Organization and

UNIT 2 ORGANIZATION AND STRUCTURE Structure of

Maintenance System
OF MAINTENANCE SYSTEM

OBJECTIVE
After reading this unit, you should be able to:
• Understand the components of the maintenance organization,
• Understand the goals and objectives of the maintenance organization,
• Understand the key issues involved in evolving maintenance
organization structure,
• Define the roles and responsibilities of maintenance team,
• Develop a suitable maintenance organization for any plant.

Structure
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Goals and Objectives of Maintenance Organization
2.3 Key Issues Affecting Maintenance Organization Structure
2.4 Basic Organizational Structure
2.5 Roles and Responsibilities
2.6 Evolving a Maintenance Organization
2.7 Summary
2.8 Key Words
2.9 Self-Assessment Questions
2.10 Further Readings

2.1 INTRODUCTION
The term "maintenance organisation" refers to a group of individuals with a
common goal who collaborate to maintain adequate machinery and
equipment reliability in order to achieve efficient operations and high-quality
output. The organisational structure, which includes a clear authority
hierarchy, clear maintenance procedures, and clear policies, will determine
this. Some plants' maintenance structure and organisation are more dependent
on their history, their line of work, and their "culture" than they are on a
thorough assessment of their maintenance requirements. Efficiency is
probably going to be a problem in the majority of these situations. We are
surrounded by extremely high technology systems right now, in the early
years of the 21st century. In most manufacturing businesses, the maintenance
function is not very similar to what it was in the past. By minimising and
ultimately doing away with the need for maintenance services, the
maintenance department's new mission is to offer excellent customer support.
This necessitates retooling the conventional roles.

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Maintenance Figure 2.1 illustrates a model, which shows the larger number of actions and
Management –
An Overview activities necessary for the successful operation of a maintenance department
and encapsulates the formidable task facing the maintenance manager and his
team. Even a single task such as that shown in Figure 5.2 requires organizing
ability of a high order if it is to be carried out successfully at minimum total
cost (i.e., sum of downtime cost plus direct maintenance cost). In a large
plant the tasks shown in Figure 2.2 may number several hundred each day
and it will be clear that this multiplicity of activities must be addressed in a
logical fashion, otherwise chaos will result.

A maintenance organisation is made up of three necessary and interconnected

components, namely:
• Resources: men, spares, and tools of a specific size, composition, and
movement
• Administration: the process of determining what, when, and how work
should be done in accordance with a hierarchy of authority and
responsibility.

Figure 2.1: Activities for a Successful Maintenance Organization

• Work Planning and Control System: a tool for organising and
scheduling tasks as well as providing feedback on information that is
necessary for the maintenance effort to be correctly directed toward its
stated goal. To meet the changing needs of today's manufacturing
plants, maintenance organisations will need to be constantly modified.

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 Organization and
Structure of
Maintenance System

Figure 2.2: The Phases of an Engineering Maintenance Task

2.2 GOALS AND OBJECTIVES OF

MAINTENANCE ORGANISATIONS
The typical goals and objectives for a maintenance organization are as
follows:

1) Maximum production or availability of facilities at the lowest cost,

quality, and safety standards. This statement is all-encompassing and can
be divided into smaller components.

a) Maintaining Existing Equipment and Facilities: This is the primary

reason for the existence of the maintenance organization. Unless the
equipment or facilities owned by the plant are operating or functional,
there is no advantage in having them.
b) Equipment and Facilities Inspections and Services: This is generally
referred to as the preventive/predictive maintenance program. This
activity is designed to increase the availability of the
equipment/facilities by reducing the number of unexpected
breakdowns or service interruptions.

c) Equipment Installations or Alterations: This is not the responsibility

of maintenance in all organizations since outside contract personnel
usually perform installations or alterations. As the maintenance will
be maintaining the equipment, they should be involved in any
alterations or new equipment installations.

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Maintenance In viewing these three sub goals, the maintenance organizations will
Management –
An Overview always attempt to maximize the plants resources, keeping the overall
costs as low as possible, while ensuring the safety of personnel and the
quality of the product/ facilities.

