Plant Maintenance

Introduction

In modern industries , equipment and machinery are very important parts of the production activity. A
large amount of money is invested in machineries and equipments. Special purpose and modern
machineries cost a lot of money. If those machineries and equipments are kept idle then it will be a great
loss to that company. So they have to be kept always in good working condition. Then only they will work
efficiently for more number of years. They should not breakdown or stop production . So it is very
important that machineries and equipments in plants are properly maintained. In order to take smooth
production of finished goods from the factory, machinery and equipment, should be in proper conditions
and with breakdown free. The damage caused to plant and machineries due to normal wear and tear ,
improper use, under and over utilization ,mis-operation etc can be viewed seriously and can hamper the
smooth production of goods and services and machine down time. Keeping the productive resources of
plant , machinery, equipment etc in good working condition is an important responsibility of management
to achieve specified level of quality and reliability of operation.

Maintenance –Definition

Maintenance is the process of keeping the machine and equipment in good working condition so that the
efficiency of machine is retained and its life is increased.

Or

“Plant maintenance is a combination of actions carried out by an organization to replace, repair ,service
the machineries , components or their groups in a manufacturing plant , so that it will continue to operate
satisfactorily”
Objective of plant maintenance

The objective of maintenance is to maximize the performance of productive resources of an organization

by ensuring that these resources perform regularly and efficiently. This is achieved by preventing the
breakdown and failures and by minimizing the production loss.

The main objectives of plant maintenance are :


 of plant, equipment and machinery for productivity through
To maximize the availability
 planned maintenance.

 To  of the plant, equipment , machinery etc., by minimizing their wear and tear
extend the life span
and deterioration.
 
 To reduce the cost of production due to plant breakdown due to improper plant maintenance.
 
To help the production department to go ahead with their production plans without any problem.


 To ensure operational readiness of all production facilities for emergency use at all times, such 
as fire fighting equipment , first aid facilities, alternative method of production and packing etc
 
 To provide management with proper information on the cost and effectiveness of maintenance.


To ensure safety of staff through regular inspection and maintenance of facilities such as boilers,
compressors, elevations, material handling system, conveyors , dangerous heavy machineries etc.

FUINCTIONS OF PLANT MAINTENANCE

The basic function of any maintenance activity is to maintain the facility and its equipment in a
condition to meet normal operating requirements. The basic function of maintenance are as follows

a) Inspection
b) Repair
c) Overhaul
d) Lubrication
e) Salvage
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a) Inspection

Inspection involves periodic checking of machines and equipment to ensure safe and efficient operation,
making certain that equipment requiring work at specified periods receives proper attention,
determination of repair feasibility and control of the quality of work accompanied by maintenance group,
Inspection implies detection of faults before they develop in to breakdown of the equipment. This canbe
done effectively by increasing our ability to identify the initial symptoms of machine trouble as early as
possible. The initial symptoms of the machine trouble may be revealed through noise, vibration, dirtness,
leak or heat of the machine.
b) Repair

When any item or components fails or breakdown , then the process of repairing the component or
replacing the item or part by another item to restore the item in working order is known as repair.

c) Overhaul

This is another routine and regular maintenance function falling under preventive maintenance. The
frequency of overhauling is for less than lubrication and inspection. In overhauling, the machine is stripped
and the various parts are cleaned and oiled and components are replaced.
d) Lubrication

Proper lubrication plays a vital role in maintaining the machine accuracy and increasing its life.
Lubrication of machinery should be considered as important as blood circulation in the human [Link]
cleaning and lubrication of the machine is normally done by the operator itself. From the suppliers
document, lubricating instructions showing the daily/ weekly/fortnightly/monthly/ Yearly lubricating
points and grades of lubricants to be used should be prepared. These are tabulated in a chart and
explained to the operator For the convenience of the operator, it is advisable to paint the lubricating
points on the machine. Grade of lubricant and the lubricating schedule may be indicated there itself.

e) Salvage

Any equipment is said to be salvage when it cannot be repaired or cannot be brought to desired level of
performance. In that case the item is to be replaced by new one to bring back the system into operation.

