Equipment maintenance strategies on the viability of beverage industries in south sjbss

Strategic Journal of Business and Social Science (SJBSS) Volume 2. Issue 2 Feb, 2019
Website: www.sj-bss.com Email: editor@sj-bss.com
Chiaka Okereke. E: Equipment Maintenance Strategies & Organizational Viability, 2019
pg. 1
Strategic Journal of Business and Social Science (SJBSS) www.sj-bss.com
EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES ON THE VIABILITY OF
BEVERAGE INDUSTRIES IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA
(A STUDY OF NIGERIA BOTTLING COMPANY & NIGERIA
BREWERIES)
BY
CHIAKA OKEREKE. E
15/M.sc/4237
BEING DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT, FAULTY OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
IMO STATE UNIVERSITY, OWRRI
JULY, 2019

pg. 2
CERTIFICATION
EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE STRATEGIES ON THE VIABILITY OF
BEVERAGE INDUSTRIES IN SOUTH-EAST NIGERIA
(A STUDY OF NIGERIA BOTTLING COMPANY & NIGERIA
BREWERIES)
BY
CHIAKA OKEREKE. E
15/M.sc/4237
IT IS THEREFORE CERTIFIED THAT THIS THESIS IS ACCEPTABLE
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE
AWARD OF MSC DEGREE OF IMO STATE UNIVERSITY
NAMES SIGNATURE DATE
Supervisor ………………………….. …………….. ……….
H.O.D ………………………….. …………….. ……….
Dean ………………………….. …………….. ……….
EXTERNAL
EXAMINER ……….…………… …………….. ……….

pg. 3
DEDICATION
This research work is dedicated to the Almighty God, the Omnipotent and the great
provider, for his abundant grace upon me throughout the period of this course. I also
dedicate this work to my entire family of Okereke Joseph.
Acknowledgments
I am indebted to my supervisor Dr. Mrs Udokwu for her guidance, encouragement;
patience and kindness despite her crowded official activities as a lecturer still find
time to read work and make necessary corrections. My sincere gratitude also goes to
Dr. E.C. Agulanna, Prof. Alugbuo C.C and all the lecturers at the School of
Postgraduate Studies who have in one way or the other contributed to the framing of
my educational state and height.
I won’t forget my colleague in the department of Management whom I one way or
the order have contributed my success in this program, they are Charles Ugwuegbu,
Darlington Opara, Chiwe, Mary and others.
May God Bless You all Amen.

pg. 4
Abstract
This study investigated the effect of equipment maintenance strategies on the
viability of organizations specifically firms operating in the beverage industry. For
the purpose of this study, four research objectives, questions, and hypotheses were
formulated and analyzed. In order to achieve the research objectives, the study used
a survey research design in studying a representative size of the population total of
140 from a target population of 297 which is the total population of staff of Nigeria
Bottling Company (NBC), and Nigeria Breweries (NB) in South-East Nigeria.
Questions designed in the Likert Scale Format were used as a major instrument for
the collection of data while regression analysis on SPSS was used in testing four (4)
hypotheses. The finding revealed that the two studied equipment maintenance
strategies; preventive and corrective maintenance strategies have positive significant
on the viability indicators such as product quality and operating cost. The study,
therefore, recommends that there are no one best approaches to equipment
maintenance. Firms should adopt a mixed/integrated approach like preventive and
corrective, or equipment tracking and preventive and so on. Again that equipment
maintenance should be adopted as a corporate strategy because poor maintenance of
equipment may affect the production capacity of the organization thereby affecting
the availability of that product in the market which may result in loss of customers’.

pg. 5
TABLE OF CONTENT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study --------------------------------------------------------------1
1.2 Statement of the Problem -------------------------------------------------------------7
1.3 Objectives of the Study ---------------------------------------------------------------7
1.4 Research Questions --------------------------------------------------------------------8
1.5 Research Hypotheses ------------------------------------------------------------------8
1.6 Scope of the Study---------------------------------------------------------------------9
1.7 Significance of the Study-------------------------------------------------------------9
1.8 Definition o Terms--------------------------------------------------------------------10
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Conceptual Review---------------------------------------------------------------------14
2.1.1 The Concept of Equipment Maintenance-----------------------------------------15
2.12 Maintenance Department Functions------------------------------------------------16
2.1.3 Maintenance Management by Objectives-----------------------------------------17
2.1.4 Element of Effective Maintenance Management--------------------------------18
2.1.5 Objective of Equipment Maintenance Management-----------------------------22

pg. 6
2.1.6 Equipment Maintenance Strategies------------------------------------------------23
2.1.6.1 Preventive Maintenance Strategy------------------------------------------------23
2.1.6.2 Corrective Maintenance Strategy -----------------------------------------------29
2.1.6.3 Turn-Around Maintenance Strategy --------------------------------------------32
2.1.6.4 Run-to-Breakdown Maintenance Strategy--------------------------------------33
2.1.6.5 Mixed/Integrated Maintenance Strategy----------------------------------------33
2.1.6.6 Palliative Maintenance Strategy ------------------------------------------------34
2.1.7 The Concept of Organizational Viability-----------------------------------------34
2.1.7.1 Equipment Maintenance and Product Quality---------------------------------34
2.17.2 Equipment Maintenance and Operating Cost-----------------------------------35
2.2 Theoretical Review---------------------------------------------------------------------36
2.2.1 The Process School Equipment Maintenance Theory---------------------------36
2.2.2 The Condition Based Equipment Maintenance Theory ------------------------37
2.2.3 The Work Management School----------------------------------------------------37
2.2.4 The Reliability School---------------------------------------------------------------37
2.3 Empirical Review-----------------------------------------------------------------------40
2.4 Gap in the Literature-------------------------------------------------------------------43

pg. 7
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design-----------------------------------------------------------------------46
3.2 Population of the Study---------------------------------------------------------------46
3.3 Sample Size-----------------------------------------------------------------------------47
3.4 Sampling Procedure--------------------------------------------------------------------48
3.5 Sources of Data-------------------------------------------------------------------------49
3.6 Validity of Research Instrument -----------------------------------------------------49
3.7 Reliability of Research Instrument --------------------------------------------------49
3.8 Method of Data Analysis--------------------------------------------------------------50
3.9 Decision Rule---------------------------------------------------------------------------50
CHAPTER FOUR
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION OF DATA AND
DISCUSSION
4.1 Analysis of Personal & Functional Characteristics--------------------------------63
4.2 Analysis of Questionnaire-------------------------------------------------------------54
4.2.1 Types of Equipment Maintenance Strategies-------------------------------------54

pg. 8
4.2.2 Effect of Preventive Maintenance Strategy---------------------------------------55
4.2.3 Effect of Corrective Maintenance Strategies -------------------------------------60
4.2.4 The Extent Product Quality & Operating Cost have Improved----------------61
4.3 Test of Hypotheses---------------------------------------------------------------------63
4.5 Discussion of Findings-----------------------------------------------------------------72
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.1 Summary of Findings------------------------------------------------------------------76
5.2 Conclusions------------------------------------------------------------------------------77
5.3Recommendation------------------------------------------------------------------------77
5.4 Limitations of the Study---------------------------------------------------------------78
5.5 Suggestions for Further Studies------------------------------------------------------78
Appendix
Nigeria Brewery’s Profile------------------------------------------------------------------86
Nigeria Bottling Profile--------------------------------------------------------------------87

pg. 9
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1: Background of the Study
From the inception of the Industrial Revolution, maintenance of equipment can be
said to have become a strategic issue in the field of management/ engineering. Even
though a lot of progress has been achieved in the field of maintaining equipment,
important factors such as the cost of maintenance, size of the equipment, and
complexity of the machines, and tools can be said to be a hindering factor. One can
say that today’s maintenance issues and practices are market-oriented driven,
especially for firm’ operating in the manufacturing sectors. Looking at the dynamism
of business environment, it becomes imperative for effective asset management and
maintenance practices that will positively influence critical strategic factors such as
operators’ safety, product quality, and speed of innovation, price, profitability, cost
minimization, organizational productivity, and reliable delivery.
To tell how strategic equipment maintenance is, countries and organizations over the
globe make a huge amount of budget for it. Each year over $300 billion are spent on
plant maintenance and operations by U.S. industry (Duy, Christopher, and Miguel,
2008), and it is estimated that approximately 80% of this is spent to correct the
chronic failure of machines, systems, and people. Annually, the cost of maintaining
a military jet aircraft is around $1.6 million; approximately 11% of the total

