MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION

• Organization means a group of people who work together in a structured way for
a shared purpose. In any industry, the various maintenance functions are planned
and executed by workmen of different trades/disciplines/skills and of different
levels (workmen/employees, supervisors, Executives, engineers, etc.) and they
have to be arranged/grouped/organized in such a way that they have to work as a
team towards a common goal of improving maintenance effectiveness/efficiency
and for improving equipment availability and reliability.
• Such grouping and arranging of maintenance personnel, with their interlinking
and relationships, is generally termed as maintenance organization.
• Maintenance organization, as in the case of other organizations, requires
delegation of authority and span of control, with necessary feedback and control
system.
 MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION
• There are almost infinite numbers of organizational structures in use, but
most are not configured to provide effective utilization of the workforce and
have unbalanced indirect (for example, clerical, administrative, and support)
personnel.
• Maintenance organization ( for that reason, even corporate organization) is
both a science and an art.
• The science of organization lies in the different dimensions (e.g. different
categories of workmen, supervisors, staff and support personnel etc) on
which they are designed.
• How organizational dimensions are coordinated, interlinked, and governed is
more art than science. In no two companies are dimensions combined or
managed in the same way. Simply stated, there is neither a clear guideline
nor a single, ideal organization structure that is best for all plants or
corporations.
 MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION
• In 1986, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, USA, examined the
balance between current levels of manufacturing technology and of
company’s organization and the conclusion of this study was that American
industry, in its drive to become more competitive, was attempting to put
fifth-generation technology into second-generation plant organizations.
The study also concluded that all maintenance organization should also
correspond to the advancement of maintenance practices in use.
• Employees’ involvement, to a reasonable extent, may also be considered
in deciding maintenance organization through suggestion system,
information sharing, and survey feedback etc. However, while doing this,
care should be taken not to increase the un-necessarily or not to create
additional management structure.
BASIC CONCEPTS FOR MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION
• The following are the basic concepts:
a) Establish reasonably clear division of authority, with minimum overlap – Authority
can be divided functionally, geographically, on the basis of expediency or it can be
on some combination of all the three. But there must always be clear definition of
the line of demarcation to avoid confusion and conflict. The overlap should be bare
minimum.
b) Keep vertical line of authority and responsibility as small as possible – Unclear or
many levels of intermediate supervision or over-application of specialized
functional employees must be minimized. Whenever such practices are felt to be
necessary, clear division of duties must be established.
c) Maintain and optimum number of people reporting to one individual – In a good
organization, number of people reporting to one individual may vary from 3 to 6,
depending on the type of job. When a job requires a fairly small amount of
supervision, one man can direct the activities of 12 or more persons.
d) The total maintenance workload should be reasonably distributed amongst all
concerned persons to avoid conflicts amongst workers.
e) Maintenance is not subordinate to operation. Again, difference between
‘supportive service’ and ‘subordinate service’ should be kept in mind.
FACTORS GOVERNING MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION
• The decisions of maintenance organization vary as per the following local
factors of the organization:
1. Type of operation: e.g. buildings, machine tools, process equipments, electrical
equipments, manufacturing facilities, piping etc – each will affect the character of
organization and supervision required.
2. Continuity of operation: e.g. if the operation is 5/6 days a week, single shift one
or a 7 days a week, round the clock (3 shift) one or others – considerable
differences may be in these on how the maintenance engineering department
may be structured and how many personnel may be needed.
3. Geographical location: The maintenance that may be needed in a compact plant
will vary considerably from the one that is dispersed through several buildings or
over a larger area. The later often leads to area maintenance shops and additional
layers of intermediate supervision as local centres.
4. Equipment’s age and condition: The older the equipment/plant, the more
maintenance and supervision may be needed
5. Size of plant/industry: Here also the actual size of plant/industry and its volume
of business will dictate the number of maintenance employees needed and
amount of supervision for those. Many more subdivisions in both, the line and
staff personnel, can be justified since the overheads can be distributed amongst
more departments.
6. Scope of Plant maintenance engineering department: This scope is a direct
relationship of management policy. Inclusion of responsibilities for a number of
secondary functions means additional manpower and supervision.
7. Employees level of training and reliability: This highly variable factor has a strong
impact on the maintenance organization because it dictates how much work can be
done and how well it can be performed. In industries where sophisticated equipments
predominates, with a high wear or failure incidences, more monitoring systems and
more employees and supervisors may be needed. Higher need of reliability of
equipments may need bigger maintenance organization.
8. Complexity of business and machines and extent of automation and built-in test and
monitoring equipments provided: This may lead to less frequent physical check and
correspondingly less manpower.
9. Prevailing maintenance types/ systems of the industry (for older plants)
10. Extent of out-sourcing or permissible: Availability of highly competent maintenance
contractors around the industry may dictate out-sourcing some maintenance jobs
(intermittent or continuous) and correspondingly reduce the industry’s maintenance
organization
11. Local labour laws and prevailing industrial culture and practices.
AIMS / OBJECTIVES OF MAINTENANCE ORGANISATION
• The basic objective/aim of any maintenance organization or department is to
endure that production plants and equipments are available, at minimum cost,
for production for scheduled hours and quantity, operating to agreed standard,
safely and with minimum waste.
• There must be recognition at the top management level and at all other levels of the
vital need for maintenance organization and an understanding of its aims and
objectives. It should be clear that maintenance department/organization exists only by
virtue of it being necessary for plant’s operation and upkeep. It is not a self sufficient
or self contented unit. It is a part of team that can perform satisfactorily only when
firmly cooperating with others.
 • In order to develop an effective maintenance organization, the following
features must be kept in mind:
1. Maintenance is basically a teamwork activity; still the individuals should be able to work
reasonable freedom for the specific/defined job.
2. The jobs/trades/crafts of individuals should be so interlinked that they are supporting to
each other and pulling towards a common goal. This is very essential as maintenance
department consists workers of very many trades/crafts; few of those are given below:

Main disciplines Trades/crafts

Electrical Armature winder, electrician, switchmen, electrical inspectors, electrician
technicians, electrician and cable jointer, etc.
Instrumentation Instrumentation technician, I and C (Instrumentation and controls) technician, I
and E (Instrumentation and electrical) technician, etc
Mechanical Fitters, welder/Gas-cutters, Plumbers/pipe fitters, Lubricators, etc.
Civil Mason, Carpenter, Surveyor, Overseas, Landscaper, etc.
Others AC and Refrigerator mechanic, Draftsmen (Drawing Office), Tool and Die
technician, etc.
OTHER OBJECTIVES INCLUDE:
➢ Identification of organization roles pertaining to maintenance function.
➢ Determination of maintenance workload.
➢ Uniform distribution of total maintenance work to all the personnel in the
department.
➢ Identification and assignment of essential works to the various sections of
the maintenance department.
➢ Proper knowledge about the technical expertise/experience of the workers
deputed for the particular job.
➢ Proper training of the staff of maintenance to meet the growing demands
of the industry and to catch up with the modern trends in maintenance.
➢ Designing the policies and procedures at an early stage to help the
maintenance department to achieve the goals of the industry.
 TYPES OF MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION
• The selection of a type of maintenance system will largely depend on the structure of an
industry. Maintenance organization can be broadly classified into three types as follows,
i. Decentralized: This is suitable for large sized plants where inter unit communication
is difficult to get. In this type of organization, the maintenance is under the control of
chief engineer of production to ensure better understanding between the production
and maintenance department.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Good communication with operating department • Difficult to share technology and skills
Speedy maintenance response and reduced travel time to and from Requires more people
job
• Better familiarity with machines and processes; more •
productionmindedness Non-availability or under-utilisation of
specialized tools and facilities
Interchangeability of operation-maintenance workforce, even at
Managerial level is possible
Generally more costly, because of
duplication of tools and facilities
Conflict amongst workmen is reduced due to better coordination
 ii.
CENTRALIZED: This is suitable for small units where unit communication is feasible. In this type
of organization, the maintenance is under the control of chief maintenance engineer. The responsibilities and
accountability is with the concerned department heads.