Maintenance practices

Different maintenance practices are adopted to suit the various types of production , machineries and
other devices. They are
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1. Break down maintenance

2. Preventive maintenance
3. Scheduled maintenance
4. Productive maintenance

BREAK DOWN MAINTENANCE

In this method the machines are allowed to run without carrying out any maintenance activities. Only
when it becomes out of order (Stops working) it is repaired and set right. Next maintenance is done only
when it breaks down again.

This type of maintenance is applicable to machines which are not important i.e Breakdown of
these machines will not affect the production process.

Causes of Breakdown
i) Failure to replace the wornout parts

ii) Non application of lubricants

iii) Neglected cooling system
iv) Carelessness towards minor repairs

Disadvantages of Break down maintenance

i) Production is affected (Delayed or Stoped)

ii) Leads to hurried maintenance -which in turn leads to poor quality

maintenance

iii) The plant depreciates very fast

iv) Plant life is very much reduced.

v) Increase cost due to overtime payment

vi) Cost of maintenance is high – as down time cost and replacement cost will be high
vii) Leads to direct loss of profit
viii) Leads to increased accidents
ix) More wastage of material
x) Not suitable for equipments like cranes, boilers, lifts, hoists etc
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However this type of maintenance is used for ordinary equipments like vises, bench grinders etc.

PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE

It is a method of maintenance aimed at avoiding or preventing breakdowns. The principle of preventive

maintenance is ‘Prevention is better than cure’

Here some components are identified as weak spots in all machineries and equipments. These parts are
inspected regularly. Minor repairs are carried out immediately as soon as there is necessity. This reduces
the unanticipated breakdowns.

Objectives

1. To minimize the possibility of unanticipated break downs

2. To make plant and machines always available for ready use.
3. To retain the value of the equipment
4. To maintain optimum productivity
5. To maintain the accuracy of the machineries
6. To reduce work content during maintenance
7. To ensure safety to workmen

Procedure

1) Maintaining machine Records

To carryout the preventive maintenance effectively all the details about the machines should be
kept in records. These are

a) Type of equipment and description

b) Name of the manufacturer
c) Cost and date of the purchase
d) Cost and date of planned repairs
e) Breakdowns if any and their dates and reasons
f) List of spare parts and their code numbers
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2) Preparing Inspection checklist

Here the components to be inspected on regular intervals are listed. i.e What are to be inspected
daily/ weekly/ monthly are listed. General items which are to be inspected regularly are :

a) Material handling equipments like crane, hoists lifts conveyors trucks etc.
b) Safety equipments like relief valves, fire extinguishers, safety alarms etc.
c) Process equipments like furnaces , compressor, pumps, motors etc
d) Water, air and fuel lines
e) Key equipments and machineries

Frequency of inspection depends upon

a) Severity of work carried out on the machine – whether one shift, two shift or for 24 hrs daily.
b) Age, condition and value of the equipment
c) Safety and health environment
d) Amount of exposure to dirt, fumes, friction , fatigue , stress , corrosion, wear etc.

3. Inspection as per check list and corrective action

Inspection and corrective action can be done as follows

a) Routine up-keep adjustment of guide plates, lubrication and cleaning

b) Periodic inspection – Visual inspection – Overhauls, scheduled replacements etc.

These maintenance works are done without disturbance to the production activities. In preventive
maintenance , the cost of maintenance will be high. Because many people are involved in
inspection, record keeping and maintenance work. More number of spare parts

Are stocked. The parts are replaced before the end of their life.

Advantages of Preventive maintenance

1. reduced break downs and down time

2. Lesser overtime to maintenance people
3. Grater safety to workers
4. Low maintenance and repair cost
5. Less stand –by equipment needed.
6. Reduced production cost
7. Increased equipment life
8. Increase workers morale – as no stoppage of work.
9. Better product Quality
[Link] material wastages.