pg. 10
operating cost for an aircraft is spent on maintenance activities. Annually, the U.S.
Department of Defense spends around $12 billion for depot maintenance of weapon
systems and equipment: Navy (59%), Air Force (27%), Army (13%), and others
(1%) (Dhillon, 2002).
In this competitive era where competition is intense, it is only organizations that
have included maintenance policy as part of their competitive/strategic plans that
will able to survive and remain competitive. One of the major challenges rocking the
manufacturing sector in Nigeria is the constant break down of equipment which is
connected with poor maintenance policies. This poor maintenance policy can affect
an organization’s strategic position in the industry where it operates. Organizations
with poor maintenance policy may continue to experience product defaults, low
productivity and especially high rate of accident in the factory which can result in
death. In the United States; there is a fatal work-related injury every 103 minutes
and a disabling injury every 8 seconds (Dhillon, 2002).
In 1998 the total cost of work injuries was in the order of $125.1 billion.
Furthermore, unintentional injuries are the fifth leading cause of death, with an
estimated cost of $480.5 billion per year. Accidents occurring during maintenance
work or concerning maintenance are frequent. For example, in 1994, 13.61% of all
accidents in the U.S. mining industry occurred during maintenance work and, since
1990; (Dhillon, 2002) the occurrence of such accidents has increased each year. It is
essential that maintenance engineering should strive to eliminate or control potential
safety hazards to ensure satisfactory protection to people and material from such
things as electrical shock, high noise levels, fire and radiation sources, toxic gas

pg. 11
sources, protruding structural members, and moving mechanical assemblies
(Dhillon, 2002). For the effectiveness of the maintenance activity and for an
organization to achieve its objectives, the 21st -century manager must ensure that
maintenance becomes an integral part of the production strategy.
According to Raphael & Chikwendu (2011), equipment maintenance is the way in
which organizations try to avoid failure by taking care of their physical facilities.
Equipment maintenance can also be seen as any activity carried out on an asset in
order to ensure that the asset continues to perform its intended functions. Jerry
(2006) sees equipment maintenance as the coordination, control, planning, executing
and monitoring of the right equipment maintenance activities in manufacturing and
facilities operations. Equipment management maintenance policy if not
adopted/incorporated a part corporate strategy may affect organizational viability.
Equipment is a fixed asset that generates revenue for an organization and if not
properly maintained may lead to a frequent break down which mean that an
organization will be unable to meet up with market/consumer demand and
satisfaction, or even withstand competitive pressure coming from competitors.
For an organization to achieve a specified level of quality, reliability and minimize
wastages there is need to put equipment in good working condition. It can also be
generalized that an efficient production system is subject to organizational
equipment maintenance culture/policy. If properly implemented as a corporate
strategy, may increase the operational efficiency of equipment, contribute to revenue
by reducing the operating costs and increase the effectiveness of a production
system. According to a study by Obamwonyi & Gregory (2010), a production system

pg. 12
in which maintenance is not given attention may easily lead to the system producing
a defective product as a result of a mechanical defect.
In order to cope with the new challenges of lean production, companies have
developed their maintenance on a strategic level. Several researchers have argued
for the maintenance strategies. For example, Walker (2005) argues that if
maintenance issues are taken seriously at boardroom level, and seen as a key
business driver, the profitability of the company will improve. Backlund and
Akersten (2003), found the lack of overarching maintenance strategy to be one of
the obstacles for the introduction of RCM in a hydropower organization. Similar
conclusions are described in a study of the implementation of Total Quality
Management, TQM (Hansson, et al, 2003). Also, Rao (2009) contends that one of
the challenges of maintenance is to continuously improve maintenance efficiency.
Despite the obvious importance of maintenance strategies, a survey among 284
Swedish manufacturing companies shows that only 48% of the respondents had a
written maintenance strategy and 23% had no maintenance strategy at all (Antti cited
in Jonsson, 2011). In a study by Alsgouf (2009), 48% of the respondents again had
a written maintenance strategy and 28% had no written maintenance strategy at all.
The fact that companies consider a quality standard to be a maintenance strategy
clearly shows the low awareness of maintenance issues among the manufacturing
industry. Even among the companies that do have a strategy, it is not evident that
their maintenance strategies are clearly linked to the production and business
strategies. According to Antti in Jonsson (2011), one reason for the low interest for

pg. 13
maintenance among management might be the lack of visible connections between
maintenance activities and profitability.
Preventive maintenance (PM) is an important component of maintenance activity.
Within a maintenance organization, it usually accounts for a major proportion of the
total maintenance effort. PM may be described as the care and servicing by
individuals involved with maintenance to keep equipment/facilities in a satisfactory
operational state by providing for systematic inspection, detection, and correction of
incipient failures either prior to their occurrence or prior to their development into a
major failure. Some of the main objectives of PM are to: enhance capital equipment
productive life, reduce critical equipment breakdowns, allow better planning and
scheduling of needed maintenance work, minimize production losses due to
equipment failures, and promote health and safety of maintenance personnel.
Corrective maintenance may be defined as the remedial action carried out due to
failure or deficiencies discovered during preventive maintenance, to repair an
equipment/item to its operational state (Dhillo, 2002). Usually, corrective
maintenance is an unscheduled maintenance action, basically composed of
unpredictable maintenance needs that cannot be preplanned or programmed on the
basis of occurrence at a particular time. The action requires urgent attention that
must be added, integrated with, or substituted for previously scheduled work items.
This incorporates compliance with “prompt action” field changes, rectification of
deficiencies found during equipment/item operation, and performance of repair
actions due to incidents or accidents.

pg. 14
Organizational viability is the ability of an organization to survive. That is the ability
of an organization to make returns to the business owners while also meeting its
commitments to business creditors. Organizational viability from the manufacturing
perspective focused on several areas such as sales, production lead-time, product
quality, operating cost, inventory turnover and cost, utilization of the available
capacity, employee turnover, etc. (Hitt, Love & Irani, 2001 and Wu & Zhou, 2002).
Viability measures are usually divided into two main groups. These are financial
measures and non-financial measures based on the economic state of a company,
corporate traditional measures (like profits, revenues, cost, financial margins, and
cash flow) and other more recent measures such as Economic Value Added (EVA),
Cash Flow Return on Investment (CFROI) etc. Non-financial measures, on the other
hand, aim at quantifying the organizational viability in relation with: customers (eg
customer satisfaction-retention-acquisition), employees (eg employee satisfaction),
innovation, quality, culture, etc (Kaplan,& Norton cited in Argyropoulou, 2015).
Nevertheless, having in mind that the two most desired characteristics of viability
measures are (i) completeness, (ie. the measure captures the ‘whole truth’ about
performance) and (ii) controllability (the measure is only influenced by elements
under the unit’s control) (Heneman, Ledford & Gresham, 2000). It can be clearly
deduced that the non-financial viability measures present many difficulties based on
its measurability. The difficulty and the subjectivity inherent in measuring non-
financial viability, along with the necessity to focus all efforts on the ultimate goal
which is to satisfy shareholders interest, have made some researchers suggest that
viability measures should be purely financial.

pg. 15
For the purpose of this study, both financial and non-financial viability measures
were considered. The viability measures as identified by the study include; product
quality and operating cost. The importance of product quality to an organization’s
competitive advantage cannot be overemphasized. Ugwuegbu (2017) defined
product quality as the ability and capacity of an organization’s offerings
(product/services) to satisfy customers’ needs, but from the engineering viewpoint,
it can be reduced to how well a product conforms to the specifications of the
organization. Ugwuegbu (2017), went further and asserted that in this competitive
era, an organization’s viability and relevancy is its ability to produce quality
products that will meet industry and international standard and at the same time,
satisfies its customers’ needs.
Many researchers in the field of maintenance management have argued that
equipment maintenance has the potential of saving cost for the organization. Raphael
& Chikwendu (2011), asserted that with good maintenance policy, the unnecessary
breakdown of equipment is assured, the equipment lifespan will be prolonged, the
safety of the operator is also certain to a high degree and in all, plant/organizational
productivity will be enhanced.
1.2: Statement of the Problem
It has been observed that many manufacturing organizations lack maintenance
culture which has invariably affected their corporate existence viability as a
corporate entity. Lack of equipment maintenance management culture may lead to a
constant breakdown of equipment which in turn may affect the production capacity
of an organization.