Advantages Disadvantages
• Skill and technology easily disseminated • Collaboration with operation
departments difficult
• Problem easily investigated • Incomplete collection of operating data
• Easy deployment from a more diversified and specialized craft group • Higher transportation cost, both for men
and material
• Lesser duplicating of workers and facilities, thus lesser manpower and • More time getting to and from work
facilities needed area
• Excel in planning, scheduling
• Costly and specialized equipments can be procured and used more
effectively
• More specialized supervision, when needed
• Better standardization and variety reduction of spares and materials for
industry
Generally more cost-effective
iii. PARTIALLY CENTRALIZED
This is the modified version of centralized maintenance organization and suitable for
the industry where units are located at far away locations.
In this type of organization, the maintenance person attached with production unit
will carryout the routine maintenance works.
Scheduled maintenance works such as overhauls, planned maintenance work,
procurement of spare parts are under the control of chief maintenance engineer at
the central office.
Advantages Disadvantages
• Good communication with operating • Difficult to share technology and skills
department
• Skills and technology dissemination and • Management somehow difficult
problem investigation easier
• Many of the other advantages of the • Job rotation requires ingenuity
above two types
ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF CENTRALIZED
MAINTENANCE GROUPS
1. Planning and scheduling of all major repairs, shutdowns and overhauls, etc., in
consultation with shop maintenance and other agencies
2. Planning of spares, tools, tackles, specific consumables and other necessary materials,
in consultation with shop maintenance, etc.
3. Preparation of annual maintenance budget and periodical reviews
4. Manpower planning and their training and development, in consultation with
personnel department and training department
5. Execution and supervision of all heavy repairs and major overhauls
6. Assistance and technical guidance on addition, modification and replacement (AMR)
schemes of the plant
7. Advise on maintainability and reliability of equipments, before purchase and on
improvement/changes etc
8. Assist shop maintenance personnel in repetitive failure analysis and analysis of other
major defects and suggest suitable improvements/changes.
EXAMPLE OF CENTRALLY CONTROLLED MAINTENANCE
ORGANIZATION
Managing
Director

General
Manager

General Foreman General Foreman Planning Foreman

Service shop Electrical shop supervisor Fabrication shop
• Maintenance organization may also be classified as follows:
➢ Line organization
➢ Line-and-Staff organization
➢ Functional organization
LINE
ORGANIZATION
• Line organization consists of a general foreman and a
number of specialist foremen with their subordinates
under them as shown in the figure. General
• The specialist foreman executes maintenance work in Foreman
their respective areas while the general foreman
supervises the total work under his control and the
various maintenance tasks carried out in the industry.
This kind of structure is an old type maintenance Foreman
organization.
• Line managers make the majority of the decisions and (Electrical)
direct line personnel to achieve company goals. This is
called Line Authority. However, two important
clarifications should be considered when discussing line Crew
authority:
1. Line authority does not ensure effective performance, and Members
2. Line authority is not restricted to line personnel. The head
of a staff dept has line authority over his/her employees
by virtue of authority relationships between the The above figure is an example of line
department head and his/her directly reporting
employees. organization.
 LINE-AND-STAFF
ORGANIZATION
• A few more staff members such as storekeeper and
clerk are added to the line organization to form the
line organization structure as given below. The
advantage lies in separating the maintenance work
from the store keeping and the role of clerk is to
record the maintenance activities. The recording of
maintenance related activities helps the
organization to restructure the strategies adopted to
achieve the objectives of maintenance.
• Staff authority has the right to advise or counsel
those with line authority. Staff authority gives staff
personnel the right to offer advice in an effort to
improve line operation.
The above figure is an example of line
staff organization.
• The line-and-staff organization combines the line organization with staff departments
that support the line departments. Most medium and large-sized firms exhibit line-and-
staff organizational structures.
• The distinguishing characteristic between simple line organizations and line-and-staff
organizations is the multiple layers of management within line-and-staff organizations.
• An advantage of a line-and-staff organization is the availability of technical specialists.
The staff experts in specific areas are incorporated into the formal chain of command.
• A disadvantage of a line-and-staff organization is conflict between line and staff
personnel. Often, due to different positions and types of authority within a line-and-staff
organization, conflict between line and staff personnel do occur, but a clear chain of
command, which is a consistent characteristic among line-and-staff organizational
structures, help minimize such conflicts.
• Though maintenance as a whole is, often, considered as a staff organization (with
production personnel as line organization), within the maintenance department, we have
line organization and staff organization, thus terming the whole maintenance as a line
and staff organization.
FUNCTIONAL
ORGANIZATION Maintenance
• In this type of organization, the Dept
arrangement is not made by level,
designation or hierarchy of Electrical
maintenance personnel but by the Engineering
Dept
type of functions they perform.
• Such organization is basically not
individual based but based on the Shop Electrical Repair
Maintenance
functional areas, shops and sections. Section
• This only highlights the functional Power
working arrangements in a Distribution
plant/industry. Section
Instrument
Repair
Air Conditioning
Section

