Strategic dimensions of maintenance management

Abstract

The contemporary business environment has raised the strategic importance of the maintenance function in organizations which have significant investment in physical assets. Four strategic dimensions of maintenance management are identified, namely service‐delivery options, organization and work structuring, maintenance methodology and support systems. The alternatives available are reviewed: the guidelines for selection of these alternatives, the key decision areas in each of the four dimensions, as well as the critical success factors for the transformation process are discussed. The two factors that permeate in these strategic dimensions are human factors and information flow; the latter can be made more efficient by embracing the e‐maintenance model.

06/02469 Strategic maintenance-management in Nigerian industries

“…Tsang [4] concluded that the strategic decisions to be taken with respect to the organisational design and structuring of maintenance activities include: (i) plant purpose, (ii) workforce location, and (iii) composition and flexibility of their workforce. The associated decisions require considering workload characteristics; plant location; cost of non-availability; skills and knowledge required; production policy; and human-resources policy.…”

“…reduce the cost of unreliability. Recent developments [4] are: -♦ Emerging operational strategies. The economy-of-scale concept is losing some of its advocates.…”

“…(ii) TPM: RCM is an asset-centred methodology with the primary focus on making decisions concerning the type of maintenance tasks to be used, whereas TPM is a methodology with a different orientation -it focuses on people and is an integral part of TQM [4]. TPM methodology was developed initially in Japan's manufacturing industries, with the aim of reducing production losses due to machine breakdowns in JIT production systems.…”

Alliance strategy: context, process, and requirements

“…It can improve operational efficiency, risk levels and continuity (Janssen et al, 2009;Tsang, 2002). Costs (monetary expenditure, time, environmental impact/eco-footprint, and transaction costs) are incurred for categories such as personnel management, acquisition, operation and maintenance of assets, facility management, stock keeping, logistics, and procurement.…”

“…Activities can be dynamically divided between suppliers and customers to make the best use of capabilities and resources (Gebauer et al, 2011;Rollins et al, 2011). They may take over some of their customers' business processes (Vendor Managed Inventory; Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR); Vendor Stocking (Bloch, 2013)), or some echelons (levels) of maintenance (Sherbrooke, 2004;Tsang, 2002). Suppliers and customer can ex ante synchronize their ordering-delivery cycles to optimize supplier operations ( Van der Vlist, 2004;Van Fenema and Koeiman, 2003).…”