pg. 16
Equipment maintenance challenges have affected many organizations in the areas
of product quality, low equipment productivity, increased operating cost, induced
unwanted waste, reduced profit and finally has made many organizations to be
defeated in the battlefield (competitive market). Also, the issue of the safety of
operators is also a challenge confronting many organizations. More importantly, not
many studies have focused on the effect of equipment maintenance strategies on the
viability of organizations specifically in the area of product quality and operating
cost in Nigeria. The above lacuna motivated the researcher to investigate the effect
of maintenance equipment maintenance strategies on the viability of an organization.
1.3: Objectives of the Study
The general objective of the study is to examine the effect of equipment maintenance
strategies on the viability of an organization. The specific objectives are to:
a) Ascertain if preventive maintenance strategy improves an organization’s product
quality.
b) Examine the effect of corrective maintenance strategy on the organization’s
operating cost.
c) Investigate the effect preventive maintenance strategy has on the organization’s
operating cost.
d) Evaluate the effect of corrective maintenance strategy on product quality
improvement.
1.4: Research Questions

pg. 17
a) To what extent does preventive maintenance strategy affect product quality on an
organization?
b) How does the corrective maintenance strategy affect an organization’s operating
cost?
c) To what extent does preventive maintenance strategy affect an organization’s
operating cost?
d) How does corrective maintenance strategy affect product quality of an
organization?
1.5: Research Hypotheses
HO1: There is no significant relationship between preventive maintenance strategy
and product quality of an organization.
HO2: There is no significant relationship between corrective maintenance strategy
and the organization’s operating cost
and the organization’s operating cost.
1.6: Scope of the Study
This research was carried out in South-East Nigeria. The study focused on
equipment maintenance strategies (independent variables) which are; preventive and

pg. 18
corrective maintenance strategy, on the other hand, organizational viability
indicators (dependent variables) studied are; product quality and operating cost. The
sample unit of the study (respondents) is composed of management of Nigeria
breweries and Nigeria Bottling Company.
1.8: Significance of the Study
The finding of this study will be of great importance to the management of Nigeria
Bottling Company and Nigeria Breweries in the South-East region of Nigeria, in
their efforts to recognize the need for equipment maintenance.
In addition, management of both firms’ will use the benefit of the findings of the
study to re-evaluate themselves and adopt appropriate measures and procedures of
controlling or preventing equipment break-down, operators’ safety achieve stability
in operation, improve product quality and achieve sustained competitive advantage.
Finally, the study will add to the wide academia knowledge. The researchers and
the academician will find this study useful for further discussion and research.
1.9: Definition of Terms
Condition-Based Maintenance: this is an instrumentation process of detecting
faults and wears in machines and equipment to prevent breakdown.
Equipment maintenance: Maintenance management may be described as the
function of providing policy guidance for maintenance activities, in addition to
exercising technical and management control of maintenance programs.

pg. 19
Turn-Around Maintenance: turn-around maintenance is a type of maintenance
strategy in which a specified period of time is given for a total overhaul of an
organization’s production facilities.
Palliative Maintenance Strategy: This is a kind of maintenance strategy adopted
when equipment is out-living their usefulness.
Organizational Viability: Viability is the ability of an organization to survive. That
is the ability of an organization to make returns to the business owners while also
meeting its commitments to business creditors.
Product Quality: means to incorporate features that have a capacity of meeting
consumers’ needs and gives customers satisfaction by improving products and
making them free from any deficiencies or defects.
Operating Costs are the expenses which are related to the maintenance of
equipment. They are the cost of resources used by an organization just to maintain
its existence.
Maintenance: All actions appropriate for retaining an item/part/equipment in, or
restoring it to, a given condition.
Maintenance engineering: The activity of equipment/item maintenance that
develops concepts, criteria, and technical requirements in conceptional and
acquisition phases to be used and maintained in a current status during the operating
phase to assure effective maintenance support of equipment.

pg. 20
Preventive maintenance: All actions carried out on a planned, periodic, and
specific schedule to keep an item/equipment in stated working condition through the
process of checking and reconditioning. These actions are precautionary steps
undertaken to forestall or lower the probability of failures or an unacceptable level
of degradation in later service, rather than correcting them after they occur.
Corrective maintenance: The unscheduled maintenance or repair to return
items/equipment to a defined state and carried out because maintenance persons or
users perceived deficiencies or failures.
Equipment Tracking: this is a maintenance strategy were the operator of a plant or
machinery at any given point in time in the operation process uses his five human
sense to monitor and keep track of the condition and behavior of equipment.
Predictive maintenance: The use of modern measurement and signal processing
methods to accurately diagnose item/equipment condition during operation.
Overhaul: A comprehensive inspection and restoration of an item or a piece of
equipment to an acceptable level at a durability time or usage limit.
Quality: The degree to which an item, function, or process satisfies requirements of
customer and user.
Inspection: The qualitative observation of an item’s performance or condition.

pg. 21
References
Alyout, I. (2006), “measuring maintenance performance using a balanced score and
approach”. Journal of quality in maintenance engineering, vol. 12, no 2, pp. 133- 149.
Backlund F and Akersten, pa (2003), “RCM on introduction: process & requirements
management aspects”, Journal of quality in maintenance engineering vol. 9. No 3,
pp.250-264.
Duy Quang Nguyen, Christopher Brammer, and Miguel Bagajewicz (2008). New Tool
for the Evaluation of the Scheduling of Preventive Maintenance for Chemical
Process Plants. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res.2008, 47, 1910 -1924.
http://www.ou.edu/class/chedesign/pubpapers/Preventive%20Maintenance%20Ev
aluation%28Nguyen%20et%20al%29-08.pdf
Dhillon B.S (2002), Dhillon, B.S., Engineering Management, Technomic Publishing Co.,
Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Heneman, R.L., Ledford, G.E. and Gresham, M.T. (2000).The effects of changes in the nature of
work on compensation. San Francisco CA: Jossey-Bas.
Irani, Z. and Love, P.E.D. (2001) ‘The propagation of technology management taxonomies for
evaluating investments in information systems’, Journal of Management Information
Systems, 17(3), pp.161–177.
Hansson, J, Backlund, F and Lycke, L- (2003) “Managing commitment increasing the odds for
successful implementation of TOM, TPM, or RCM”, International journal of quality and
reliability management, vol. 20, no.9, pp.993-1088
Jerry D. Kahn (2006), Cost Management for Today’s Advanced Manufacturing. Harvard
Business School Press, Cop. Boston Mass, USA.

pg. 22
Maria Argyropoulou (2015). Information Systems’ effectiveness and Organizational
Performance. A thesis submitted for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Brunel
Business School. Brunel University.
Obamwonyi Martyn Enofe & Gregory Aimienrovbiye (2010), Maintenance impact on
Production Profitability.
Raphael and Chikwendu (2011), Production and material management: an integrated system.
Ambix Printers Nig, NO8 Lagos Street, Owerri. Imo State.
Rao, B.K.N.(2009), “Advanced in diagnostic& strategies & technologies for failone-free
maintenance of industrial assets”, proceeding of the condition monitoring and diagnosis
engineering management, COMADEM 22nd International Conference, San Sebastian,
Spain, pp.17-36.
Wallcer.N, (2005) “The implementation of condition-based maintenance strategy “ proceeding
of the condition monitoring and Diagnostic engineering mgt, COMADEM 18TH International
Congress, onfield, UK, pp. 51-61.
Ugwuegbu Charles (2017). Organizational Competitiveness in a Competitive Era. Asia Pacific
Journal of Research in Business Management Vol. 9, Issue 2, February 2018 Impact
Factor: 5.16, ISSN: (2229-4104).

