors. The identified factors related to
human resources affecting the maintenance effectiveness were: qualification,
experience, motivation, wages, attitude and human error of maintenance
personnel.
Furthermore, the employed method analyse and formulate the relationship
of factors through Ishikawa`s fish bone diagram, tables of attributes
investigation and ranking by means of descriptive statistics. The paper also
summarises the impact caused by these factors on quality and quantity of
products offered by Tanzanian industries.
Key words: Maintenance Effectiveness, Human Resources, Maintenance,
Tanzania.
Cite this Article: Joseph N. Mkilania, Factors Related to Human Resources
Affecting the Maintenance Effectiveness in Tanzanian Industries.
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, 7(3), 2016,
pp. 150160.
http://www.iaeme.com/currentissue.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=7&IType=3

1. INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background Information
The Technology in industrial sector is developing so fast compared to our human
resource technological development. Today industries are more automated,

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Factors Related to Human Resources Affecting the Maintenance Effectiveness in Tanzanian

Industries

computerized and with a lot of electronics facilities than before. With continuous
development in technology, the industry and industrial systems have become
complex, the fact which make their availability to be more critical (Kumar and
Ghodrali, 2005) [1]. This condition dictates the capability requirement for human
resource that should be responsible for taking care of these facilities.
Factors related to human resources affect maintenance effectiveness in the way
that maintenance personnel are unable to attend the technical problems due to lack of
attributes, which are needed in modern industry.
Furthermore, the trend in developing countries, Tanzania inclusive now receives
more facilities from developed countries, some are new and others are second hand
and at a stage of maintenance intensive need, on the other hand our technical
personnel are not equipped with skills necessary to achieve the maintenance
effectiveness.
Mjema and Munanu, 2008 [2] argue that every time the vehicle comes out from
workshop for repair, comes with a new problems rather than those registered for. This
entails more investigation on our human resources knowledge base. In view of the
above, it is the intension of this study to investigate on factors related to human
resources affecting the maintenance effectiveness in Tanzanian industries.

1.2. Objectives
The main objective of the study is to investigate the factors related to human
resources affecting maintenance effectiveness
1.2.1

The specific objectives are as follows:

To identify factors related to human resources affecting the maintenance effectiveness
in Tanzanian industries
To analyse factors related to human resources affecting the maintenance effectiveness
in Tanzanian industries
To formulate conceptual frame work for factors related to human resources affecting
the maintenance effectiveness in Tanzanian industries

2. LITERATURE REVIEW ON MAINTENANCE

Tanzanian industries still suffer from economic losses due to low rate of capacity
utilization due to low availability of equipment, which results from poor maintenance
management of production facilities Mjema and Mweta, 2003) [3]. And this is due to
factors like: poor maintenance strategies, lack of spare parts and materials, inadequate
human resources, and lack of facilities as well as poor working environment (Mjema
and Kundi, 1992) [4].
Inadequacy of human resource factor is considered as important factor than all;
hence, maintenance personnel will plan, manage, supervise and execute all
maintenance activities (Cholasuke et al., 2004) [5]. So as to have an efficient human
resource, one needs to have; well organized, adequate trained, motivated, and
disciplined staff.
There is a need to organize the maintenance human resources for the purpose of
attaining maximum availability. Through literature review, factors can be classified
into six groups as shown in Figure 1.

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Joseph N. Mkilania

WAGES

ATTITUDE

EXPERIENCES

FACTORS RELATED
TO HUMAN
RESOURCES
QUALIFICATIONS

MOTIVATIONS

HUMAN ERRORS

Figure 1 Factors related to human resources

Human resource is the most valuable resource in maintenance process and hence
in achieving maintenance effectiveness. In the literature review it was mentioned by
number of authors including Nakajima (1998) [6]; Groote (1995) [7]; Kelly (1997) [8];
Jonsson (1997) [9]; Mjema and Munanu (2008) [2], that effective management of
human resources is one of successful tool in achieving maintenance effectiveness.
The identified factors related to human resource during interviews and literature
review were: qualification (Gupta, 2000[10] ; Mjema and Munanu, 2008[2]; Taha et
al., 2003[11]; Tay and Goh, 1995[12]: Mann, 1998[13]; Nakajima, 1988) [6], experience
(Mjema and Munanu, 2008[2]; Tay and Goh, 1995) [12], wages (Raaum et al., 2008)
[14], motivations (Cholasuke et al., 2004[5] : Raaum et al., 2008) [13] , attitude
(Raaum et al., 2008[13] ; Taha et al., 2004[15]) and human error of maintenance
personnel (Dhillon and Liu, 2006[16]; Dhillon, 2006[17]; Dhillon, 1986[18]; Hwang et
al., 2007[19]; Cracker, 1999[20]) as shown in Table I: whereby the study has
established the most common factors that were mentioned frequently by many
authors.

