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Informatica Economic vol. 14, no. 2/2010 133

The Modern Approach to Industrial Maintenance Management

Vasile DEAC, Gheorghe CRSTEA, Constantin BGU, Florea PRVUAcademy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania

[email protected], [email protected], [email protected],[email protected]

The maintenance activity isnt a purpose in itself, its a necessity of which the production

suffers and the financial agent considers too expensive. It often exists a conflict between

the production units and the maintenance department, not only for a short term, but,

sometimes, for a long term, imposing a rigorous definition of each persons responsibilities.

Considering the mutations in the industrial equipments technical complexity and the

accidental failures catastrophic consequences from the economic and/or social point of view,

it should be assigned a new dimension to the maintenance activity. One of the imperatives

imposed to this action is represented by modern means of informing through the

maintenances operational computerization.

Keywords: Maintenances Progress, Total Productive Maintenance, Cooperation In

Maintenance, The Maintenances Costs Minimization, Maintenances Operational

Computerization

The maintenances place in an

industrial companys management

system

The activity of maintenance isnt a purposein itself, its a necessity of which the

production suffers and the financialconsiders being too expensive. It oftenexists a conflict between the production unitsand the maintenance department, which isresponsible with the equipments status andconservation, not only for a short term, butalso for a long term. In many cases, theindustrial companies, wanting to reduce thecurrent total costs, considering the abovementioned conception, the uncertainty aboutthe companys future, orient towards

reducing the budget allotted to the activitiesof preventive maintenance.In the reality, this policys effect isnt thewanted one, the costs with the correctivemaintenance increasing as a result of anincrease of the accidental failures frequency,at which are added the greater and greaterfailures in case of impairment or offunctioning parameters degradation. In thesame time, the maintenance works increasein number and in value will bring about in

the future a decrease in the preventivemaintenances available resources, theindustrial company entering into a vicious

circle from which it will be able to come outreally hard.In order to reconcile these points of view thatcontradict each other just on the surface, theactivity of maintenance must be put in its

proper place inside the company and eachpersons responsibilities should be properlydefined (this is an issue of policy andstructure). In the same time, the maintenanceactivity should be organized in such amanner, that it should allow solving all the

problems specific to maintenance, in themost efficient possible way (the economiccriteria should become a priority, in the mostof the cases). [5]The Romanian industry, of course, even if

its mostly private, falls in a period ofprofound crisis and difficult times (financialblockages, a lack of markets both for theinputs and the outputs, price rises, etc.),a context in which the production capacitiesusage is an extremely reduced one (30-40%of the capacity, and in some cases even less),the equipments maintenance isnt a priorityin the top managers concerns.The present uncertainties involving manyindustrial companies future, considering the

current economic and financial crisis, thestate of confusion that still prevails in theeconomy generates, in fact, the same

1

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134 Informatica Economic vol. 14, no. 2/2010

situation, meaning the maintenance workslimitation to the basics in order to reduce the

production costs. On the other side, thecurrent economic conjecture put the majority

of the industrial commercial societies in acontext of economic war. Considering thatconjecture, the issue is that of not beingfatalist, passive, having in mind that werecrossing a period of economic recession andthe solutions to this crisis dont depend of thecompany.Out of this difficult, but stimulating situation,the societies who are going to win the day arethe ones whose management will proveimagination and creativity in order to find

progress solutions which are better adaptedand with an increased economic efficiency,solutions of increasing the companyscompetitive spirit. Inside these solutions, theones that increase the production qualityshould be central.The industrial equipments maintenance iscompulsory for guaranteeing the quality inall the production process stages, itsassignment, in an attempt of warrantingquality in all the production stages process

being the one of identifying the equipmentsthat have a direct effect on quality andensuring that through the performedmaintenance works is ensured the failure

prevention and the prevention of some

malfunctions that may affect the productionsquality [9].Whats industrial maintenance?