pg. 23
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter reviewed related Literature in areas of Equipment Maintenance
Strategies and organizational viability. The chapter consist of conceptual, theoretical
and empirical review.
2.1: Conceptual Review
The variables that this study covered are be visualized in a model below:
Fig.2.1: Operational model
Independent variables Dependent variables
Maintenance Strategies
Preventative Maintenance
Corrective Maintenance
Organizational viability
Product Quality
Operating cost

pg. 24
Source: From the researcher’s desk (2017)
2.1.1. The Concept of Equipment Maintenance
Maintenance is any activity carried out on an asset in order to ensure that the asset
continues to perform its intended functions. According to Jerry D. Kahn (2006),
maintenance management is the coordination, control, planning, execution, and
monitoring of the right equipment maintenance activities in manufacturing and
facilities operations. In a maintenance repair programme, the maintenance activities
are analyzed to ensure that the correct blend of maintenance strategies is utilized.
Over the past twenty years, maintenance has changed, perhaps more so than any
other management discipline. The changes are due to a huge increase in the number
and variety of physical assets (plant, equipment, and buildings) which must be
maintained throughout the world, much more complex designs, new maintenance
techniques and changing views on maintenance organization and responsibilities.
Maintenance is also responding to changing expectations. These include a rapidly
growing awareness of the extent to which equipment failure affects safety and the
environment, a growing awareness of the connection between maintenance and
product quality, and increasing pressure to achieve high plant availability and to
contain costs (Moubray, 2001).
The management and control of maintenance activities are equally important to
performing maintenance. Maintenance management may be described as the
function of providing policy guidance for maintenance activities, in addition to
exercising technical and management control of maintenance programs. Generally,

pg. 25
as the size of the maintenance activity and group increases, the need for better
management and control become essential.
In the past, the typical size of a maintenance group in a manufacturing establishment
varied from 5 to 10% of the operating force. Today, the proportional size of the
maintenance effort compared to the operating group has increased significantly, and
this increase is expected to continue. The prime factor behind this trend is the
tendency of the industry to increase the mechanization and automation of many
processes. Consequently, this means a lesser need for operators but a greater
requirement for maintenance personnel.
2.1.2 Maintenance Department Functions and Organization
A maintenance department is expected to perform a wide range of functions
including (Raphael & Chikwendu, 2011)
a. Planning and repairing equipment/facilities to acceptable standards
b. Performing preventive maintenance; more specifically, developing and
implementing a regularly scheduled work program for the purpose of maintaining
satisfactory equipment/facility operation as well as preventing major problems.
Preparing realistic budgets that detail maintenance personnel and material needs.
d. Managing inventory to ensure that parts/materials necessary to conduct
maintenance tasks are readily available.
e. Keeping records on equipment, services, etc.

pg. 26
f. Developing effective approaches to monitoring the activities of maintenance
staff.
g. Developing effective techniques for keeping operations personnel, upper-level
management, and other concerned groups aware of maintenance activities.
h. Training maintenance staff and other concerned individuals to improve their
skills and perform effectively.
i. Reviewing plans for new facilities, installation of new equipment, etc.
j. Implementing methods to improve workplace safety and developing safety
education-related programs for maintenance staff.
k. Developing contract specifications and inspecting work performed by
contractors to ensure compliance with contractual requirements
Many factors determine the place of maintenance in the plant organization including
size, complexity, and product produced. The four guidelines useful in planning a
maintenance organization are: establish a reasonably clear division of authority with
minimal overlap, optimize the number of persons reporting to an individual, fit the
organization to the personalities involved, and keep vertical lines of authority and
responsibility as short as possible (Raphael & Chikwendu, 2011).
One of the first considerations in planning a maintenance organization is to decide
whether it is advantageous to have a centralized or decentralized maintenance
function. Generally, centralized maintenance serves well in small- and medium-

pg. 27
sized enterprises housed in one structure, or service buildings located in an
immediate geographic area.
2.1.3 Maintenance Management by Objectives and Maintenance Program
Improving a maintenance management program is a continuous process that requires
progressive attitudes and active involvement. A nine-step approach for managing a
maintenance program effectively is presented below (Dhillon, 2002):
1) Identify existing deficiencies: This can be accomplished through interviews with
maintenance personnel and by examining in-house performance indicators.
2) Set maintenance goals: These goals take into consideration existing deficiencies
and identify targets for improvement.
3) Establish priorities: List maintenance projects in order of savings or merit.
4) Establish performance measurement parameters: Develop a quantifiable
measurement for each set goal, for example, the number of jobs completed per week
and percentage of cost on repair.
5) Establish short- and long-range plans: The short-range plan focuses on high-
priority goals, usually within a one-year period. The long-range plan is more
strategic in nature and identifies important goals to be reached within three to five
years.
6) Document both long- and short-range plans and forward copies to all concerned
individuals.
7) Implement the plan.

pg. 28
8) Report status: Preparing a brief report periodically, say semi-annually, and
forward it to all involved individuals. The report contains for each object identified
in the short-range plan information on actual or potential slippage of the schedule
and associated causes.
9) Examine progress annually: Review progress at the end of each year with respect
to stated goals. Develop a new short-range plan for the following year by considering
the goals identified in the long-range plan and adjustments made to the previous
year’s planned schedule, resources, costs, and so on.
2.1.4 Elements of Effective Maintenance Management
There are many elements of effective maintenance management whose effectiveness
is the key to the overall success of the maintenance activity. Many of these elements
are described below (Dhillo, 2002).
A. Maintenance Policy
A maintenance policy is one of the most important elements of effective
maintenance management. It is essential for continuity of operations and a clear
understanding of the maintenance management program, regardless of the size of a
maintenance organization. Usually, maintenance organizations have manuals
containing items such as policies, programs, objectives, responsibilities, and
authorities for all levels of supervision, reporting requirements, using methods and
techniques, and performance measurement indices. Lacking such documentation,
i.e, a policy manual, a policy document must be developed containing all essential
policy information.

pg. 29
B. Material Control
Past experience indicates that, on average, material costs account for approximately
30 to 40% of total direct maintenance costs. Efficient utilization of personnel
depends largely on the effectiveness of material coordination. Material problems can
lead to false starts, excess travel time, delays, unmet due dates, etc. Steps such as job
planning, coordinating with purchasing, coordinating with stores, coordination of
issuance of materials, and reviewing the completed job can help reduce material
related problems.
Deciding whether to keep spares in storage is one of the most important problems of
material control.
C. Work Order System
A work order authorizes and directs an individual or a group to perform a given task.
A well-defined work order system should cover all the maintenance jobs requested
and accomplished, whether repetitive or one-time jobs. The work order system is
useful for management in controlling costs and evaluating job performance.
Although the type and size of the work order can vary from one maintenance
organization to another, a work order should at least contain information such as
requested and planned completion dates, work description and its reasons, planned
start date, labor and material costs, item or items to be affected, work category
(preventive maintenance, repair, installation, etc.), and appropriate approval
signatures.

pg. 30
D. Equipment Records
Equipment records play a critical role in the effectiveness and efficiency of the
maintenance organization. Usually, equipment records are grouped under four
classifications: maintenance work performed, maintenance cost, inventory, and files.
The maintenance work performed category contains chronological documentation
of all repairs and preventive maintenance (PM) performed during the item’s service
life to date. The maintenance cost category contains historical profiles and
accumulations of labor and material costs by item. Usually, information on inventory
is provided by the stores or accounting department. The inventory category contains
information such as property number, size and type, procurement cost, date
manufactured or acquired, manufacturer, and location of the equipment/item. The
files category includes operating and service manuals, warranties, drawings, and so
on. Equipment records are useful when procuring new items/equipment to determine
operating performance trends, troubleshooting breakdowns, making replacement or
modification decisions, investigating incidents, identifying areas of concern,
performing reliability and maintainability studies, and conducting life-cycle cost and
design studies.
E. Preventive and Corrective Maintenance
The basic purpose of performing PM is to keep facility/equipment in satisfactory
condition through inspection and correction of early-stage deficiencies. Three
principal factors shape the requirement and scope of the PM effort: process
reliability, economics, and standards compliance.

