Maintenance Organization

Activities of Maintenance Organization

Job Design:

Job design as related to maintenance work comprises work content of each job, determines the
methods that is to be used, special tools needed and the skilled workers required.

Time Standards:

Once the maintenance task has gone through the job design stage, it is necessary to estimate the
time needed for completing the job. Realistic time standards go a long way in monitoring and
increasing the effectiveness of workers and thus minimizing the plant downtime. It is not
necessary to have time standards for all of the maintenance jobs. For example, it might be
noticed that 20% of the maintenance job take approximately 80% of the time available for
maintenance operations. Efforts should be made for developing time standards for maintenance
operations that consume so much time. Techniques for developing job time standards include
work measurement and comparative estimation.

Project Management:

For most large plants, planned major overhauls and preventive maintenance is carried out
periodically. With a view to minimizing downtime, it is advantageous to plan and chart the work
to make the best use of resources. Once the network has been developed, which includes work
breakdown, job sequence, time estimate for each activity, computer software may be used for
scheduling the activities and determining the best utilization of resources. The control phase of
such project includes measuring progress regularly, comparing it with schedule and analyzing the
variance as a percentage of the total work. Corrective actions can be taken to eliminate
shortcomings.
Types of Maintenance Organization
Decentralized:

In large-size plants located at different places, inter-unit communication is difficult. In such cases
the decentralized type of maintenance organization is best suited, which means that maintenance
organization works under the direct control of a chief engineer in-charge of production
department. Under this type of organization better coordination between the production and
maintenance group is possible because of a common head of organization.

Centralized:

In a small factory where communication between the departments is more free, the centralized
type of maintenance organization is preferred, which is placed under a chief maintenance
engineer/ manager. Under this type, the responsibilities and accountability of work must be
properly specified for production as well as maintenance personnel to successfully meet the
project goals. If this is not taken care of, one department may blame the other for any shortfall.

Partially decentralized:

Partially decentralized is a modified form of centralized type and is most suitable for projects
that have units at far away locations. Under this type, the maintenance personnel attached to the
production unit carry out work at unit level and look after day-to-day maintenance. However,
important maintenance work such as overhauling, planned maintenance work, procurement of
spare parts, etc. are kept under the charge of chief maintenance engineer at central office.