Trying to define the industrial maintenance,

this represents a set of measures and actionsthat ensure an equipments prevention,preservation or restoring in an anticipatedstate or capable to guarantee a certainservice, altogether with the minimizing of themaintenances costs [4] [5].Out of this definition, the following essentialconclusions can be drawn:to restore involves the concept ofcorrection, as a result of losing thefunctioning parameters initial values;

the anticipated state or the certainservice involves a predetermination of thefunctioning parameters or the service to beattained, with the characteristic levelsquantification;to minimize presupposes to consider themaintenance activitys economic aspect,respectively guaranteeing that all theoperations will have an optimal cost;the prevention and the preservationconsists in applying some methods,

procedures, measures and actions thatcontribute to the maintenances progress infour major directions, as schematized in fig.1.

Fig. 1. Maintenances progress [4]

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Internationally, the activity of maintenanceevolved in the industrial companiesconsidering the compromise that should bedone between the needs and exigencies, from

the technical, economic and human point ofview.Until the 60s, the activity of maintenancewas synonym with the one of repairing, theequipments being improved each time it was

possible. It could be noticed the fact thatimproving the equipments, the humansecurity is guaranteed, they being stopped

just to examine the wearing level, it beingcompletely abandoned when the personssecurity wasnt in stake.

The period 1960-1970 generated threefundamental mutations in the industrialsmaintenances approach: creating the diagnostic maintenance, that

led lately to the conditioned maintenance.Its about applying the techniques ofnondestructive control, the vibrationscontrol, fluids analysis, etc.

taking into consideration the economicaspects in defining the maintenancesattempt. Any equipment at which anaccidental failure or a decline of thefunctioning parameters determines in asignificant manner a decrease in the

productions quantity or quality isconsidered a critical one. The conceptof failure cost appears and the indirectfinancial incidence of the activity ofmaintenance is considered. But it isntenough just to consider the economicalaspects when the maintenance actions are

decided (the cost of the equipments non-efficiency, the non-maintenance cost).Its also necessary to evaluate the risk andthe probabilities of equipmentsmalfunctions.

The appeal to the reliability theory. Thereliability models of study, which wereinitially hard to apply in the industrialunits, were, subsequently, used more andmore. After the 1970, two philosophiesrelated to the industrial maintenance were

developed.In USA, it was applied the concept ofLife Cycle Cost (LCC), which covers the

totality of the costs of the research, design,construction, exploit and maintenance

processes for an equipments entire life. Theobjective aimed is its minimization.

The second philosophy is the Japanese one,Total productive maintenance" (TPM). Ifthe LCC approaches the maintenance fromthe economic point of view, TPM approachesit from a human point of view. Its objectiveis the maximization of the productionequipments global efficiency and it

presupposes the participation of all theactors that contribute to its efficiency: thedesigners, the users (the production staff), themaintenance stuff, from all the

managements hierarchical levels, startingwith the worker to the general manager [7].Concluding, we can prove that the functionof industrial equipments maintenance is a

partner in the system of ensuring the quality,and, if the companys top management wantsto guarantee the production stages quality,the product of the maintenance activity is amust to warrant this quality.In order to be a competitive partner insidethis system of quality warranty its imposedan important change inside the maintenancefunction, which is characterized throughthree major transitions:

a. The transition from the oralcommunication to the written

communicationThe transition from the oral communicationto the written communication, consideringthe fact that the process of oral instructionstransmitting is frequently met in the

maintenance activity, constitutes anespecially delicate mutation. The existence ofsome written procedures related to theindustrial equipments exploit andmaintenance constitutes a fundamentalrequirement in warranting the productionsquality. These procedures related to theequipments maintenance must allow:knowing the coverage of the activity ofmaintenance; the tasks and responsibilities ofeach employee covered in the activity of

maintenance; the detailing of all maintenanceworks that are about to be performed.