pg. 31
A major proportion of a maintenance organization’s effort is spent on corrective
maintenance (CM). Thus, CM is an important factor in the effectiveness of the
maintenance organization.
F. Job Planning and Scheduling
Job planning is an essential element of effective maintenance management. A
number of tasks may have to be performed prior to the commencement of a
maintenance job; for example, procurement of parts, tools, and materials,
coordination and delivery of parts, tools, and materials, identification of methods
and sequencing, coordination with other departments, and securing safety permits.
Although the degree of planning required may vary with the craft involved and
methods used, past experience indicates that on average one planner is required for
every twenty craft persons. Strictly speaking, formal planning should cover 100% of
the maintenance workload but emergency jobs and small, straightforward work
assignments are performed in a less formal environment. Thus, in most maintenance
organizations 80 to 85% planning coverage is attainable.
Maintenance scheduling is as important as job planning. Schedule effectiveness is
based on the reliability of the planning function. For large jobs, in particular, those
requiring multi-craft coordination, serious consideration must be given to using
methods such as Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) and Critical
Path Method (CPM) to assure effective overall control.

pg. 32
G. Backlog Control and Priority System
The amount of backlog within a maintenance organization is one of the determining
factors of maintenance management effectiveness. Identification of backlogs is
important to balance manpower and workload requirements. Furthermore, decisions
concerning overtime, hiring, subcontracting, shop assignments, etc., are largely
based on backlog information. Management makes use of various indices to make
backlog related decisions.
The determination of job priority in a maintenance organization is necessary since it
is not possible to start every job the day it is requested. In assigning job priorities, it
is important to consider factors such as the importance of the item or system, the
type of maintenance, required due dates, and the length of time the job awaiting
scheduling will take.
2.1.5 Objectives of Equipment Maintenance Management
Equipment maintenance management has become important in the industry because
of the strategic role it plays in making an organization competitive. The following
are the objectives of maintenance management: according to Raphael and
Chikwendu (2011).
1. Restore system productivity.
2. Avoid any unnecessary shutdown
3. Increase the efficiency of equipment
4. Prolong the system life

pg. 33
5. Improve the overall plant productivity
6. Essential to maintaining product quality
7. Increases plant profit
8. Ensure plant capacity utilization
9. Enhanced operator’s safety
10. Increases reliability
11. Lower operating cost
12. Higher second-hand value in case disposal is contemplated.
2.1.6 Equipment Maintenance Management Strategies
Because of the dynamic nature of the business environment, an organization that
wants to survive must be proactive enough in adopting a good maintenance strategy
to respond to its business environment. The following maintenance strategies are
reviewed. According to Raphael & Chikwendu (2001), there is no best strategy, it
depends on the situation and the objective an organization tends to achieve which
will determine the strategy to be adopted. The following are equipment maintenance
strategic options available for business organizations to adopt:
2.1.6.1 Preventive Maintenance Strategy
Preventive maintenance (PM) is an important component of a maintenance activity.
Within a maintenance organization, it usually accounts for a major proportion of the
total maintenance effort. PM may be described as the care and servicing by

pg. 34
individuals involved with maintenance to keep equipment/facilities in a satisfactory
operational state by providing for systematic inspection, detection, and correction of
incipient failures either prior to their occurrence or prior to their development into a
major failure. Some of the main objectives of PM are to: enhance capital equipment
productive life, reduce critical equipment breakdowns, allow better planning and
scheduling of needed maintenance work, minimize production losses due to
equipment failures, and promote health and safety of maintenance personnel.
The primary goal of PM is to prevent the failure of equipment before it actually
occurs. It is designed to preserve and enhance equipment reliability by replacing
worn components before they actually fail. PM activities include equipment checks,
partial or complete overhauls at specified periods, oil changes, lubrication and so on.
In addition, workers can record equipment deterioration so they know to replace or
repair worn parts before they cause system failure.
Recent technological advances in tools for inspection and diagnosis have enabled
even more accurate and effective equipment maintenance. The ideal PM programme
would prevent all equipment failure before it occurs.
There are multiple misconceptions about PM. One such misconception is that PM is
unduly costly. This logic dictates that it would cost more for regularly scheduled
downtime and maintenance than it would normally cost to operate equipment until
a repair is absolutely necessary. This may be true for some components; however,
one should compare not only the costs but the long-term benefits and savings
associated with PM. Without PM, for example, costs for lost production time from
unscheduled equipment breakdown will be incurred. Also, PM will result in savings

pg. 35
due to an increase in effective system service life. Preventive maintenance includes
periodic and condition based (predictive) maintenance.
2.1.6.1a Periodic Maintenance Strategy or Time-Based Preventive
Maintenance Techniques
Periodic maintenance may be done at calendar intervals, after a specified number of
operating cycles, or a certain number of operating hours. These intervals basically
are established based on manufacturers’ recommendations, and utility and industry
operating experience. The equipment population covered by preventive maintenance
was established during the plant startup stage and is refined as experience
accumulates.
(A) Preventive maintenance elements
There are seven elements of PM as shown in Fig. 2.1. Each element is discussed
below (Dhillo, 2002).
I. Inspection: Periodically inspecting materials/items to determine their
serviceability by comparing their physical, electrical, mechanical, etc.,
characteristics (as applicable) to expected standards.
II. Servicing: Cleaning, lubricating, charging, preservation, etc., of items/ materials
periodically to prevent the occurrence of incipient failures

pg. 36
III. Calibration: Periodically determining the value of characteristics of an item by
comparison to a standard; it consists of the comparison of two instruments, one of
which is certified standard with known accuracy, to detect and adjust any
discrepancy in the accuracy of the material/parameter is compared to the established
standard value
IV. Testing: Periodically testing or checking out to determine serviceability and
detect electrical/mechanical-related degradation.
V. Alignment: Making changes to an item’s specified variable elements for the
purpose of achieving optimum performance.
VI. Adjustment: Periodically adjusting specified variable elements of material for
the purpose of achieving the optimum system performance.
VII. Installation: Periodic replacement of limited-life items or the items experiencing
time cycle or wear degradation, to maintain the specified system tolerance.
Installatio
n
Servicin
g
S
Testing
Inspectio
n
Alignment
Adjustme
nt
Elements of Preventive
maintenance

pg. 37
Source: Dhillo (2002): Fig2.1: Element of Preventive Maintenance.
(B) Important Steps for Establishing a PM program
To develop an effective PM program, the availability of a number of items is
necessary. Some of those items include accurate historical records of equipment,
manufacturer’s recommendations, skilled personnel, past data from similar
equipment, service manuals, unique identification of all equipment, appropriate
test instruments and tools, management support and user cooperation, failure
information by problem/cause/ action, consumables and replaceable
components/parts, and clearly written instructions with a checklist to be signed
off.
There are a number of steps involved in developing a PM program. Figure 2.3
presents six steps for establishing a highly effective PM program in a short period.
Each step is discussed below.
a. Identify and choose the areas: Identity and selection of one or two important
areas to concentrate the initial PM effort. These areas should be crucial to the
success of overall plant operations and may be experiencing a high degree of
maintenance actions. The main objective of this step is to obtain immediate results
in highly visible areas, as well as to win concerned management support.

pg. 38
b. Identify the PM needs: Define the PM requirements. Then, establish a schedule
of two types of tasks: daily PM inspections and periodic PM assignments. The
daily PM inspections could be conducted by either maintenance or production
personnel. An example of a daily PM inspection is to check the wastewater
settleable solids concentration. Periodic PM assignments usually are performed by
the maintenance workers. Examples of such assignments are replacing throwaway
filters, replacing drive belts, and cleaning steam traps and permanent filters.
c. Establish assignment frequency: Establish the frequency of the assignments.
This involves reviewing the equipment condition and records. Normally, the basis
for establishing the frequency is the experience of those familiar with the
equipment and the recommendations of vendors and engineering. It must be
remembered that vendor recommendations are generally based on the typical
usage of items under consideration.
d. Prepare the PM assignment: Daily and periodic assignments are identified and
described in detail, then submitted for approval.
e. Schedule the PM assignments on annual basis: The defined PM assignments are
scheduled on the basis of a twelve-month period.
f. Expand the PM program as necessary: After the implementation of all PM daily
inspections and periodic assignments in the initially selected areas, the PM can be
expanded to other areas. Experience gained from the pilot PM projects is
instrumental in expanding the program.