2) Identify and Implement Cost Reductions: This objective is for the

maintenance organizations to find ways to decrease maintenance and
operations expenses. By examining maintenance practices, adjustments
could be made in tools, training, repair procedures and/or work planning
to reduce the labour or materials required to perform a specific job. In
addition, any time gained while making repairs translates into reduced
downtime (or increased availability), which is more costly than
maintenance expenditures.

3) Provide accurate Equipment Maintenance Records: A plant or machine

history record is analogous to the medical history record kept by a medical
practitioner. The regular perusal and analysis of plant maintenance records
is the only sound and logical way of obtaining the information that will
enable the management to take action based on factual data to raise
maintenance standards and improve cost-effectiveness.

4) Collect Necessary Maintenance Cost Information: This objective is also

related to the previous objective. Cost information is divided into general
areas like labour, material, tools and equipment, contract work, lost
production and miscellaneous costs. Accurate cost information helps make
a realistic maintenance budget and plan appropriate actions for future cost
reduction.

5) Optimize Maintenance Resources: Making the most of the resources in

hand is important in maintenance. Very few maintenance organizations
may have as many people, materials, or tools as they could use. There is
always a shortage of maintenance resources, so they must be used
carefully. This can be achieved by properly planning and scheduling plant
maintenance workload.

6) Optimize Equipment Life: Any equipment requires proper maintenance if

it is to deliver its desired service life.

7) Minimize Energy Usage: Equipment and facilities that are properly

maintained will require less energy to operate.

8) Minimize Inventory on Hand: Since maintenance spare parts average 40

% of the total maintenance budget, reducing the on-hand quantities is a
key issue. The costs of holding an inventory item in stock will average
between 20% to 30% of the actual price of the item. Any reduction in
inventory results in compounded savings.

Activity A:
Visit your maintenance organisation or a nearby plant. List out the goals and
objectives of the maintenance department.
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………………………………………………………………………………… Organization and
Structure of
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2.3 KEY ISSUES AFFECTING MAINTENANCE

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
1) The Maintenance Environment
In large plants, maintenance work will have to be carried out in a rapidly
changing environment, which in turn may be due to internal or external
pressures upon the company. The maintenance manager may not be in a
position to influence that environment to any great extent. However, He
or she should be aware of the forces shaping this environment. The
organization can then be constructed in such a way as to give it the
strength and feasibility to change rapidly with minimum loss of
efficiency.
The factors which can change the ‘internal’ environment for the
maintenance department, and which the maintenance manager must pay
some regard to, include.

External Factors:
• Competition
• Loss of market share
• Politics
• Environmental pressures, i.e. green issues
• Legislation – National and International
• Labor mobility and new business in the area
Internal Factors:
• Industrial relations
• Employee motivation
• Incentive schemes
• Management changes
• New product launches
• Poor communications
• Poor results and economic drive
• Out-dated plant and lack of investment
• Skill shortages
• Lack of training (production operators and tradesmen)
• Resistance to change (management and shopfloor)
• Politics
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Maintenance The organizational structure for the maintenance department should be
Management –
An Overview such that it can adapt to such changes in the internal environment.

2) Coordination/Communication
Only excellent communications, both vertical and horizontal, will be able
to resolve the problem of coordinating and controlling the large volume
of maintenance activities. Making use of numerous manual and
computer-based planning systems may help in adequate labour
utilization. These systems are essential in a modern maintenance
department if the work is to be handled effectively. Such systems must
be supported by a high degree of control over what people do and when
they do it to be effective. This is unlikely to be achieved alone by a
traditional centralized organization.

3) Effectiveness and Training

A successful organization will not only adequately control that which is
done but will also take steps to ensure that the service is cost-effective by
deploying the correct number of properly trained staff on each job and at
the right time. This can only convince maintenance customers that the
service they are receiving is effective. It is the job of the maintenance
manager to take the initiative with regard to the training needs of the
maintenance staff in respect of new equipment. This has to take
precedence over organizational considerations and should, in any event,
be the principal determinant in deciding the deployment of staff.