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b. The transition from theimprovisation to the scientific

rigorNo matter which is the chosen maintenance

policy, respectively: the policy of increasing the equipments

reliability (their modifications foreliminating the blind spots);

the preventive policy (the anticipating ofthe equipments malfunctions through arigorous surveillance);

the anti-malfunctioning policy, that aimsto all the malfunctions eliminationthrough the detailed analysis of eachmalfunction or abnormal functionality).

the competence and the technical value ofthe people that execute the maintenanceworks is crucial, and quality warranty

presupposes the execution of all thecorrective or preventive interventionswith the greatest scientific rigor.

c. The transition from intuition toprofessionalism

With a properly trained maintenance staff,with a great technical competence, talented,the maintenance compartment can executeefficient interventions.

2 The activity of maintenances evolution

and objectives

In the current stage, the evolutions that arenecessary in approaching the activity ofmaintenance inside the industrial companiesare determined by three groups of factors,which are [2]:

a. Technological factorsWorldwide, electronic and informatics spreadin the workshops and the productiondepartments: the machines are endowed withnumerical command, the industrial robotsextended, the flexible fabrication workshopsare in full development, everything is beingautomatic.The electronic circuits are reliable because ofthe progresses in the componentstechnology; the power organs, themechanical and hydraulic tools, the

electromechanical subassemblies are moreand more reliable and less and lessmaintenance consuming. Instead, the activity

of maintenance can appeal to new techniquesof detecting the flaws (the vibration analysis,the sonic analysis etc.) which prove to beextremely efficient pointing to the blind spots

and preventing the failures.Nowadays, there is a new entry in theequipments surveillance trend (and, in thesame time, the tele-surveillance trend): theconditioned maintenance, in which: the inspection of the equipments which

are more and more complex must berigorous and, as a consequence, must beorganized in a formal and detailedmanner;

the permanent diagnostic of theequipments technical status must berigorous and precise.b. The economic factors

In order tobe competitive, the company mustreduce to the minimum its productionexpenses, both the direct and the indirect

production ones and implicitly the onesrelated to the maintenance. Worldwide, thegeneral trend of late years is to diminish themaintenance costs.Another worldwide aspect, with majorimplication to maintenance, is the fact that, inthe euphoria of the strategies of developmentthrough expansion and diversification thatwas specific to the 70s, we assist at amaintenance companies development,companies that are capable to executenumerous maintenance activities instead ofthe traditional compartments inside theindustrial companies.This trend can be noticed in our countrys

economy, assisting to an increase of thesmall and average sized companies in themaintenance domain. Its true that they arespecialized, for the moment, in somedomains (maintenance in informatics,conditioned air, the buildings maintenance,etc.), but, quite inevitable, they will regardsome traditional maintenance activities, as aresult of the restructuring measures from thegreat industrial companies.Executing the maintenance works by

specialized companies represents one of thefundamental mutations in the industrialmaintenances activity. More flexible,

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capable to adapt to the new exigencies, themaintenance companies have the vocation ofspecialists and they will offer more oftentheir specialized, periodic services, which

proves the fact that developing (ormaintaining) the traditional maintenancedepartments inside the companies or creatingnew maintenance capacities [11] isnt

justified from the economic point of view.c. Human factors

The efficiency of the maintenance activitiesis conditioned by the involved staff, and notonly the maintenance staff but the exploitstaff, too. What might prevent a progress arethe difficulties related to the persons

involved and the relations between thesepersons. The fact that, even if the employedoperates a machine eight hours a day, hedoesnt feel more responsible about itsmaintenance its regrettable, even if hisactivity is, on one side, related to achievingits own objectives and, on the other side, itensures the proper functioning of its worktool.We think that all these factors of influenceare found or will be found (in the case of thetechnological factors) in the industrialcompanies from our country, too, and, inconsequence, the maintenance activity shoulddevelop a new dimension characterizedthrough: A transfer of tasks towards the

production and the companies

specialized in maintenance. This willlead to the progressive disappearance ofthe execution staff specific to the

maintenance compartments. The currentmaintenance activities (visits, greasing,cleaning, small repairs, etc) should begradually transferred to the productionstaff, through task diversification and the

proper stimulations and the complexmaintenance activities will be ordered tosome specialized companies selected

because of their competence andseriousness.