pg. 39
Source: Dhillo, (2002): Fig 2.2: Steps in Establishing a Preventive Program.
2.1.6.1b PM advantages and disadvantages
The performance of PM has many advantages including an increase in equipment
availability, performed as convenient, balanced workload, reduction in overtime,
increase in product revenue, consistency in quality, reduction in need for standby
equipment, stimulation in pre-action instead of reaction, reduction in parts inventory,
improved safety, standardized procedures, times, and costs, scheduled resources on
hand, and useful in promoting benefit/cost optimization.
Identify and choose the areas
Expand the PM program
Schedule the PM assignments
Prepare the PM assignments
Establish assignment frequency
Identify the PM needs

pg. 40
Some disadvantages of PM are: exposing equipment to possible damage, using a
greater number of parts, increases in initial costs, failures in new parts/components,
and demands more frequent access to equipment/item.
2.1.6.2 Corrective Maintenance Strategy
Although every effort is made to make engineering systems as reliable as possible
through design, preventive maintenance, and so on, from time to time they do fail.
Consequently, they are repaired to their operational state. Thus, repair or corrective
maintenance is an important component of maintenance activity. Corrective
maintenance may be defined as the remedial action carried out due to failure or
deficiencies discovered during preventive maintenance, to repair an equipment/item
to its operational state (Dhillo, 2002).
Usually, corrective maintenance is an unscheduled maintenance action, basically
composed of unpredictable maintenance needs that cannot be preplanned or
programmed on the basis of occurrence at a particular time. The action requires
urgent attention that must be added, integrated with, or substituted for previously
scheduled work items. This incorporates compliance with “prompt action” field
changes, rectification of deficiencies found during equipment/item operation, and
performance of repair actions due to incidents or accidents.
A substantial part of overall maintenance effort is devoted to corrective maintenance,
and over the years many individuals have contributed to the area of corrective
maintenance. This chapter presents some important aspects of corrective
maintenance.

pg. 41
2.1.6.2a Corrective maintenance types
Corrective maintenance may be classified into five major categories as shown in Fig.
2.4. They are: fail-repair, salvage, rebuild, overhaul, and service. These categories
are described below (Dhillo, 2002).
Source: Dhillo (2002): Fig 2.3:
Types of Corrective Maintenance.
1) Fail-repair: The failed item is restored to its operational state.
2) Salvage: This element of corrective maintenance is concerned with the disposal
of non-repairable material and use of salvaged material from non-repairable
equipment/item in the repair, overhaul, or rebuild programs.
3) Rebuild: This is concerned with restoring an item to a standard as close as
possible to original state in performance, life expectancy, and appearance. This is
Fail-repair
Salvage
Corrective
maintenance
types
Overhaul
RebuildServicing

pg. 42
achieved through complete disassembly, examination of all components, repair, and
replacement of worn/unserviceable parts as per original specifications and
manufacturing tolerances, and reassembly and testing to original production
guidelines.
4) Overhaul: Restoring an item to its total serviceable state as per maintenance
serviceability standards, using the “inspect and repair only as appropriate” approach.
5) Servicing: Servicing may be needed because of the corrective maintenance
action; for example, engine repair can lead to crankcase refill, welding on, etc.
Another example could be that the replacement of an air bottle may require system
recharging.
2.1.6.2b Corrective Maintenance Steps
Corrective maintenance is composed of five major sequential steps (Dhillo, 2002).
These steps are fault recognition, localization, diagnosis, repair, and checkout.
The major corrective maintenance downtime components are active repair time,
administrative and logistic time, and delay time. The active repair time is made up
of the following subcomponents:
a. Preparation time
b. Fault location time
c. Spare item obtainment time
d. Fault correction time

pg. 43
e. Adjustment and calibration time
f. Checkout time
Reduction in corrective maintenance time is useful to improve maintenance
effectiveness. Some strategies for reducing the system-level corrective maintenance
time are as follows:
I. Efficiency in fault recognition, location, and isolation: Past experience indicates
that in electronic equipment, fault isolation and location consume the most time
within a corrective maintenance activity. In the case of mechanical items, often the
largest contributor is repair time. Factors such as well-designed fault indicators,
good maintenance procedures, well-trained maintenance personnel, and an
unambiguous fault isolation capability are helpful in lowering corrective
maintenance time.
II. Effective interchangeability: Good physical and functional interchangeability is
useful in removing and replacing parts/items, reducing maintenance downtime, and
creating a positive impact on spares and inventory needs.
III. Redundancy: This is concerned with designing in redundant parts that can be
switched in at the moment of need so the equipment/system continues to operate
while the faulty part is being repaired. In this case, the overall maintenance workload
may not be reduced, but the equipment/system downtime could be impacted
significantly.

pg. 44
IV. Effective accessibility: Often a significant amount of time is spent accessing the
failed part. Proper attention to accessibility during design can help reduce part
accessibility time and, in turn, the corrective maintenance time.
V. Human factor considerations: Attention paid to human factors during design in
areas such as readability of instructions, size, shape, and weight of components,
selection, and placement of dials and indicators, size and placement of access, gates,
and readability, and information processing aids can help reduce corrective
maintenance time significantly.
2.1.6.3 Turn-Around Maintenance Strategy
In the context of maintenance, turn-around maintenance is a type of maintenance
strategy in which a specified period of time is given for a total overhaul of an
organization’s production facilities. Achieving result by using this strategy, the
organization is expected to complete its maintenance exercise within the specified
time frame. This strategy is most adopted by a public institution like Nigeria Ports
Authority (NPA), Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
2.1.6.4 Run-to-Breakdown Maintenance Strategy
This is a reactive type of maintenance strategy which implies that equipment must
be down before it could be fixed. Meaning that maintenance of equipment is after it
must have failed. This strategy is often adopted when repairing is relatively straight
forward (so the consequences of failure are small), where regular maintenance is
very costly (making preventive maintenance expensive) or where failure is not all
predictable.

pg. 45
2.1.6.5 Mix/Integrated Maintenance Strategy
There is no best approach; rather each approach to monitoring facilities is
appropriate depending on the situation. Run-to-break down is best used adopted
where regular maintenance is very costly, where failure is not all predictable and
when repairing is relatively straight forward.
Preventive monitoring is used where the cost of unplanned failure is high (because
of disruption to normal operations) and where failure is not totally random (so the
maintenance time can be scheduled) before failure becomes very likely. Condition-
based-maintenance is used where the maintenance activity is expensive, either
because of the cost of providing the maintenance itself or because of the disruption
which the maintenance activity causes to the operation.
Because of the nature of equipment which has different characteristics, real minded
organizations resort to mixed/integrated maintenance strategy by adopting a mixture
of these strategies.
2.1.6.6 Palliative maintenance strategy
This is a kind of maintenance strategy adopted when equipment is out-living their
usefulness. Because when equipment is aging, preventive maintenance may no
longer make any economic sense. This strategy may be informed of reducing the
workload of a machine and the number of hours or days it is put on the operation. It
is done in a bid to reduce the effects occasioned by equipment break-down,
especially in a situation where there is no readily available replacement. This
strategy creates problems in terms of manufacturing outfit not being able to meet up

pg. 46
with marketing consumer demand and satisfaction, or even withstand competition.
It is capable of leading to the loss of customers and the consequent loss of profit etc.
2.1.7 THE CONCEPT OF ORGANIZATION VIABILITY
Viability is the ability of an organization to survive. That is the ability of an
organization to make returns to the business owners while also meeting its
commitments to business creditors. The viability of a business is measured by its
long-term survival and its ability to sustain profit over a period of time.
It is assumed that there is a positive correlation between equipment maintenance
management strategies and organizational viability. The indicators of organizational
viability this study wishes to review are product quality, operating cost and
productivity.
2.1.7.1 Equipment Maintenance and Product Quality
Equipment maintenance management over the decades has played a significant role
in achieving long-term profitability of an organization. This profitability and
survival cannot be achieved without sustained product quality. Product quality is
what gives an organization a competitive advantage over its rivals and it enhances
its long-term survival and profitability. This is because lack of maintenance of
equipment will lead to constant breakdown which will result to defect of products.
When an organization fails to adopt an appropriate maintenance strategy(is), its
production process will be out of control which is tantamount to producing product
defects which will increase its operating cost, thereby affecting its profitability. Once

