Analyzing adoption of maintenance strategies in manufacturing companies

Maintenance is the combination of all technical and associated administrative actions intended to retain an item in, or restore it to, a state in which it can perform its required function. Companies are seeking to gain competitive advantage with respect to cost, quality, service and on time deliveries. The effect of maintenance on these variables has prompted increased attention to the maintenance areas as an integral part of productivity improvement. Due to numerous advantages of maintenance, manufacturing companies are trying to adopt maintenance strategies to support their businesses. The purpose of this study is to analyze maintenance strategies found in local manufacturing companies. In this paper we report on our findings on how maintenance strategy has improved company operations and performance. The paper is based on maintenance strategy theoretical overview and multiple case studies in which six companies were studied. The paper evaluates their views on the strategic impact of production maintenance. From literature two important elements of maintenance strategy that were focused on are structural and infrastructure decisions. A benchmarking process was also done on maintenance performance factors. A questionnaire that incorporated structural, infrastructural and maintenance performance factors was circulated in the studied companies. The research established that most employees now understand maintenance policies and concepts. An increase in in-house maintenance was observed, with improved overall equipment effectiveness. Improved spares availability was also noticed. The study noticed that equipment modifications was still lacking in most companies. Most maintenance personnel had no access to the computerized maintenance management systems, impacting negatively on their maintenance planning and control. The paper recommends that employees with design background must be incorporated into maintenance teams. Employees must be trained on computerized maintenance management systems. This paper contributes to the understanding of maintenance management constructs and the factors influencing the implementation of maintenance strategies