Ascribing new tasks to the maintenancecompartment. The tasks transfer towardsthe production and the resort tocooperation mustnt lead to the

liquidation of the maintenancecompartment inside the industrial units.The maintenances tasks will focus in threemain directions:- the maintenance activitys execution by

the production staff (or for the start,mixed teams of production-maintenance),according to the established programsand with the help of the definedmeasures. This involves not only a role of

prediction, but also that of counseling and

assistance in difficult situations.- contracting other companies

interventions and activities;- exploiting all the information referring to

the functioning equipments behavior forimproving the maintenance programs, forconsumptions optimization and theoptimization of the replacements, forimproving the equipments reliability, foroptimizing the maintenance methods, forrenewing the equipments in due time.For carrying out these tasks, the

maintenance department should contain astaff, a not too numerous one, but one of agreat professional competence, made of:experts: engineers and technicians with a

polyvalent technical training, capable tosupervise the activities made by the external

partners and to provide special technicalassistance to the production teams;method agents, charged with establishing

and surveillance of the maintenanceprograms, making out the maintenancesspecifications, information analysis from theequipments history, etc.Considering the things that were previously

presented, the industrial maintenancesevolution is systematically presented in fig.2.

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Fig. 2. The maintenance activities evolution [1]

The maintenances objectives result out of

the general objectives, which, in an industrialcompanys case, focus on profitability,growth, security, etc. However, the

profitability appears as a priority for the greatmajority of the industrial companies (in thecurrent stage of recession, the surviving isthe most important), being in the same wayan imperative condition, allowing, for a longterm, achieving some other objectives. Themaintenance activity must, like the otheractivities, contribute to achieving an essential

objective.

The maintenance activitys management,

which figures through the other decisionalcenters inside an industrial unit can bedefined through (figure 3):a. the general objectives it aims at;

b. the respect restrictions and, in particular,regulations related to security;

c. action variables that are available forachieving the objectives: methods andmeans of maintenance;

d. estimation and control variables.

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Fig. 3. The systematic analysis of the maintenance management [4]

The maintenances general objectives are: The objectives related to security, which

can be expressed through an increasedreliability coefficient of the equipmentsthat are prone to critical failures;

The availability objectives for the wholecompany or for its key equipments;

Objectives that are related to a certainmaintenance budget, respectively those

objectives that involve a diminishing tothe minimum of the maintenance orobjective costs, that aim at long termmanagements optimization of theequipments, substituting, if necessary, theequipment, aiming at optimizing theglobal cost in its life span.

There are also some long term objectivesrelated to the equipments management andmaintenance. In reality, there are more

possibilities for each industrial equipment

and these possibilities are: maintaining theequipment functional by executing somemaintenance activities, but with increasing

maintenance costs and non-efficacy costs(having in mind that the failures coefficientincreases in time); the equipmentsmodernization, the equipments replace withan improved one; the equipments replacewith one with a new technology.A more profound analysis of the place andthe role of the maintenance activities insidethe industrial companies reveals the fact thatthis activity is directly or indirectly involvedin achieving the five operational managementobjectives, which are called the fiveOlympic zeros, objectives that present acertain improving degree that seem capableto evoke an inaccessible ideal: Zero breakdown; Zero failures; Zero stock; Zero delays Zero paper.The objective

Zero breakdownis essentialfor the maintenance. Is it a utopia or an

inaccessible-ideal? Its in fact an imperative

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that must be achieved when peoples life is instake [3].The objective zero failures involves thequality management, but the maintenance is

rigorously related to it, because a productsquality is highly dependent of the tools andthe industrial equipments condition,especially in the case of the automatic androbotized ones.The objective zero stock also involves the

process of maintenance, especially in thecase of just in time organization, where theintermediary stocks are significantly reduced.This kind of result can be obtained just with acorresponding reliability of the upstream

equipments [10].The objective zero delays is relevant forthe maintenance activity related to theinterventions duration, in case of someaccidental blockage, in order to reduce at themaximum the immobilization period.The objective zero paper is indirectlyrelated to the maintenance, but theinformatics applications in the maintenanceactivity contributes to its achievement.