pg. 47
an organization’s profitability is affected, its survival is at risk. The above is an
affirmation to (Ben-Daya & Duffuaa, 2011). Based above, the first H1 which reads:
2.1.7.2 Equipment Maintenance and Operating Cost:
The ability of the organization to achieve a competitive edge over its rivals is subject
to its ability to tightening-up its cost control, achieves economies of scale and
minimizes the cost associated with its support activities.
When an organization adopts an appropriate and integrated equipment maintenance
strategy, its operating costs in the following areas can be reduced:
 Downtime (idle time cost) cost due to equipment breakdown.
 Cost of spares or other material used for repairs.
 Cost of maintenance labor and overheads of maintenance departments.
 Losses due to inefficient operations of machines.
In order to verify the above assertion, hypothesis 1&2 was formulated which
state:
2.1.7.3 Equipment maintenance management and equipment useful life:
The useful life of equipment can be pro-long through appropriate maintenance
strategy. When an organization lacks maintenance culture, the useful life of an
organization is reduced thus, having an effect on the viability of the organization by
increasing operational cost.
The above led to the following propositions:

pg. 48
and the organization’s operating cost
and the organization’s operating cost.
2.2 Theoretical Review
This study reviewed the following theories of maintenance management as first
introduced by Harold Koontz (1989). The identified schools of maintenance theory
are described below:
2.2.1. The Process School of Equipment Maintenance Theory
The process school refers to the study of maintenance as a process or series of
processes. This approach is to understand the purpose, function and philosophy of
the various aspects of maintenance management and record them for further study.
The process school attempts to model the practices of maintenance management.
These models are then used to:
a. Audit the maintenance process
b. Teach the fundamentals of maintenance management theory.

pg. 49
c. Research and improve maintenance management process. The maintenance
process school is concerned with identifying all of the aspects of the
management of maintenance. The maintenance process school considers other
techniques as tools to be used to achieve the outcomes of maintenance
management.
2.2.2 The Condition Based School Maintenance Theory
Condition based maintenance includes reference to condition monitoring, predictive
maintenance, or “just-in-time” maintenance. This school of thought is concerned
with the identification and measurement of parameters that can be used to identify
or predict the onset of failure. This is used to correct the equipment condition before
the failure actually occurs. There are broad ranges of techniques adopted by this
school of thought which include: listen, smell, oil analysis, vibration analysis, and
thermography etc. This school is also closely involved with the subject of fault
detection and diagnosis.
2.2.3 The Work Management School
The work management school regards maintenance management as a process of
planning, organizing and controlling maintenance work. These processes include
aspects of preparing maintenance work, producing, maintenance schedules,
allocating work and measuring aspects of the work. The major proponents of this
school are found among those closely involved with a computerized maintenance
management system (CMMS).
2.3.4: The Reliability School

pg. 50
The reliability school covers a multitude of approaches that define the process for
developing maintenance strategies based on an analysis of the maintenance causing
items of a facility. The reliability school is less concerned with the use of failure data
and more concerned with prior (before the event) analysis and with mandatory or
economic failure avoidance depending on perceived failure consequences.One of the
better-known examples of the reliability school is Reliability Centered Maintenance
(RCM).
Fig.5: The best practice maintenance model
Maintenance
Preventive MaintenanceProactive Maintenance
MM
Corrective Maintenance
Time basemaintenance
-servicing
-Replacement
-Inspection
-Testing
Predictive Maintenance
-Condition monitoring
-Monitoring
-Inspection
-Testing
Failure
Comparison with
acceptable criteria
Calendar limit,
Cycle numbers
Means to eliminate
root causes
-Training
-Improvement
-Optimizing

pg. 51
Source: R. Mobley (2000)
2.3: Empirical Review
The relevance of this study is based on the following empirical studies:
1. In an empirical study on Maintenance impact on Production Profitability by
Obamwonyi & Gregory (2010), using SCA Packaging Sweden AB as Case
Study, the study maintained that Maintenance has had a tremendous impact
on company’s proficiency to optimize its production system in order to meet
its long term objectives. According to the study, a production system in which
maintenance is not given attention may easily lead to the system producing
defective product as a result of machine defect. The purpose of the study was
to utilized tools and methods to analyze the impact of maintenance
implementation in a production system. The analytical Hierarchy process was
utilized by the study to filter the defining factors and sub-factors considered
to be related to the life length and performance of production equipment at
SCA Packaging Sweden AB. The various cost associated with these factors
were analyzed using the cost breakdown structure, an element of life cycle
Corrective
maintenance
-Restoration
-Overhaul
-Replacement
Scheduled maintenance
-Restoration
Over hand
-Replacement
Root
Cause
Failure
Analyses

pg. 52
cost analysis. Finally, the economic evaluation of the filtered factors was
performed to show the benefits associated with implementing maintenance.
2. In another empirical study on the Evaluation of maintenance management
through benchmarking in geothermal power plants by Mulugeta (2009),
according to the study, many power plants are increasing their
competitiveness by adopting new operating and maintenance philosophies to
reduce their Operation and Maintenance (O&M) costs. According to studying,
comparing performance among geothermal plants is difficult, as each power
plant works within a unique context of resource, physical plant settings, and
organizational goals. However, benchmarking provides indicators that were
used to examine individual circumstances and performances within groups of
similarly-sized power plants. As geothermal power plants are base- load
stations, the study x-ray the role of maintenance management in improving
equipment reliability and plant availability. In recent practice, power plants
have started using benchmarking to identify the best practices for enhancing
their maintenance management. The research involved using benchmarking
for maintenance management of geothermal power plants and developing a
comprehensive model which can help to compare maintenance performance.
The model helped in the search for optimum methods of maintenance
management practices in order to improve the overall effectiveness of
operation and maintenance. Appropriately, by adopting the best practices,
benchmarking could help geothermal plants to become more cost-effective in
maintenance. The study concluded that Benchmarking is a very useful tool.
Properly applied, you can gain great insight into the processes that yield the

pg. 53
results you wish to achieve. However, a properly executed benchmark project
is not simple or quick. It requires careful preparation, analysis, and execution.
And that Systematic maintenance data collection, analysis, and a continued
reliability study can provide valuable information about plant performance.
The results greatly depend on the quality of the data.
3. In another empirical study on Modern management methods for equipment
maintenance by Ioan and Ciprian (2009), according to the study, the concept
of maintenance in the field of complex equipment was developed in the USA
being quickly adopted by European countries and Japan. The American
maintenance concept has the significance of creating a support system for
industrial equipment functioning. The study believes that functional
maintenance is one of the most frequently used methods in maintenance
management for industrial enterprises and presented some aspects related to
the systemic approach of the functional maintenance model, starting from
technical elements of the maintenance process but also taking into account the
economical perspective i.e. maintenance-related expenditure. The study also
presented a systemic method of representation of the model, taking into
account the two mentioned aspects. The study concluded that in the actual
economic context, using modern maintenance models that are supported by
an adequate informational system can ensure an increased efficiency of
industrial equipment exploitation for any manufacturing enterprise. To
accomplish this, a significant level of attention must be given to such
maintenance models by the management of the organization.

pg. 54
4. Finally, in the review of the United Kingdom Government report published in
2000 showed that the British Manufacturing Companies wasted large sums of
pounds each year because of ineffective and badly organized maintenance, the
report indicated that although the extent of loss of manufacturing industries
directly attributed to poor performance was estimated at 550m, the total loss
for British industry deriving from similar reasons was probably several time
this figure.
The report recognized that imprisonments in performance could only be
achieved by the co-ordinate application of several disciplines which had not
previously no existing word adequately described this multi-disciplinary
approach to the specifications, design, installations, commissioning, use and
disposal of facilities equipment, the name Treo-Technology was chosen,
(Rowe 2007).
The result shows that while investment on maintenance implementation might
be a cost at the earlier stage of implementation because it is hard to measure
and follow up its impact on a company’s business. Nevertheless, its role in
improving company productivity profitability is indispensable. Thus,
maintenance is a profit center rather than a cost center.
2.4 Gaps fill in the Literature
The area of equipment maintenance management is yet to draw much attention of
Nigeria researchers (base on published articles available on the internet). However,
no study has focused (based on available literature reviewed in this study) on the
effect of equipment maintenance strategies on the viability of an organization

pg. 55
specifically in the area of product quality, operating cost and organizational
productivity in Imo State University. This leaves a wide knowledge gap that this
study seeks to bridge
Summary
Equipment maintenance management is the coordination, control, planning,
execution, and monitoring of the right equipment maintenance activities in
manufacturing and facilities operations. It carries out on an asset in order to ensure
that the asset continues to perform its intended functions. One of the reasons for
equipment performance is to system productivity. The various equipment
maintenance strategies reviewed are predictive, preventive, turn-around, run-to-
breakdown; mixed/integrated and palliative maintenance theories where also
reviewed such as the prices school, condition based school, the work management
school and the reliability school. The study reviewed some empirical works done on
equipment maintenance.

