MAINTENANCE

ENGINEERING AND
MANAGEMENT
CHAPTER 1
MAINTENANCE
ORGANIZATION
INTRODUCTION & MAINTENANCE
ORGANIZATION ROLE

Learning
Outcomes

Upon completion of this chapter,

students should be able to:

Determine the role of maintenance

organization.

Introduction

Organizing is the process of arranging resources (people,

materials, technology etc.) together to achieve the
organizations strategies and goals.
The way in which the various parts of an organization are
formally arranged is referred to as the organization
structure. It is a system involving the interaction of inputs
and outputs. It is characterized by task assignments,
workflow, reporting relationships, and communication
channels that link together the work of diverse individuals
and groups.
Any structure must allocate tasks through a division of labor
and facilitate the coordination of the performance results.

Introduction

Organization structures should be viewed as dynamic entities that

continuously evolve to respond to changes in technology, processes
and environment, (Daft, 1989 and Schermerhorn, 2007).
Frederick W. Taylor introduced the concept of scientific management
(times study and division of labor), while Frank and Lilian Gilbreth
founded the concept of modern motion study techniques.
The contributions of Taylor and the Gilbreths are considered as the
basis for modern organization management until the middle of the
twentieth century maintenance has been carried out in an unplanned
reactive way and for a long time it has lagged behind other areas of
industrial management in the application of formal techniques and/or
information technology.
With realization of the impact of poor maintenance on enterprises
profitability, many managers are revising the organization of
maintenance and have developed new approaches that foster
effective maintenance organization.

Introduction

Maintenance cost can be a significant factor in an

organizations profitability.
In manufacturing, maintenance cost could consume 210%
of the companys revenue and may reach up to 24% in the
transport industry (Chelson, Payne and Reavill, 2005).
The contemporary management considers maintenance as
an integral function in achieving productive operations and
high-quality products, while maintaining satisfactory
equipment and machines reliability as demanded by the era
of automation, flexible manufacturing systems (FMS), lean
manufacturing, and just-in-time operations.

Introduction

There is no universally accepted methodology for designing

maintenance systems, i.e., no fully structured approach leading to an
optimal maintenance system (i.e., organizational structure with a
defined hierarchy of authority and span of control; defined
maintenance procedures and policies, etc.).
Identical product organizations, but different in technology
advancement and production size, may apply different maintenance
systems and the different systems may run successfully.
Maintenance systems are designed using experience and judgment
supported by a number of formal decision tools and techniques.
Two vital considerations should be considered: strategy that decides
on which level within the plant to perform maintenance, and hence
outlining a structure that will support the maintenance; planning that
handles day-to-day decisions on what maintenance tasks to perform
and providing the resources to undertake these tasks.

Introduction

The maintenance organizing function can be viewed as one of

the basic and integral parts of the maintenance management
function (MMF).
The MMF consists of planning, organizing, implementing and
controlling maintenance activities. The management organizes,
provides resources (personnel, capital, assets, material and
hardware, etc.) and leads to performing tasks and
accomplishing targets. Figure 1.1 shows the role organizing
plays in the management process.
Once the plans are created, the managements task is to
ensure that they are carried out in an effective and efficient
manner. Having a clear mission, strategy, and objectives
facilitated by a corporate culture, organizing starts the process
of implementation by clarifying job and working relations (chain
of command, span of control, delegation of authority, etc.).

Figure 1.1 Maintenance

organizing as a function of the
management process

Introduction

In designing the maintenance organization there are important

determinants that must be considered. The determinants include the
capacity of maintenance, centralization versus decentralization and
in-house maintenance versus outsourcing.
A number of criteria can be used to design the maintenance
organization. The criteria include clear roles and responsibilities,
effective span of control, facilitation of good supervision and effective
reporting, and minimization of costs.
Maintenance managers must have the capabilities to create a division
of labor for maintenance tasks to be performed and then coordinate
results to achieve a common purpose.
Solving performance problems and capitalizing on opportunities could
be attained through selection of the right persons, with the
appropriate capabilities, supported by continuous training and good
incentive schemes, in order to achieve organization success in terms
of performance effectiveness and efficiency.