The industrial maintenances necessityresults from the equipments tendency offailing in time. This failure risk depends in anessential way on the equipments reliability,

but the failures consequences depend on theperiod in which they appear, related to thepossibility of their being recovered, in otherwords by the maintenance. The conditions inwhich the equipments are used represent animportant aspect of these failures. Theequipments terms of usage are important forthese kinds of failures. Therefore, the meansthrough which the maintenances generalobjectives are achieved depend on more

partners that intervene in the equipments

conception and design stage, usage andmaintenance.S. Nakajima [7] [8] highlights five categoriesof measures taken for preventing theequipments accidental failures, measures inwhich there are involved the factorsmentioned above and of which themaintenance objectives depend, as it resultsfrom fig. 4.

Fig. 4. Measures of preventing the accidental failures

3 The equipments evolution and its effect

over maintenanceThe industrial equipments technicalcomplexity, the accidental failures

catastrophic consequences from the

economic and/or the social point of viewimpose the following measures for themaintenance activity:

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a. The improvement of the staffsqualification, instruction and

informing.

For assimilating the new technologies, the

maintenance staff must be highly qualified.The staffs competence must be certified atthe employment and through some qualifyingactions. Therefore, the maintenance managermust dedicate a part of his time informinghimself with the achievements abroad, inwhat concerns the technical skills andmaintenance methods.

b. Associating the specialization withthe polyvalence.

When confronted with new and complex

techniques, the company is tempted to draw aconclusion: the maintenance staff must bespecialized. But in the same time,considering the fact that there are multiple

problems, the company will draw theconclusion that it needs some polyvalent

people. Two apparent contradictoryexigencies can be satisfied: creating teams ofspecialists, who must work together under acommon coordination and total polyvalence,that cant be achieved by only one individual,

but by a team. In general, well find in amaintenance department a staff with a certaintechnical polyvalence. The proportion

between the two categories depends on thecompanys size and on how technical theequipment is. There is a tendency of placingin the first lines, in the production sectors, ofeither generalists, or an polyvalent team,formed from various specialists and led by ageneralist or the other way around, in the

central maintenance departments, when theyexist, teams made of technical specialists orpeople specialized on a certain type ofequipment.

c. To predict and control.In order to control the maintenances costs,the prediction must be developed in all thedomains: predicting the staffs management (career

evolution, permutations, leaves, necessaryinstructions etc.);

predicting the expenses for establishingpredicting budgets;

predicting and applying an operationaltechnical documentation (the technicalfiles categorized on types of equipments,technical files categorized on devices,

logical repair schemes etc.). methods of predictive maintenance; works planning; replacements predictive management

On the other hand, we must develop themeans of control in order to analyze theobtained results, to correct and improve thecorrespondent previsions: equipments history in order to supervise

and control the operation of equipment; the analysis of the costs and failures

through the operations of selection,efforts focusing, previsions and acting onthe blind spots or the most expensive

parts (meaning, on the equipmentsweaknesses);

the dashboard to control different aspectsof maintenance etc.d. Increasing the rapidity of the

intervention.

Irrespective of the predictions quality, therewill always be unpredictable situations in themaintenances domain. It can be said that amaintenance activity without unforeseensituations is, by definition, a highlyexpensive maintenance. The interventionsrapidity can be measured acting on: the means of communication and

informing; the staffs quality; the coordination of various specialists (a

structural problem);

the technical documentation, in order tobe operational; material stocks management, like:

transport means, maintenance tools etc.An important issue that must be held in mindis the issue of the couple maintenance-security, from the initial stage ofequipments design, in order to facilitate theaccess and guarantee a greater security of thestaff and of the equipment.

e. The developing and the facilitationof the relationship production-maintenance and transferring some