pg. 56
Reference
Al-Najjar B. (2007). The lack of maintenance and not maintenance which cost: A
Model to describe and quantify the impact of vibration-based maintenance
on the Company’s business. Int. J. Production Economics. No 107, pp 260 –
273
Al-Najjar, B., Alsyouf, I., Salgado, E., Khoshaba, S. & Faagorg, K. (2001). The
The economic importance of maintenance planning when using vibration-
based
Maintenance. Växjö University, Terotechnology. Växjö University, Sweden.
Ben-Daya and Duffuae (2011). Maintenance Management, American Water Works
Association, Denver, Colorado.
Dhillon, B.S. (2002), Design Reliability: Fundamentals and Application, CRC
Press, Boca Raton, Florida.
Dhillon, B.S. and Singh, C. (2002), Engineering Reliability: New Techniques and
Applications, John Wiley & Sons, New York, 1981.
Dhillon, B.S. (2002), Reliability Engineering in Systems Design and Operation,
Van Nostrand Reinhold Co., New York, 1983.
IAEA, (2007), Policies Governing Maintenance Engineering within the
Department of Defense, Department of Defense, Washington, D.C.
Jerry D. Kahn (2006), Cost Management for Today’s Advanced Manufacturing.
Harvard Business School Press, Cop. Boston Mass, USA.

pg. 57
Loan and Ciprian (2009), The Maintenance Management and Technology
Handbook, Elsevier Science, Oxford.
Maintenance Fundamentals by R.K. Mobley, Butterworth-Heinemann, Inc.,
Boston, 2000.
Moubray, (2001), Maintenance Manager’s Standard Manual, Prentice Hall,
Paramus, New Jerse.
Mulugeta, (2009) Production and Operations Research: A Life Cycle Approach,
Richard D. Irwin, Homewood, Illinois
Obamwonyi Martyn Enofe & Gregory Aimienrovbiye (2010), Maintenance
impact on Production Profitability.
Rowe (2007), How to Manage Maintenance, American Management Association,
New York.
Raphael and Chikwendu (2011), Production and material management: an
integrated system. Ambix Printers Nig, NO8 Lagos Street, Owerri. Imo
State.

pg. 58
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this chapter of the research, the researcher x-rayed the research procedures. The
chapter shows the Research design, Population of the study, Sample size
determination, Sampling techniques, Sources of data, Validation, and Reliability of
sampling Instrument, and Method of the data analysis.
3.1 Research Design
The research design is useful in research because it helped the researcher to develop
a mental image of the structure for gathering the data and the analysis that would
follow. Anyanwu (2016) believes that research design has to do with the
development of strategies for finding out something. The researcher adopted the
survey method of research, precisely personal interviews, and questionnaire. The
researcher’s decision to use the survey as its research design is based on the fact that
surveys are capable of obtaining information from large samples of the population.
It is also suitable for gathering demographic data that describe the composition of
the sample (McIntyre, 2003).
3.2 Population of the Study
The population of this study comprised of the management of Nigeria Bottling PLC,
Owerri and that of Nigeria Breweries Aba, Abia State. According to the Human
Resource Department of Nigeria Bottling PLC, Owerri, the branch has a population

pg. 59
of two hundred and seventy (270) while that of Nigeria Breweries Aba has two
hundred and six workers (206).
The two firms have various units like top management, marketing, customer service,
accounting/finance, human resources, and maintenance units and these unite were
surveyed by the researcher.
3.3 Sample Size Determination
The researcher determined the sample size by using the Yaro Yamani formula as
quoted by Alugbuo (2002). He states the formula as:
n = N
1 + N (e)2
Where n is the sample size. The researcher will use 5% to represent the level of
significance.
Therefore, n can be determined thus:
Nigeria Bottling PLC,
n1 = ___ 270 __
1 + 270(0.05)2
n1
___270___
1 + 270(0.0025)
n1 ____ 270 ___
1 + 0.675
n1 ___270___

pg. 60
1.675
n1
=161.2
Nigeria Breweries
n2
= ___206___
1 + 206 (0.05)2
n2
= ___206___
1 + 206 (0.0025)
n2
= ___206___
1 + 0.515
n2
= ___206___
1.515
n2
= 135.97
n2
= 136
TOTAL sample size
n1
+ n2
= 161+136=297
3.4 Sampling Procedure
The researcher used the non-probability sampling method which Anyanwu (2016)
has defined as a nonrandom process by which the researcher selects his sample on
the basis of understanding of the universe, its components and the nature of this
research objective. Anyanwu (2016) maintains that nonprobability sampling

pg. 61
represents a group of sampling techniques that help the researcher to select units
from a population that they are interested in studying.
The researcher used judgmental sampling techniques based on accessibility. The
reason for using convenience was to enable the researcher to get the best information
about the subject matter from the appropriate source. This is because not all
employees may know how maintenance of equipment must have affected their
organizations and may not be in good a position to speak.
3.5 Sources of Data
The researcher used both primary and secondary source of data collection. This
helped to beef up the content of the work. The primary source of data collection
includes the questionnaire and oral interview. The secondary data were gotten from
published journals.
3.6 Validity of Research Instrument
In the view of Chionali (2001:61), validity is the extent to which a measuring
instrument measures what it tends to measure. The instrument was validated by
given out to my supervisor and also 15 experts who examined the items contained
in the questionnaire and ensure that they serve the purpose for which it was
intended.
3.7 Reliability of Research Instrument
Reliability refers to the consistency of scores obtained by the same individuals
presented with the same test on different sets of equivalent items, or under other

pg. 62
variable examining conditions (Ikeagwu, 2000:105). The researcher determined
the reliability of her study instrument by post-testing the instruments twice in the
studied firms with a gap of two weeks. The researcher also went further and
computed Spearman’s Correlation Coefficient. The value of r1 (first test) was
0.77 and the r2 (second test) was 0.97. The average value of the r was 0.87.
Therefore, the instrument was 87% reliable.
3.8 Method of Data Analysis
Simple percentage method was used in presenting and analyzing the questionnaires
while Regression analysis was used in testing the formulated via SPSS.
The Multi-regression analysis took the form below:
Y= a+ bx1+bx2+e
Whereby;
Y= Organizational viability (Product quality, and operating cost)
x1= Preventive Maintenance
x2= Corrective Maintenance
a= the constant of regression e= The error term.
3.9 Decision Rule
a. Accept H0 and reject H1 if P-value >0.05
b. Accept H1 and reject H0 if P-value <0.05

pg. 63
References
Alugbuo, C.C (2002): A Practical Guide to project writing Owerri: Credo
publications.
Anyanwu, A. (2016) Research Methodology in Business and Social Science,
Owerri: Canun publications.
Chionali (2001) Research method in the social sciences, SAGE Publications inc.,
London.
Ikeagwu, (2000). Basic Research methodology for Researchers, Trainees and
trainers in methodology for sciences. Owerri: Ambix printers Nigeria

Equipment maintenance strategies on the viability of beverage industries in south sjbss

Equipment maintenance strategies on the viability of beverage industries in south sjbss

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Equipment maintenance strategies on the viability of beverage industries in south sjbss

Similar to Equipment maintenance strategies on the viability of beverage industries in south sjbss (20)

More from CharlesUgwuegbu

More from CharlesUgwuegbu (10)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Equipment maintenance strategies on the viability of beverage industries in south sjbss