The above figure is an example of functional organization.

 MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
• Identifying areas for implementation of preventive maintenance program.
• Making suitable arrangements for maintenance facilities for carrying out
the maintenance work properly.
• Planning and scheduling the total maintenance work.
• Ensuring proper and timely supply of spare parts.
• Managing proper inventory control of materials spares and tools required
for the maintenance.
• Standardization of maintenance work.
• Implementing modifications to the existing equipment whenever possible.
• Assisting the purchase department in procuring materials disbursement of
services such as water, electricity, steam, compressed air and other
amenities required to carry out the maintenance.
• Identification of obsolete and surplus equipment for replacement and
disposal.
• Designing the systematic way for disposal of equipment and
for maintaining floor space.
• Training of maintenance personnel.
• Analysis of future demands and forecast the role of maintenance activities.
• Implementation safety norms and procedures.
• Ensuring safety of personnel and equipment.
 MAINTENANCE SERVICES
• This element assesses whether effective work planning is being applied, the
maintenance is being carried out at the stated intervals and all the tasks are being
achieved to an acceptable quality standard.
• An important aspect of the contractor’s management is to ensure that the
maintenance periodicity is under continuous review to minimise tendencies
towards either under- or over-maintenance.
• Where planned preventive maintenance (PPM) is being applied, this will entail
the systematic investigation at predetermined intervals of all the plant items
listed on the asset register.
• In practical terms, it is recommended that the client or his/her adviser makes
periodic inspections of plant rooms, the major occupied areas and equipment of
significant importance to the normal building operation to monitor that
satisfactory maintenance standards are being achieved.
• The inspections should include regular checks that all control equipment is within
calibration. Records of such inspections together with appropriate comments,
could be made in the building log book.
• The performance element also addresses whether the expected level of service is
provided, the required plant availability is achieved, the level of complaints from
the building occupants is acceptable, the response time to work requests and
emergencies is satisfactory, and work is carried out in a positive manner.
• The latter includes showing an innovative, flexible approach, including initiative
and perseverance.
• Computer-based maintenance management systems (CMMS) can provide
considerable information in summarised format to demonstrate both that
maintenance has been carried out and, by using data analysis techniques, that it
has been effective.
• The availability and routine analysis of such information should score highly on
the audit.
 TYPICAL RANGE OF MAINTENANCE SERVICES
• An example of the range of services carried out by a direct labour organisation or
maintenance contractor is set out below; additions may be appropriate to meet
particular requirements.
a) Routine inspection and maintenance of engineering plant.
b) Planned lamp replacement.
c) Five-yearly electrical inspection.
d) Portable appliance testing.
e) Monitoring of plumbing and water services operation
f) Inspection and operation of high-voltage electric installation.
g) First line response to emergencies and pre-agreed critical alarms (response time agreed
with client).
h) Ensuring compliance with statutory requirements for services installations.
j) Provision and control of on-site engineering stores.
k) Purchase of engineering plant and equipment (consumable spares and materials, client
requested items, replacement of minor and major plant).
l) Installation of engineering plant and equipment (minor items including response to
client requests and major capital plant)
m) Energy management by:
▪ ensuring efficient plant operation
▪ purchase and, where appropriate, storage of fuel.
n) Supervision and control of specialist contractors.
o) Inspection, compliance testing and monitoring of fire systems and equipment.
p) Trouble-shooting