Session 1

Maintenance Management
 What is Maintenance?

Busy in fire fighting breakdowns rather

than preventing/eliminating the same.
 A maintenance system of today includes
aspects as follows
1. Protecting the buildings, structures and plants

2. Increasing equipment availability and reducing downtimes;

also helping in increase utilization of equipments

3. Controlling and directing labour forces.

4. Economy in maintenance department.

5. Maximizing utilization of available resources.
6. Ensuring safety of installations and also
reducing environmental pollution.
7. Recording expenditure and costing of
individual jobs and of department/section.
8. Preparing maintenance budgets.
9.Preventing waste of tools, spares and other
materials.
10.Emphasis on waste recovery.
11.Improving technical communications.
12.Measuring plant performance as a guide for
future actions.
13.Training of maintenance personnel on related
topics.
 Maintenance Objectives
The maintenance objectives of a big
industrial plant
(i) To maintain plant and equipments at its maximum operating
efficiency, ensuring operational safety and reducing downtime.

(ii) To safeguard investments by minimizing rate of deterioration

and achieving this at optimum cost through budgeting and
control.
(iii) To help management in taking decisions on
replacements or new investments and actively
participate in specification preparation,
equipment selection, its erection and
commissioning etc.

(iv) Development of resources for equipments and

spares and providing technical help for
Vendor's / equipment supplier's selection /
rating and import substitution.
(v) Help in implementation of suitable procedures
for procurement, storage and consumption of
spares, tools and consumables etc.
(vi) Standardization of spares and consumables in
conformity with plant, national and
international standards and help in adoption of
these standards by all users in the plant. Also
help in variety reduction and inventory control.
(vii)  Running of centralized services like Steam
Generation, water supply, air supply and fuel
supply etc.

(viii) Running of Captive Workshops for repair

and reconditioning and also making some
new spares.

(ix) Help in training and development of skilled

workmen and executives.
Maintenance is an age-old function which
developed and progressed, knowingly or
unknowingly, along with the operation of
equipments. In early ages, maintenance was,
probably, not a separate identity but the job of
maintenance was considered as part and
parcel of-operator's job. This was possible
because of simplicity and openness of

machines and equipments.

In sewing machine, tailor used to lubricate the
machine, thus, even the lubrication job, which is
basically a maintenance job, was done by the
same personnel without giving the job a separate
identity. However, with the growth of
industrialisation, the complexity of the machines
(mechanical, electrical and electronics together)
increased and the machines became less simple
and less open.
This started creating problems for the operating
personnel and the concept of maintenance as a
separate discipline and separate identity started.
Maintenance Prevention (MP) was probably first
known in 1960s from a factory Magazine in
United States and that said that Maintenance
Prevention (MP) meant design, manufacture or
purchase of equipment which is free from
maintenance.
Inflated and increased down time cost called for the
well managed maintenance programs, to enhance
the life of existing equipments and components,
became the essential aspects of all management
strategies.
It consists of specialists hence is a
knowledge house of the organization. The
specialization is predominantly achieved
through hands-on experience over a period
of years. Most of such specialists are
practice oriented and had limited academic
exposure.
'Maintenance can be defined as a set of
activities that ensure any physical asset
to continue to fulfill its intended
functions to the standard of
performance desired by the user'
The activities in maintenance
commences right from design of the
equipment and culminates in
scrapping it, which means
maintenance is associated with
every part of the equipment's entire
lifecycle.
Maintenance doesn't limit its scope
to machineries as commonly
misunderstood, but includes land &
buildings, auxiliary equipments,
safety equipments and office
equipments. In short maintenance
encompasses all the physical assets
The right maintenance is the one that
will ensure performance of equipment
with highest possible efficiency
desired by the user
The efficiency level is decided by the
user because it is connected to the cost.
Efficiency doesn't come free. Every
initiative demands certain cost or
compromise and the user has to
balance it for an overall benefit
Maintenance Engineering/Maintenance
Management is the most important
component of Plant Engineering and
Plant Engineering is probably the
biggest force to increase productivity .
'Maintenance is an investment that
buys / gives more production time.
(example health of a person)
Also we cannot cope up with today's jobs and
problems with yesterday's tools and techniques.
We have to use tools and techniques of today,
compatible with today's problems and also with
the anticipated problems of tomorrow (near
future). Educational and research institutions
should cooperate with industries to ease out the
problems.
If all these are not taken care of, a
maintenance man would be so busy in
committing suicides that he would
hardly have any time to live i.e., he
would be busy in fire fighting
breakdowns rather than preventing/
eliminating the same.
Q1.What is Maintenance ? State different aspects
of Maintenance In today’s world
Q2.What are different Maintenance objectives
Q3.Why is it important to know the stage of
product life cycle in which an equipment is in
the context of Maintenance
Q4.What is the role of Maintenance in
Manufacturing?
Q5.How Maintenance personnel are responsible
for profit making and efficient running of
business in any organization?