Introduction

A maintenance organization can be considered as being

made up three necessary and interdependent components:Resources: men, spares and tools.
Administration: a hierarchy of authority and responsibility
for deciding what, when and how work should be carried
out.
Work Planning and Control System: a mechanism for
planning and scheduling the work and feeding back the
information that is needed for correctly directing the
maintenance effort towards defined objective.

Introduction

It may be mentioned that maintenance / production system is a

continuously evolving organism in which the maintenance
organization will need continuous modifications in response to
changing requirements.
It is required to match the resources to workload. Maintenance
activities be it preventive or condition monitoring, involve use of
resources- men and materials including documents.
Work planning and control system under maintenance management
in the plant ensures this and provides planning and control of
activities associated with maintenance.
This means application of general management principles of
planning, organizing, directing and controlling to the maintenance
functions, e.g. to the establishment of procedures for development
of maintenance strategy and to models for describing the flow of
work through maintenance work planning department.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

A maintenance organization and its position in the

plant/whole organization is heavily impacted by the
following elements or factors:(i) Type of business, e.g., whether it is high tech, labor
intensive, production or service;
(ii) Objectives: may include profit maximization, increasing
market share and other social objectives;
(iii)
Size and structure of the organization;
(iv)
Culture of the organization; and
(v)
Range of responsibility assigned to maintenance.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

i.
ii.
iii.
iv.
v.

A maintenance organization and its position in the

plant/whole organization is heavily impacted by the
following elements or factors:Type of business, e.g., whether it is high tech, labor
intensive, production or service;
Objectives: may include profit maximization, increasing
market share and other social objectives;
Size and structure of the organization;
Culture of the organization; and
Range of responsibility assigned to maintenance.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

Organizations seek one or several of the following

objectives: profit maximization, specific quality level of
service or products, minimizing costs, safe and clean
environment, or human resource development.
It is clear that all of these objectives are heavily impacted
by maintenance and therefore the objectives of
maintenance must be aligned with the objectives of the
organization.
The principal responsibility of maintenance is to provide a
service to enable an organization to achieve its objectives.

*Role of Maintenance
Organization

i.
ii.

iii.
iv.
v.

The specific responsibilities vary from one organization to

another; however they generally include the following
according to Duffuaa et al. (1998).
Keeping assets and equipment in good condition, well
configured and safe to perform their intended functions;
Perform all maintenance activities including preventive,
predictive; corrective, overhauls, design modification and
emergency maintenance in an efficient and effective
manner;
Conserve and control the use of spare parts and material;
Commission new plants and plant expansions; and
Operate utilities and conserve energy.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

The maintenance organizations structure is determined

after planning the maintenance capacity.
The maintenance capacity is heavily influenced by the level
of centralization or decentralization adopted. In this section
the main issues that must be addressed when forming the
maintenance organizations structure are presented.
The issues are: capacity planning, centralization versus
decentralization and in-house versus outsourcing.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

Maintenance capacity planning determines the required

resources for maintenance including the required crafts,
administration, equipment, tools and space to execute the
maintenance load efficiently and meet the objectives of the
maintenance department.

Critical aspects of maintenance capacity are the numbers

and skills of craftsmen required to execute the maintenance
load. It is difficult to determine the exact number of various
types of craftsmen, since the maintenance load is
uncertain.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

Therefore accurate forecasts for the future maintenance

work demand are essential for determining the
maintenance capacity. In order to have better utilization of
manpower, organizations tend to reduce the number of
available craftsmen below their expected need.

This is likely to result in a backlog of uncompleted

maintenance work. This backlog can also be cleared when
the maintenance load is less than the capacity. Making long
run estimations is one of the areas in maintenance capacity
planning that is both critical and not well developed in
practice.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

The decision to organize maintenance in a centralized,

decentralized or a hybrid form depends to a greater extent
on the organization is philosophy, maintenance load, size of
the plant and skills of craftsmen.

The advantages of centralization are:Provides more flexibility and improves utilization of

resources such highly skilled crafts and special equipment
and therefore results in more efficiency;
Allows more efficient line supervision;
Allows more effective on the job training; and
Permits the purchasing of modern equipment.

i.

ii.
iii.
iv.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

i.
ii.
iii.
iv.

