17.3 Maintenance
All products, systems, and machinery are susceptible to failure over time. To prevent or delay such failures, maintenance plays a critical role in ensuring continued functionality and operational reliability.
Maintenance encompasses all activities aimed at keeping equipment and systems in working order. It includes both preventive measures, designed to avoid failures before they occur, and reactive measures, which address issues after a failure has taken place. The overarching goal is to sustain performance, extend asset life, and minimize downtime.
Effective maintenance management depends on a firm’s ability to:
Establish and foster a maintenance culture.
Promoting awareness, accountability, and proactive behaviour across all levels of the organization
Adopt an appropriate maintenance strategy.
Selecting the right mix of preventive, predictive, and corrective approaches based on asset criticality and operational context.
Align maintenance practices with reliability goals.
Ensuring that maintenance activities directly support the reliability targets of systems and equipment.
These foundational concepts will be explored in the following sections to provide a comprehensive understanding of maintenance as a strategic function within operations management. These concepts will be briefly examined in the following sections.
Maintenance Culture
A strong maintenance culture is foundational to achieving high levels of equipment reliability and operational excellence. It extends beyond the maintenance department, requiring commitment from every employee, from machine operators to senior management. In such a culture, maintenance is not viewed as a reactive task but as a shared responsibility embedded in daily operations.
This collective mindset fosters proactive behaviour, where potential issues are anticipated, communicated early, and resolved collaboratively. Employees understand their roles in maintaining equipment health, performing basic preventive maintenance tasks, and promptly reporting any abnormalities.
A well-established maintenance culture lays the groundwork for Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), which integrates principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) with a strategic, organization-wide approach to maintenance.
Key Elements of a Maintenance Culture
Employees can play essential roles in supporting maintenance management through the following behaviours:
- Ownership of Equipment: Operators are responsible for conducting routine inspections, cleaning, and identifying early signs of wear or malfunction. This sense of ownership increases accountability and responsiveness.
- Prompt Communication: Staff are encouraged to report issues immediately, helping to minimize downtime and prevent minor issues from escalating into major failures.
- Collaboration Across Functions: Cross-functional communication between production and maintenance teams ensures that operational insights are shared, enabling more effective troubleshooting and planning.
- Continuous Learning and Training: All employees receive training in basic maintenance practices, safety protocols, and improvement techniques. This reinforces a culture of vigilance and continuous improvement.
By breaking down silos between departments, a strong maintenance culture promotes a holistic approach to asset management, aligning maintenance with broader organizational goals.
Organizational Benefits of a Strong Maintenance Culture
Reliable equipment reduces unplanned downtime, allowing firms to operate closer to full capacity and meet production targets efficiently.
Well-maintained machines produce more consistent outputs, reducing defects, rework, and customer complaints.
Consistent quality and reliability enhance customer trust and satisfaction, contributing to a stronger market position and competitive advantage.
Stable equipment performance minimizes fluctuations in output, making it easier to meet specifications and improve process control.
Maintenance culture aligns with frameworks like TPM and Lean Manufacturing, encouraging regular evaluation of practices, employee-driven problem-solving, and sustained performance improvements (Alsyouf, 2007).