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Factors Related to Human Resources Affecting the Maintenance Effectiveness in Tanzanian

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Table I Name of author and year of publication for Factors related to Human resources affecting
maintenance effectiveness

S/NO
1
2
3
4

Factors related to Human

Resources affecting maintenance
effectiveness
Motivation of maintenance
personnel
Wages/salaries of maintenance
personnel
Work attitude of maintenance
personnel
Human error of maintenance
personnel

Qualification of maintenance
personnel

Experience of maintenance
personnel

Name of author and year of publication

Cholasuke et al. (2004) [5]: Raaum et al. (2008) [14]
Raaum et al. (2008) [14]
Raaum et al. (2008) [14] ; Taha et al. (2004) [15]
Dhillon and Liu (2006) [16]; Dhillon (2006) [17];
Dhillon (1986) [18]; Hwang et al. (2007) [19];
Cracker (1999) [20].
Gupta (2000) [10]; Mjema and Munanu (2008) [2];
Taha et al. (2003) [11]; Tay and Goh (1995) [12];
Mann (1998) [12];Nakajima (1988) [6]
Mjema and Munanu (2008) [2]; Tay and Goh (1995) [12].

3. METHODOLOGY
The methodology used to attain the study objectives was through literature review and
survey, whereby the identified factors are further subjected to ranking through use of
descriptive statistics and causal and effects methods which included: table of
attributes, sub-factors investigations, Ishikawas fishbone diagram, and relationship
among factors diagram were used for investigation of the factors.
Analysis of factors:
Table II. Factors related to human resources that influence the maintenance
effectiveness. The table shows sub factors on human resources

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Joseph N. Mkilania
Table II Factors related to human resources that influence the maintenance effectiveness

S/N
1

Sub-factors
affecting
Human
resource
qualifications

Things leading to
factors related
Human resources
skills
knowledge

attitude
2

experiences

skills
knowledge

efficiency

Motivation

incentives
recognition

attitude

human error

dislike
maintenance work
poor relationship
with others
poor work
environment
inspection errors

design errors

maintenance errors

operating
procedure errors
installation errors

wages

low wages
delay in salary
salary paid not
with respect to
qualifications

Effect caused by
lack of
qualification
unable to do
maintenance actions
unable to trouble
shoot and diagnose
faults
dislike of
maintenance work
unable to do
maintenance actions
unable to trouble
shoot and diagnose
faults
unable to do
thorough work
lack of drive toward
work
lack of drive toward
work
lack of right mindset toward work
lack of right mindset toward work
possibility of error
on maintenance
work
possibility of error
on maintenance
work
possibility of error
on maintenance
work
possibility of error
on maintenance
work
possibility of error
on maintenance
work
possibility of error
on maintenance
work
demoralized to do
maintenance actions
demoralized to do
maintenance actions
demoralized to do
maintenance actions

Consequences

Remarks

uncompleted work
or work with errors
wrong decisions
leading to wrong
actions
low performance

low performance and

faults
faults and unnecessary
expenses

uncompleted work
or work with errors
wrong decisions
leading to wrong
actions
incomplete
maintenance
actions
poor work
performance
low output

faults and increase of

down times
low performance and
faults
faults and unnecessary
expenses
faults and down times

poor work
performance
poor work
performance
poor work
performance

faults and increase of

down times
faults and increase of
down times
faults and increase of
down times
faults and increase of
down times
faults and increase of
down times

poor work
performance

faults and increase of

down times

poor work
performance

faults and increase of

down times

poor work
performance

faults and increase of

down times

poor work
performance

faults and increase of

down times

poor work
performance

faults and increase of

down times

poor work
performance
poor work
performance
poor work
performance

faults and increase of

down times
faults and increase of
down times
faults and increase of
down times

The following in Table III were identified as influences from the sub-factors on
human resources factor influencing the maintenance effectiveness: ability of
maintenance personnel to do maintenance action right for the first time and always
doing right, being pleasant with work, to have right mind set toward maintenance