However it has the following disadvantages:Less utilization of crafts since more time is required for
getting to and from jobs;
Supervision of crafts becomes more difficult and as such
less maintenance control is achieved;
Less specialization on complex hardware is achieved since
different persons work on the same hardware; and
More costs of transportation are incurred due to
remoteness of some of the maintenance work.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

In a decentralized maintenance organization, departments

are assigned to specific areas or units. This tends to reduce
the flexibility of the maintenance system as a whole. The
range of skills available becomes reduced and manpower
utilization is usually less efficient than in a centralized
maintenance.
In some cases a compromise solution that combines
centralization and decentralization is better.
This type of hybrid is called a cascade system. The cascade
system organizes maintenance in areas and whatever
exceeds the capacity of each area is challenged to a
centralized unit.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

In a decentralized maintenance organization, departments

are assigned to specific areas or units. This tends to reduce
the flexibility of the maintenance system as a whole. The
range of skills available becomes reduced and manpower
utilization is usually less efficient than in a centralized
maintenance.
In some cases a compromise solution that combines
centralization and decentralization is better.
This type of hybrid is called a cascade system. The cascade
system organizes maintenance in areas and whatever
exceeds the capacity of each area is challenged to a
centralized unit.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

Centralized maintenance
The strengths of this structure are: allows economies of
scale; enables in-depth skill development; and enables
departments (i.e., a maintenance department) to
accomplish their functional goals (not the overall
organizational goals).
This structure is best suited for small to medium-size
organizations. The weaknesses of this structure are: it has
slow response time to environmental changes; may cause
delays in decision making and hence longer response time;
leads to poor horizontal coordination among departments
and involves a restricted view of organizational goals.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

Decentralized maintenance.
The strengths of this structure are that it allows the
organization to achieve adaptability and coordination in
production units and efficiency in a centralized overhaul
group and it facilitates effective coordination both within
and between maintenance and other departments.
The weaknesses of this structure are that it has potential
for excessive administrative overheads and may lead to
conflict between departments.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

Matrix structure, a form of a hybrid structure.

The strengths of this matrix structure are: it allows the
organization to achieve coordination necessary to meet
dual demands from the environment and flexible sharing of
human resources.
The weaknesses of this structure are: it causes
maintenance employees to experience dual authority which
can be frustrating and confusing; it is time consuming and
requires frequent meetings and conflict resolution sessions.
To remedy the weaknesses of this structure a management
with good interpersonal skills and extensive training is
required.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

i.
ii.
iii.
iv.

In large size plants located at different places, inter unit

communication is difficult. In such cases the decentralized type
of organization is best suited, which means that the maintenance
organization works under the direct control of a chief engineer
in-charge of production. Under this type of organization, better
coordination between production and maintenance groups is
possible because of a common head of organization. The
advantages of such type of organization are:Speedy decisions due to better line of communication under
single control.
Maintenance and production people understand each others
problems better because of their common goals.
Interchangeability of workforce, even at the managerial level, is
also possible.
Better training at the workers level can be arranged.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

In a small factory where communication between the

departments is freer, the centralized type of maintenance
organization is preferred, which is placed under a chief
maintenance engineer/manager.
The total responsibility of the maintenance function for the
entire factory lies with the chief maintenance engineer.
Under this type of organization, 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
other for any shortfall.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

The partially centralized organization, which is the modified

form of a centralized type of organization, is most suitable
for projects that have units far away locations.
Under this type of maintenance organization, the
maintenance personnel, attached to the production unit,
carry out work at unit level and look after day to day
maintenance.
All
centralized
work
pertaining
to
maintenance planning and documentation is done at the
level of central maintenance workshop.
The above three types of maintenance organizations,
however, are not strictly exclusive and some adjustments
can be made to suit the working environment and the need.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

i.

