IN TODAY’S business environment asset utilisation and productivity gains are continually being focussed on in order to maximise shareholders’ return on investment. And to be able to achieve this, the management and delivery of an effective maintenance service is a fundamental component to the success of an organisation whose balance sheet is dominated by fixed assets.
However, many manufacturing organisations in this situation typically do not have the knowledge, skills and/or ability to effectively develop, implement and manage a maintenance programme that is appropriate to their business requirements and delivers a value-adding service. 
Where maintenance is undertaken by internal personnel, senior management typically do not provide the necessary focus and attention that is needed for effective maintenance. This leads to a reactive day-to-day management style where maintenance is undertaken in a fire-fighting manner where personnel run from one breakdown to the next. Such a strategy drives in an additional cost to the business.  Where maintenance is outsourced to an external service provider, the service provider is typically a small company that comprises maintenance trade qualified personnel. These personnel are generally good with the ‘tools’ but lack the necessary management skills to develop and implement an effective maintenance programme – again leading to a fire-fighting situation where maintenance does not add value to the business.
In both situations, the maintenance service is treated as a cost centre where the cost of maintenance is continually being driven down to the lowest possible level by senior management. Such a focus with no underlying maintenance strategy means that the reactive maintenance culture continues to repeat itself with a detrimental impact on plant performance.
Business centred approach
To overcome this situation where maintenance is underperforming and/or seen as a cost to the business, a holistic approach needs to be taken where maintenance is seen and therefore managed as a business in its own right.  By taking a business centred approach to maintenance service, a maintenance strategy is developed which is aligned with the organisation’s business strategy and has the objective of delivering the required level of asset reliability at the lowest total cost over the assets’ life. 
This maintenance strategy is then imple-mented and underpinned by a detailed maintenance plan which outlines what management and delivery programmes are necessary in order to first achieve and then maintain the defined level of asset reliability. 
From this maintenance plan, the annual resource and financial requirements can be determined and, more importantly, used as a performance management framework to determine and drive the effectiveness of the maintenance service.
Through the implementation of a business centred approach to maintenance, an organisation will be in an improved and informed position – whereby it will be able to drive and manage the maintenance service in such a way that it becomes an integral part in creating operational excellence within the manufacturing organisation.
Article supplied by MESNZ chair Mike Killick, of OpEx Group.