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maintenance operations towards

production.The manner in which the maintenanceactivity is organized must allow an

improvement of these connections, which areprimordial. The urgent matters will be theobject of direct relationships between theexecutors, and the issues of improvementsand modifications will be the object of

profitability studies and of relationshipbetween the persons who are responsible andthe management. The maintenancecompartment must participate at writing theorders of equipments introduction,supervising and liquidation, it should be

informed over the production programs andconsulted on these programs modificationsin order to give the okay and to take theeventual necessary measures in themaintenances domain.A mixed team will establish the production-maintenance, the list of banal maintenanceoperations that are the exclusive task of the

production or exploit operators and the oneswho need the services of a maintenance

person. This process of operation transfertowards the production has as objective thecosts reduction and determines the

production staff to closely supervise theequipment.In the same time, through the fact that

production offers the necessary assistance,when a maintenance agent must beaccompanied (out of security reasons, or outof reasons that are inherent to theintervention executed), his being

accompanied by another person must beavoided. In the same time, its noticed thatfor the handling and supervising of theautomatic equipments, which are providedwith tele-surveillance and functioningsystems, its necessary to hire in productionsome high trained operators. They can be

properly instructed, even from the time inwhich they are hired, in order to be given allthe first degree (or level one) maintenanceoperations, including emergency repairs and

small maintenance operations. Thismaintenance transfer, named level onetransfer, towards the production, is

facilitated, at modern equipments, by thepresence of: systems of maintenances tele-

surveillance, which allow the supervising

and control of an equipments key pointsat a centralized location; diagnostic systems that allow the failures

visualization and determining thefailures causes;

the expert informatics system thatallows for the person who is interested anautomatic technical assistance throughdetecting the flaw and studying thecauses.f. The developing and facilitation of

the relationships between theresearch and design department

and the maintenance department.

The best manner of reducing a cost elementis the one of eliminating the elements thatdetermine this cost. From this point of view,it must be considered, from the early stage ofconception and investments achievements,the problems raised by the equipmentsmaintenance. Important progresses are made,in this aspect, improving the relationships

between the research and design departmentsand the maintenance ones.These improvements are made through thefollowing methods: in the industries in which the maintenance

costs are superior to the processingoperations costs, will be assigned a

person responsible with the equipment,which will have the responsibility of

providing the production some

equipments whose global costs(acquisition plus maintenance) are thesmallest possible;

the participation of the maintenancedepartment at the design and achievementof the investments and at the research-design department for improving andmodernizing the existent equipment;

a common team will establish:o the documentation that must be

given by the equipments

builders, suppliers and installers;o the list of necessary items of

information regarding the nature,

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[10] Y. Pimor, T.P.M. La maintenance

productive pour produire juste a temps,

Edition Economica, Paris, 1991.

[11] D. Veret, L Extrenalisation de la

maintenance, Edition Afnor, Paris, 2003.

Vasile DEAC, Management Department of the Management Faculty,Academy of Economic studies, Bucharest, author and coauthor of over 17specialty books and university courses and over 40 specialty articles and

studies published in the journals of international scientific conferences or in

professional journals, rated by CNCSIS in the category B+, indexed in

international databases, among them 11 articles are ISI rated.

Gheorghe CRSTEA, Dean of the Management Faculty, Academy ofEconomic studies, Bucharest, supervisor of doctorate theses in management,

director of the masters program in management, author and coauthor of over

20 specialty books and university courses and over 50 specialty articles and

studies published in the journals of international scientific conferences orprofessional journals, rated by CNCSIS in the category B+, indexed in

international databases, among them 5 articles are ISI rated.

Constantin BGU, chief of Management Department of the ManagementFaculty, Academy of Economic studies, Bucharest, supervisor of doctorate

theses in management, author and coauthor of over 25 specialty books and

university courses and over 45 specialty articles and studies published in the

journals of international scientific conferences or in professional journals,

rated by CNCSIS in the category B+, indexed in international databases,

among them 3 articles are ISI rated.

Florea PRVU, Management Department of the Management Faculty,Economic Studies Academy, author and coauthor of over 20 specialty books

and university courses and over 35 specialty articles and studies published in

the journals of international scientific conferences or in professional journals,

rated by CNCSIS in the category B+, indexed in international databases,

among them 4 articles are ISI rated.

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