Primary Functions
Maintenance of Existing Plant Equipment.
This activity represents the physical reason for the
existence of the maintenance professional. Responsibility
here is simply to make necessary repairs to production
machinery quickly and economically and to anticipate
these repairs and employ preventive maintenance where
possible to prevent them. For this, a staff of skilled
engineers, planners, and technicians who are capable of
performing the work must be trained, motivated, and
constantly retained to assure that adequate skills are
available to perform effective maintenance.

Role of Maintenance
Organization
ii.

Maintenance of Existing Plant Buildings and Grounds.

The repairs to buildings and to the external property of any plantroads,
railroad tracks, in-plant sewer systems, and water supply facilitiesare
among the duties generally assigned to the maintenance engineering
group. A plant with an extensive office facility and a major buildingmaintenance program may assign this coverage to a special team. In plants
where many of the buildings are dispersed, the care and maintenance of
this large amount of land may warrant a special organization.

Repairs and minor alterations to buildingsroofing, painting, glass

replacement or the unique craft skills required to service electrical or
plumbing systems or the like are most logically the purview of maintenance
engineering personnel. Road repairs and the maintenance of tracks and
switches, fences, or outlying structures may also be so assigned. It is
important to isolate cost records for general cleanup from routine
maintenance and repair so that management will have a true picture of the
true expense required to maintain the plant and its equipment.

Role of Maintenance
Organization
iii.

Equipment Inspection and Lubrication.

Traditionally, all equipment inspections and lubrication has been assigned
to the maintenance organization or function. While inspections that
require special tools or partial disassembly of equipment must be retained
within the maintenance function, the use of trained operators or
production personnel in this critical task will provide more effective use of
plant personnel. The same is true of lubrication. Because of their
proximity to the production systems, operators are ideally suited for
routine lubrication tasks.

iv.

Utilities Generation and Distribution.

In any plant generating its own electricity and providing its own process
steam, the powerhouse assumes the functions of a small public utilities
company and may justify an operating department of its own. However,
this activity logically falls within the realm of maintenance engineering.
It can be administered either as a separate function or as part of some
other function, depending on management requirements.

Role of Maintenance
Organization
v.

Alterations and New Installations.

Three factors generally determine to what extent this area involves
the maintenance department: plant size, multi plant company size,
company policy. In a small plant of a one-plant company, this type of
work may be handled by outside contractors. But its administration
and that of the maintenance force should be under the same
management. In a small plant within a multi plant company, the
majority of new installations and major alterations may be performed
by a company-wide central engineering department. In a large plant a
separate organization should handle the major portion of this work.

Where installations and alterations are handled outside the

maintenance engineering department, the company must allow
flexibility between corporate and plant engineering groups. It would
be self-defeating for all new work to be handled by an agency
separated from maintenance policies and management.

Role of Maintenance
Organization

Secondary Functions

i.

Storekeeping
In most plants it is essential to differentiate between mechanical stores and
general stores. The administration of mechanical stores normally falls within the
maintenance engineering group`s area because of the close relationship of this
activity with other maintenance operations.

ii.

Plant Protection
This category usually includes two distinct subgroups: guards or watchmen; fire
control squads. Incorporation of these functions with maintenance engineering
is generally common practice. The inclusion of the fire-control group is
important since its members are almost always drawn from the craft elements.

iii.

Waste Disposal
This function and that of yard maintenance are usually combined as specific
assignments of the maintenance department.

Role of Maintenance
Organization
v.

Salvage
If a large part of plant activity concerns off grade products, a
special salvage unit should be set up. But if salvage involves
mechanical equipment, such as scrap lumber, paper,
containers, and so on, it should be assigned to maintenance.

vi.

Insurance Administration
This category includes claims, process equipment and
pressure-vessel inspection, liaison with underwriters
representatives,
and
the
handling
of
insurance
recommendations. These functions are normally included
with maintenance since it is here that most of the
information will originate.

Role of Maintenance
Organization
vii.

Other Services
The maintenance engineering department often seems to
be a catchall for many other odd activities that no other
single department can or wants to handle. But care must be
taken not to dilute the primary responsibilities of
maintenance with these secondary services. Whatever
responsibilities
are
assigned
to
the
maintenance
engineering department, it is important that they be clearly
defined and that the limits of authority and responsibility be
established and agreed upon by all concerned.

The End

Thank You