Machinery Components Maintenance And Repair Episode 1 Part 2 pdf

It is a generally accepted practice to let each plant manager handle the

PM program for his facility. In some plants, this is being done with indi￾vidual check sheets or production boards using equipment manufacturers’

recommendations and the limited experience of plant personnel. However,

the demand for plant operation attention often prevents timely mainte￾nance performance. Another defect is that it lacks uniformity and does not

provide compliance reports to home office management. And, there is

often no effective way to compare the PM performance at similar plants

or equipment at different locations. Most important of all, equipment fail￾ures may occur because proper consideration and judgement is not given

to maintenance items whose significance is best understood by qualified

specialists.

Central Control System

In view of this, major corporations will frequently opt to incorporate

a centrally controlled PM system into the Operations Department. This

allows mechanical and process specialists to make the key cost decisions

on what kind and how often maintenance should be accomplished at all

affiliate plants by coupling it to an electronic data processing monitoring

system. This will serve as a management tool in evaluating conformance

to the maintenance system. Thus, the plant manager is made responsible

for efficiently executing the PM work as outlined by the program, and is

monitored for performance by centralized management. The data pro￾cessing system can be easily adapted to any facility, is inexpensive to

install and operate, and lends itself to overall reduced costs as the corpo￾ration expands. Some of the system advantages are:

1. The PM performance and frequency program is prepared by the cen￾tralized group of qualified engineering specialists based on equip￾ment manufacturers’ recommendations, experience, and historical

records. The program is reviewed and approved by the plant manager.

Program updating to take advantage of new technical knowledge and

both good and bad experience is important to ensure continued cost

savings.

2. A definite schedule is presented to plant managers so they know what

is expected of them.

3. Operations management is advised of system conformance and is

made aware of rescheduled tasks.

4. The system identifies overall corporate maintenance requirements so

that work can be staggered enabling a minimum mobile group of

technical and maintenance specialists to handle the overall program.

Maintenance Organization and Control for Multi-Plant Corporations 15

5. Historical data are accumulated for analysis.

6. Reduction in clerical work more than offsets the cost of

computerization.

Principal Applications Areas for the Maintenance Computer

Conceptual discussions of the past and more recent systems develop￾ment work have concentrated on six general areas of maintenance support.

Systems are, of course, called by different names, according to the

company which is developing and implementing them. Systems of any

one type may also have differing emphasis, according to the specific

company’s requirements for maintenance support. The general applica￾tions areas are:

1. Materials inventory/stock cataloging.

2. Preventive maintenance/equipment records.

3. Work order costing.

4. Fixed equipment inspection.

5. Planning/scheduling of major maintenance projects.

6. Work order planning and scheduling.

The various computer systems have been developed both separately

and as integrated groups through exchange of data between systems.

Moreover, maintenance systems generally are designed for data exchange

with a conventional accounting system.

Materials inventory/stock catalog systems are designed to support

maintenance by making certain that required materials and spare parts

are available at the right time, at the right place, and at minimum cost.

Well-designed systems in this category provide better availability of parts

and materials by supplying up-to-date catalogs, generated in multiple

sorts.

Some systems allow stock items to be reserved for future usage in major

construction projects or for scheduled plant or unit turnaround projects.

A well-designed inventory/stock catalog system also may maintain a

history of materials and parts usage. This enables maintenance to evalu￾ate service demand patterns or vendor performance and to adjust inven￾tory levels according to materials/parts usage. Some companies place

emphasis on the purchasing function in design of inventory systems. Such

systems automatically signal the need for materials or parts reorders on

whatever basis the purchasing department wishes to establish (such as

order point/order quantity or minimum/maximum quantities). The system

may also be designed for automatic purchase order generation and to

16 Machinery Component Maintenance and Repair