COMPARISON BETWEEN BREAKDOWN AND PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE

S .NO. BREAKDOWN MAINTENANCE PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE

1 Maintenance is done only after Maintenance is done before the
machine fails to function machine fails

2 Maintenance is done after It is done to prevent breakdown

breakdown

3 The time of breakdown is Maintenance work is planned and

unexpected. So the maintenance scheduled in a well advanced
cannot be planned manner

4 Not suitable for critical Suitable for all types of equipments

machineries like cranes , hoists , and machineries
trucks boilers, furnaces, Valves
etc

5 Cost due to down time is more No down time

6 Production Loss takes place No production Loss

7 The durability (Life) and The durability (Life) and efficiency of

efficiency of the equipment and the equipment and machineries
machineries decreases due to increases decreases due to planned
poor maintenance maintenance

8 It affects the quality of the goods Preventive maintenance improves

produced by that equipments the quality of the goods
and machineries

9 The Breakdown maintenance Preventive maintenance are planned

cannot be planned and scheduled and scheduled systematically and
as systematically and effectively effectively
as preventive maintenance
SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE

In this type , the maintenance is done according to the recommendation of the supplier of the
equipment. This is usually done at predetermined dates. Example Overhauling machines, cleaning
of tanks, annual shut down and maintenance of power plants, cement factories, sugar plants,
paper mills , fertilizer units etc In this maintenance , the plant is shutdown and following are done
: Inspection, repairing and replacing of worn out parts.
Planned Maintenance
In this type , the maintenance activities are well planned. The following details are planned:

1) Time of maintenance
2) Material (Spare parts) requirement.
3) Men requirement
4) Maintenance tools and equipment needed.
5) Allocation of work to maintenance people.
6) Estimated cost

The maintenance plan is prepared for a group of equipment and machineries. The maintenance
is carried out as per the plan.

Productive Maintenance

It is a type of preventive maintenance. Here preventive maintenance is done only for critical
machineries. These machineries are very important for production. The failure of these critical
machines will affect the complete production process.

For example : In a chemical plant, a small pump for circulating chemicals may be a critical
equipment If the pump fails to function then the whole plant have to be stopped. So the pump is
considered to be a critical equipment in the chemical plant.. This pump which is identified as a
critical equipment should be given preventive maintenance.
The other equipment in the plant may be given scheduled maintenance or planned maintenance.

Advantages of Good Maintenance

1. Life of machinery and equipments are increased

2. production takes place as per the schedule.
3. Products are delivered to customers in time and hence high level of customer satisfaction can
be expected
4. Machines are in good condition. Hence quality of the products will be good.
5. No production loss
6. Machinery is not damaged
7. No idle time of men and machines. Hence their utility increases

Disadvantages of poor maintenance

1. Machines may be damaged. This is a loss

2. Poorly maintained machines will produce poor quality products
3. More wastage of materials.

4. Break down of machines makes both men and machine in idle position. So production time is
wasted. This will increase cost of production
5. Poor maintenance cause accidents.
6. Due to poor maintenance , life of machine is reduced.

7. If a part of equipment goes out of order in a flow production factory, then the entire production
line will soon come to halt. This leads to heavy loss in productivity as well as monetary loss.

BREAKDOWN TIME DISTRIBUTION

Breakdown time is the duration of the machine in the breakdown mode. Breakdown time
distribution when plotted on the graph will show the frequency with which machines have
maintenance.-free performance for a given number of operating hours. Breakdown time
distribution are developed from distribution of run time free of breakdowns as sown in the fig.

MAINTENANCE COST BALANCE

Breakdown of equipment makes the workers and machine idle resulting in loss of production, delay
in schedules and expensive repairs.
The cost associated with maintenance are

1. Down time cost- This is the loss of profit due to stoppage in production
2. Cost of material wasted
3. Wages paid to workers when they are idle due to breakdown
4. Cost due to idleness of machine
5. Cost of spares and other materials used for repair
6. Wages paid to maintenance people
7. Losses due to inefficient operation of machines
8. Capital requirements required for replacement of machines

The maintenance function acts in a role to keep equipment operating effectively to maintain quality
standards as well as to maintain the cost of standard of output. The policies regarding the
maintenance depends on the situation and the relative costs. Is routine preventive maintenance
economical or will it be less costly to wait for breakdown to occur and then repair the equipment?

The decision regarding the appropriate level of preventive maintenance rests on the balance of
costs, as indicated in the fig 5.6. Managers may select a policy that minimizes the sum of preventive
maintenance costs plus repair , down time and quality related costs.

Curve ‘P’ in fig 5.6 represents the increase in costs that results from higher levels of preventive
maintenance. These costs increase because of higher levels of preventive maintenance mean that
we replace the parts before they fails and we replace more components when preventive
maintenance is performed and we perform preventive maintenance frequently.
Curve ‘r’ in fig 5.6 represents the decline in breakdown and repair, downtime and quality related
costs as the level of preventive maintenance increases. With higher level of preventive maintenance
, we should experience fewer actual breakdowns.
The total incremental cost curve is the sum of curves’p’ and ‘’r’. The optimal policy regarding the
level of preventive maintenance is defined by the minimum ‘M’ of that curve.

