Evaluating the effectiveness of maintenance strategies

Introduction (Pinjala and Pintelon, 2004) conducted survey

within Belgian industries, 71% out of 46 respondent considered that maintenance could be used as a tool for enhancing company’s competitive advantage.

2 groups: Concern consistencies Concern contribution

This paper, Hayes and Wheelwright’s 4 stage framework is applied in identifying and evaluating the effectiveness of a given maintenance strategy.

Maintenance strategy and its effectiveness Swanson (2001) explains 3 types of maintenance

strategies: Reactive strategy (CM) Proactive strategy (PM and PDM) Aggressive strategy (TPM)

Tsang (2002) identifies 4 strategic dimensions of maintenance: Service-delivery option Organization and work structuring Maintenance methodology Support systems

Often leads to the simplification of the maintenance function just as corrective and/or preventive maintenance.

Define as a series of unified and integrated pattern of decisions made in 4 structural and 6 infrastructural decision elements. (Pinjala and Pintelon, 2004). Table 1.

Cholasuke et al. (2004) studied the status of maintenance management in UK manufacturing organizations based on a pilot survey. They categorized the maintenance effectiveness measures into 9 areas based on a literature study: Policy deployment and organization Human resources management Financial aspects Continuous improvement Contracting out maintenance Maintenance approach Task planning and scheduling Information management and CMMS Spare parts management

Table 1

Campell and Jardine (2001) propose 5 levels of maintenance excellence: Novice Foundation Apprentice Journeyman Mastery

This paper mainly considers the consistency and contribution criteria suggested by Hayes and Wheelwright.

Methodology Evaluating such strategy can be much more

complex. Appropriateness of a given maintenance

strategy should mainly depends upon manufacturing and business requirements.

Should internally consistent with the strategy elements (Table 1)

Should also externally consistent with the business environment (e.g. governmental restraints on safety and the environment).

Based on the consistency and contribution criteria, Hayes and Wheelwright develop a 4-stage framework for manufacturing’s strategic role in a company.

The degree of maintenance strategy effectiveness can be evaluated on a continuum from stage 1 to stage 4.

Case example Stage 1: Internally neutral

DSN (not its real name) annual sales of over $800million. Employ 5000 people. Maintenance employ 24% of the total workforce. Demand exceed supply. Downtime is around 16% while competitors maintain it at

less than 10%. Outsources more than 50% of its maintenance activities. More than 70% of its maintenance is done on a reactive

basis. Total annual budget on maintenance is around

$30million, represent 15% of total operating costs.

Case example Stage 2: Externally neutral

Case example Stage 3: Internally supportive

Case example Stage 4: Externally supportive

Conclusion This paper mainly represents an attempt to

explore the operationalization of Hayes and Wheelwright’s four-stage framework with respect to maintenance strategies.

The case examples indicate that maintenance, if managed properly, can also contribute to enhancing the competitive advantage of a company.

This study shows that companies that seek a balance of excellence in all of their functions perform better.