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Factors Related to Human Resources Affecting the Maintenance Effectiveness in Tanzanian

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work, being familiar with maintenance procedures, not making mistakes during
maintenance work and having drive towards maintenance work.
Table III The influence of factors related to human resources on maintenance effectiveness
Influencin
g factor
factors
related to
human
resources

Sub-factors of
the
influencing
factor
qualification

wages

attitude

experience

Human error

Motivation

Attributes
of the subfactors
high
medium
low
high
medium
low
high
medium
low
high
medium
low
high
medium
low
high
medium
low

Influence on the sub-factor to

maintenance effectiveness
Ability of maintenance
personnel to do maintenance
action right for the first time and
always doing right
Ability of a maintenance
personnel being pleasant with
work
Ability of maintenance
personnel to have right mind set
toward maintenance work.
Ability of maintenance
personnel of being familiar with
maintenance action procedures
Ability of maintenance
personnel of not making
mistakes during maintenance
work.
Ability of maintenance
personnel of having driven
towards maintenance work

Attributes to
maintenance
effectiveness
caused by influence
high
medium
low
high
medium
low
high
medium
low
high
medium
low
low
medium
high
high
medium
low

Figure 2 is the Ishikawas causal and effect, fish bone diagram. The figure shows
the sources for Lack of maintenance effectiveness caused by factors related to human
resources. The maintenance effectiveness shows impacts on products by influencing
the quality and quantity of products which consequently gives higher yield in terms of
financial implication.

Figure 2 Ishikawas causal and effect diagram showing factors related to human resources
influencing maintenance effectiveness.

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Joseph N. Mkilania

Factors related to human resources were found to have influence on maintenance

effectiveness as well as the interactive relationship among themselves as shown in the
figure 3.

Figure 3 The
he interrelationship effects among the human resource related factors.

4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

DISCUSSI
The study involved 20 sampled industries that were surveyed for the purpose of data
collection. The research design included data collection, questionnaires, interviews
and observations, whereby 100 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and
68 were returned and analysed.
analysed
Table IV shows the results of ranking the identified factors. The ranking was done
through descriptive statistical
statistical method, whereby the most influencing factors
factor were;
wages, qualifications, motivation, like attitude, experience and human error respectively. This
is in line with Cholasuke et al. (2004) [5] that qualified and well experienced maintenance
personnel with good incentives are the pre requisites for attaining the maintenance
effectiveness.
Table IV Ranking of factors related to human resource affecting the maintenance
effectiveness
Factors related to Human resources
Qualification of maintenance personnel
Experience of maintenance personnel
Attitude of maintenance personnel towards
maintenance work
Motivation of human resources towards
maintenance w
Wages of maintenance personnel
Human error in maintenance

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N.
68
68
68

Mean
4.3
4.1
4.2

68
68
68

4.2
4.4
3.4

Interpretation
Interpre
Very High
Very High
Very High

Rank
2
5
4

Very High

156

Very High
High

3
1
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Factors Related to Human Resources Affecting the Maintenance Effectiveness in Tanzanian

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DISCUSSION
The wages of maintenance personnel
Adequate wage influence the ability of maintenance personnel to be pleasant with
maintenance work. If personnel are not pleasant with work, there is possibility of
delays or unnecessary excuses which contributes to low maintenance effectiveness.
Adequate wage is an important motivation for maintenance personnel to meet their
basic requirements such as food, accommodation, transport and other social needs.
Without enough wages, some of untrustworthy personnel can steal and sell genuine
parts, tools or fix used parts in their place in order to meet their basic requirements.
Shortage of maintenance tools leads to delay in accomplishing the maintenance work.
Such practices affect the maintenance effectiveness. It is for this reason that
experience is ranked high in the influence to maintenance effectiveness.