4) Control and Bureaucracy

Bureaucracy grows naturally in organizations which strive to be
efficient. Bureaucratic organizations with many specialist hierarchies
tend to display very good control within the specializations but can
become notoriously bad with respect to inter-functional communications,
flexibility in relation to change, red tape and coordination. For a good
organization, what is really needed is, in effect, two complimentary
organizations. One is largely bureaucratic- to maintain control and get
the work done. And the other non-hierarchical mixing disciplines and
levels in the business to solve problems. The maintenance manager will
have to decide how much control can be forfeited and where it should be
done in order to foster initiative, e.g., can multidiscipline teams be
allocated to specific maintenance areas or projects whilst the remainder
are controlled along traditional bureaucratic lines? It may be possible to
delegate some maintenance work to operators and control the work
centrally along largely bureaucratic lines, allowing the most skilled men
to operate in flexible problem-solving groups.

5) Shift Versus Day-Work Maintenance:

Most capital-intensive plants have to be operated round-the-clock to

achieve maximum return on assets employed. In most of these types of
operations, some shift maintenance will be necessary because of the high
costs of downtime. Because of the expense of employing shift craftsmen
32 and the difficulty of organizing and controlling the work output, most
maintenance managers try to keep the number of craftsmen on shifts to a Organization and
Structure of
minimum, consistent with dealing competently with breakdowns and Maintenance System
other emergencies.

In general, the following approach is found to be useful:

a) Aim for the minimum number of craftsmen on shift consistent with

meeting the commitments to the operation in terms of breakdown,
servicing, and safety.

b) Select the most skilled, versatile, and self-reliant people who can be
spared (they will not have the benefit of all the backup available on
day work)

c) Do not expect all the planned work to be accomplished (strange

things go bump in the night), but ensure that the plan includes a full
shift’s work for each group and also ensure that satisfactory
explanations from engineering and production management are given
if the planned work is not carried out.

d) Consider the most appropriate deployment of the shift team and their
geographical location on the plant in relation to the expected need for
services, e.g., dispersed or centralized.

e) Consider a call-out arrangement. This will suffice for some crafts. If

one is in place, are the arrangements satisfactory? For example, who
has the authority to call craftsmen to work and under what
circumstances?

f) Who is in charge under these circumstances? If not the maintenance

manager, then who is? The maintenance manager should decide the
number and mix of craftsmen called out in these circumstances. The
person in ‘the crisis’ may not always be capable of taking an objective
view.

g) Naturally, if the organization has progressed to some form of

production operator-maintainer under the control of a production
supervisor, then that supervisor will play a key role in organizing
repairs, etc. and point ‘f ’ above may not apply.

h) Is there a shift-working culture on the plant? If not, it may not be

possible to obtain shift craftsmen at all and reliance may be put solely
on:
i) Call-out arrangements, or
ii) Specialist service contracts with agreed contractual response
times which is expensive!

i) For plants with Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) system it has

been suggested that one only needs control technicians on shift since
operating staff can cope with most of the other maintenance work
necessary. Prerequisite to this must be inherently reliable plant, very
well maintained with adequate stand-by facilities.
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Maintenance
Management –
j) With regards to costs, it must be born in mind that in continuous
An Overview process plants one has to employ at least four craftsmen in order to
provide one on each shift at all times. This has a large bearing on the
numbers employed particularly when on night shifts the company is
unlikely to achieve the same work output per craftsman when
compared with day workers. In short, control is traded for the
insurance of shift cover, and at significant cost.

6) Centralised Versus Decentralised Maintenance Teams:

External influences and company culture have had a very significant
influence on the way maintenance departments were organized in the
past. The idea of centralized control was not always appropriate to the
needs of the business. By focussing on craft productivity and rigid
control systems individual initiative was stifled. In trying to rigidly
control the work of a craftsman to this extent it does not matter whether
it is decentralised or centralised the outcome will be the same. By
focusing on the maintenance needs of the plant as the first priority many
maintenance departments in large companies have to a large extent
decentralized the first-line maintenance teams (which, in the interest of
economy, should be multi-skilled) but retained a centralized team to
provide:

• Central workshop/overhaul facilities

• Specialized craft and technical services
• Maintenance projects
• Supplemental resources, including contractors.
• Spares procurement and repair
The decentralized teams will work very closely with their production
colleagues and, in some cases, have become part of the production team in
the area. They have responsibility for carrying out (sometimes centrally
controlled) maintenance plans and enjoy considerable scope for initiative
and healthy interaction with production staff. They have a very high vested
interest in solving problems and preventing plant breakdowns because they,
and they alone, will have to live with the pressures these situations create.
For this reason, if for no other, they carry out the planned, preventive work
to the best of their ability.