There is a combination of costs that leads to the decision not to use preventive maintenance .
suppose if the breakdown and repair costs did not decline as the level of preventive maintenance
increases then preventive maintenance would not be justified , because the minimum total cost
occurs with no preventive maintenance. The optimal policy will be simply to repair the machine
when breakdown occurs.
 PROCEDURE OF PLANT MAINTENANCE

As the planned maintenance is the true maintenance function comapared to the unplanned
maintenance, which has not been foreseen or happened accidently, the techniques of plant
maintenance are most applicable only to planned maintenance , which is the real maintenance
function that should be taken by the industrial unit.

Planned maintenance is not a specific type of maintenance , but the application of maintenance
should be tackled in a specific manner. It is the comprehensive planning of the maintenance
function, and is designed as the work is organized and is carried out with forethought , control and
reorder.

Techniques of planned maintenance

In order to set up planned maintenance system for an organization it is necessary to make a general
appraisal of all the maintenance work to be carried out and the resources available for this work.
The basic techniques in designing a planned maintenance system are as follows.

a) Inventory of facilities : Prepare a list of all facilities –plant, buildings, machines and

equipments in the organization which need to be maintained

b) Identification of plant and equipment : After completing inventory of all facilities to be

Location Machine Type No of Machine within the group

01 02 03

Tablet making Department Tablet punching machine Rotary punching machine

maintained, it is essential that each facility is positively identified. A typical identification system
makes use of six-digit. The first two digit indicates the location of the machine. i.e the
department, the next two digits indicates the machine number within its particular group . i.e No
:1 Lathe NO:2 Lathe No:3 Lathe, etc

Example: An identification symbol 011-03-06 is interpreted as follows in a pharmaceutical

manufacturing company:
 c) Marking the equipment : When an item of equipment has been allocated an
identification symbol, it should be marked clearly and where possible by a method that
is standard throughout the organization.

d) The facility Register : The facility register is a record of all machinery, plant, equipment and
building which has to be maintained, including technical details about each. The information
contained in this facility register can act as a standard reference in terms of each facility’s
spares, current location, conditions, serviceability model. Size specification, etc

e) Marking schedule : A maintenance schedule is a comprehensive list of maintenance work to

be done, specifying the frequency, the maintenance worker and the estimated time required
to complete the maintenance work. The maintenance schedule is normally prepared on the
basis of supplier’s literatures of each equipment and as well as the operational experience of
the equipment. A typical maintenance schedule is shown in the following figure.

January February March

Plant Ref 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

Machine A XYZ X Y Z X X Y

Machine B XYZ Z X Y Y X Y Z

Machine C XZ X Z X X Z X

Machine D XY Y X X Y Y X

N.B It is one, two and three monthly inspection for jobs X,Y and Z respectively.

f. Job Specification : Job specification is a document describing the work to be done. After scheduling
maintenance work to be carried out on each facility, the details of the work to be carried out on each
facility, the details of the work to be performed need to be communicated clearly and precisely to
the maintenance workers to ensure effective maintenance.

g. The Maintenance program : It is a list allocating specific maintenance to a specific period. i.e When it
is to be maintained. The generally used techniques are maintanence planning charts or visible record
 cards. In the planning charts the facilities to be maintained are listed down the left hand side of the chart
or board. The time scale usually in days or weeks in days or weeks is marked along the top edge.

h. Job Report : Job report is a statement recording the work done and the conditions of the facility. For
any planned maintenance scheme there must be a continous flow of information to and from the
persons doing the work. The feedback is essential for the control and adjustment of the plan.

Review Questions

1. What is plant Maintenance?

2. What are the specific objectives of any maintenance function of an organization?
3. Differentiate between preventive and breakdown maintenance
4. Explain various types of plant maintenance ?
5. Explain the need for plant maintenance
6. Explain the costs associated with maintenance
7. Explain in detail the procedure involved in plant maintenance
8. What are the significance of maintenance cost balance
9. Explain the importance of breakdown time distribution