Formulation of Maintenance Strategies

In industry, there is a constant demand for increased productivity in order to stay competitive. Still, Swedish industry has an average utilization of about 60% in its production systems. One important factor for increasing the equipment utilization is effective maintenance of production assets. Within process industry a strategic view on maintenance activities is common and most companies regard maintenance as a profit centre. Meanwhile, the discrete units manufacturing industry still in many cases view maintenance as a cost driver. However, with the spread of Toyota-inspired production concepts, the manufacturing industry is beginning to view maintenance as a strategic asset. Still, though, many companies have no formulated maintenance strategy. The main purpose of the research, presented in this thesis, has been to develop a work-process for formulation of effective maintenance strategies for enterprises in the manufacturing industry. Through one descriptive and two prescriptive case studies a work-process for formulation of maintenance strategies has been developed. The descriptive study revealed some of the differences between companies with and without maintenance strategies. It also showed how some companies view the strategic contributions of maintenance. The first prescriptive study showed how stakeholder involvement may contribute to the identification of relevant performance measures for the maintenance activities. Stakeholder involvement also contributes to the organizational acceptance of the maintenance strategy. Last, the second prescriptive case study led to the development of a work-process for formulation of maintenance strategies. The work-process was tested and verified in three companies, handling different challenges for their maintenance activities. All three companies intend to use the formulated maintenance strategy as a road map for the development of their production maintenance.