Activity B
Assess the organisational structure of your maintenance department as per
the learning from the above reading.
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 Organization and
2.4 BASIC ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE Structure of
Maintenance System
Centralized Organizational Structure

Decentralized Organizational Structure

Matrix (Hybrid) Organizational Structure

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Maintenance Activity C:
Management –
An Overview
Difference between Centralized Organizational Structure vs Decentralized
Organizational Structure vs Matrix (Hybrid) Organizational Structure
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2.5 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Titles, Job Descriptions and Accountabilities
Despite all that has been said about the clarity of organizational structure
over many years, it is still common practice to see ‘deputy’ or ‘assistant’
in large organisational structures. The reasons given for the existence of
such positions and titles are many and usually include:
• Help with overworked managers.
• To enhance the assistant or deputy's status (and pay).
• To cover the senior person’s absence.
Whatever the motivation for creating these appointments, they almost
always create confusion as to who is the team leader and, therefore, the
upward and downward authority and accountability. Moreover, if one
accepts that the structure should contain only whole jobs, it is impossible
to describe the assistant’s job without covering most of the “boss’s” job
as well. Most people who have to report to such a structure are confused
about who is actually in charge, i.e., if the boss is at work, what is the
‘deputy’ or ‘assistant’ responsible for? Who do the subordinates report
to?
The main organizational evil of such appointments is that they split a real
job into two or more parts, and as a result, no one has sufficient
management challenges. This usually results in the deputy or assistant
‘making out’ or managing a level further down, creating frustration for
someone else. If the manager is genuinely overworked, then in most
cases, it is better to create two real jobs with authority and
accountabilities exclusive to them. Some of the roles and responsibilities
of the Maintenance Managers are presented as follows:
• Frontline supervisors are in charge of the following: Frontline
supervisors have control over the quality, cost, duration, and
thoroughness of work, as well as training and motivation. They also
make tactical decisions to stay on schedule.
• Maintenance scheduling and planning: Job plans and
estimates; Priority work schedule; Maintain records, indexes, and
reports on performance vs. goals. Arrange for the delivery of
manpower, parts, and materials to the job site for the execution of
36 work. Ensure that even low-priority tasks have been completed.
 • Reliability engineering includes the following: maintaining and Organization and
Structure of
analysing equipment data and history records to forecast maintenance Maintenance System
needs; ensuring maintainability of new installations; eliminating
repetitive failure; providing technical advice to maintenance and
partners; designing and monitoring effective and justified preventive
and predictive maintenance programmes.
• Teams and Leadership: Given the likelihood that some of the
organisations will be made up of decentralised teams, whether they be
mixed teams of specialists in one field or teams of people with a
variety of skills, it is wise to consider the responsibilities of the
group's leader. As long as they have clear objectives and at least one
natural leader among their ranks, this type of decentralised team can
be incredibly effective if it is relatively small but well-balanced, with
the appropriate overlapping use of skills and abilities. If more than
one natural leader emerges, it will be necessary to keep a close eye on
the situation to make sure that constructive competition does not
devolve into hostile rivalry.
Activity D
Note down the responsibility you shouldered in your maintenance
department. How often do you delegate your authority to others? Can you
delegate the accountability to your colleague?
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2.6 EVOLVING A MAINTENANCE

ORGANIZATION
A maintenance organization's resource structure should be designed to
achieve the best possible balance between the use of the trade force and the
calibre of service it offers. The resource structure determines the location,
composition, size, and logistics of men, spare parts, tools, and information.
The design seeks to maximise resource use while maintaining desired
resource response and work quality. In terms of resource structuring, the
following major decision-making areas:

• Choosing which trades and how many workers to assign to each

workshop or plant area. Trade Force Composition and Size. The
effectiveness of work planning, as well as the type and volume of the
workload, all play a role.
• Choosing how much of the trade force will be devoted to maintaining a
single plant, area, or unit type is known as plant specialisation. The
benefit of plant specialisation is enhanced work quality due to increased
plant knowledge and a feeling of ownership. Utilizing a shared trade
force facilitates easier and more efficient application of work planning
and control and easing the short-term workload.
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Maintenance • Choosing the distribution and centralised organisation of trade groups
Management –
An Overview and workshops is the responsibility of the trade force. Commonly located
centrally are shared trade groups. The benefits of decentralised groups
include quick decision-making and a sense of camaraderie among the
local employees.
• Choosing how to resource maintenance work that takes place outside of
the typical daytime work is known as non-day maintenance cover. Shift
work, extra hours, calling in, or a combination of these are other options.
• Choosing how much outside labour will be used through contracts.
Contract labour has advantages when used for resourcing labour demand
peaks, performing specialised work, and reconditioning units or
assemblies.
• Finding the best or most efficient location for these resources includes
spare parts, tools, and information. The location of the trade force is a
secondary issue that is closely related. Decentralized sub-stores for tools
and parts are required due to the decentralisation of the trade force in
order to facilitate quick response.
• Choosing how and why to move resources around a site is known as the
logistics of resource movement. Although secondary to the choice of
resource location, these choices are nonetheless connected.

2.7 SUMMARY
A maintenance organization is made up of resources, administration, work
planning, and a control system. The structure and organization of
maintenance in any plant should be based on a detailed analysis of the plant's
maintenance needs. The objective is to maximize production at the lowest
cost and at the highest quality and safety standards. The organization
structure in any plant is affected by maintenance environment,
communication, training, control and bureaucracy, shift operation, and the
extent of decentralization. The roles and responsibilities should be described
in terms of the output contribution that the job makes to the business. The
degree of authority and accountability must be consistent at each level, and
no person should be held accountable for anything over which they have no
control or authority. The design of resource structure for a maintenance
organization should aim to get the best balance between the utilization of the
trade force and the quality of service it provides. The resource structure
determines the geographical location of men, spares, tools, information, their
function, composition, size, and logistics of movement. The decision
procedure for establishing a maintenance administrative structure has been
discussed.

2.8 KEY WORDS

Management: The act of controlling of maintenance within an agreed
policy.
Maintenance Management: The organization of maintenance within an
agreed policy.
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Maintenance Manager: A generic term covering all those responsible for Organization and
Structure of
the organization of maintenance. Maintenance System

Project Work: Modifying or improving a piece of equipment or system.

2.9 SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS

1) What are the important components of a maintenance organization?
2) What are the goals and objectives of a maintenance organization?
3) Name the key issues affecting the maintenance organization structure?
4) Give the factors which can influence the internal environment of a
maintenance department.
5) What arrangement you feel will be useful for managing shift
maintenance?
6) In which situations will you recommend centralized control in managing
the maintenance department?
7) Will you recommend ‘joint’ or ‘deputy’ appointments in the maintenance
administrative structure?
8) What factors should be considered while deciding maintenance
personnel's roles and responsibilities?
9) Which are the key decision-making areas in the design of resource
structure for maintenance organization?
10) Explain the decision procedure for establishing a maintenance
administrative structure?
11) Which factors need consideration for evolving a best maintenance
organization for an existing plant?
12) Visit two nearby industries and draw maintenance organization charts for
these industries.
13) Suggest the best maintenance organization for the two industries you
have visited.

2.10 FURTHER READINGS

1) Handbook of Maintenance Management by Joel Levitt Industrial Press
Inc., U.S.; Second edition
2) Complete Guide to Predictive and Preventive Maintenance by Joel Levitt
Industrial Press Inc., U.S.; Second edition
3) Chase R.B. and Aquilano, N.J. 1977. Production and Operations
Management: A life cycle approach, Revised edition, Richard D. Irvin
Inc: Chicago

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