The qualification of maintenance personnel

Qualification of maintenance personnel enables them to do maintenance actions right
for the first time and always right. This contributes highly to the maintenance
effectiveness. Likewise, low qualified maintenance personnel will not be capable of
always doing maintenance action right on the first time; in fact they will require a
number of trials, which subsequently gives low attributes to the maintenance
effectiveness.
The qualification of maintenance employees influences the maintenance
effectiveness in the way that qualified personnel will perform more quality
maintenance work compared to the unqualified ones. Qualification is defined as the
totality of capability and skills, which personnel has acquired through education,
training, and/or through work experience for fulfilment of the work requirements.
This indicates that qualification is the outcome of education, skills and experience.
Education enables a person to acquire knowledge and creativity.

The motivation of maintenance personnel

Motivation to maintenance personnel drives them toward maintenance works. The
personnel who have the right drive do not require frequent follow ups or reminders on
what to do. This has positive influence on maintenance effectiveness. Likewise,
unmotivated maintenance personnel would require frequent follow ups and would
have high possibility of committing errors, and thus creating delays and downtimes
which contributes low attributes to maintenance effectiveness.
Work motivation is very important in terms of incentives. However, it is more
preferable if motivation would be related with work performance. Motivation
influences the maintenance effectiveness by timely attending the failures and meeting
the maintenance objectives. Most of maintenance works are manual and personnel
intensive. The maintenance works includes, diagnosis, inspections, cleaning,
overhaul, repairs, replacements, lubrications and methods. If the personnel are not
willing to do manual work, the maintenance task would be delayed or ineffectively
done, and this would affect the maintenance effectiveness.
Maintenance personnel should be motivated to do maintenance. Maintenance work is
different from production work, maintenance work in most occasions is done
manually, this involves, fatigue and working morale. If maintenance personnel are not
encouraged to do manual work, the maintenance performance will not be attained.

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The attitude of maintenance personnel towards work

The low attitude of maintenance personnel towards works affects the ability of
personnel to have the right mind-set towards maintenance work which subsequently
contributes to low maintenance effectiveness. Higher attitude of maintenance
personnel affect the ability to have right mind set toward maintenance work and
contribute highly to maintenance effectiveness.

The experience of maintenance personnel

The experience of maintenance personnel influences the ability of being familiar with
maintenance procedures pertaining to certain maintenance actions. The familiarity
influences the ability of making correct judgment on doing maintenance actions,
which influence the maintenance effectiveness. On the other hand, lack of experience
affects the ability of maintenance personnel being familiar with maintenance
procedures, which consequently affect the maintenance performance.
Experience is gained from performing the maintenance work for a long period.
For so doing the personnel get used with the maintenance process requirements and
the types of faults that are particular to a certain type of machines. However,
experience can be counterproductive when it happens that employees are not willing
to change and cope with new technology. Most of the maintenance faults are
repetitive in nature while few are abrupt, for that case experienced personnel would
know exactly what to do in terms of resources, time required in order to timely rectify
the faults

The human error

Human error, affect the ability of maintenance personnel to do a thorough job without
mistakes. If a maintenance personnel commits mistakes in maintenance actions, this
has low attributes on maintenance effectiveness. Likewise, if human errors are
minimized, there is a higher possibility of attaining work with few or no mistakes.
Human error in maintenance was ranked low in influence to maintenance
effectiveness in most industries. Human error in maintenance cannot be avoided.
Nevertheless, human error can be minimized if maintenance personnel are well
trained have good attitude, adequate wage, incentives and motivations. For that case,
human error would have low influence on maintenance effectiveness.

5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusion
The paper has used literature review to identify factors related to human resources
affecting maintenance effectiveness. These factors are: wages, qualifications,
motivation, like attitude, experience and human error of maintenance personnel. The
analytical method has been used to analyse the attributes of these factors. The
methods for analysis of these factors are the causal and effect diagram, the Ishikawas
fish bone diagram and the tables of attributes investigation. Finally descriptive
statistic method was used to rank the identified factors.

Recommendations
The paper further observed that there is neither maintenance policy, nor national,
regional, or other maintenance bodies that deal with maintenance of equipment. It is
recommended that, the government should:
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Establish maintenance policy;

Establish national maintenance board (authority);
Institute specialized maintenance curriculum at technician level; undergraduate and
post graduate.

The established maintenance management system should monitor maintenance

knowledge accumulation and the process of learning, which in turn build human
capital and skills in industries. Moreover, the body should be capable of advising the
government, ministries, industries and other bodies on issues related to the acquisition
of technologies and its maintenance.

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