ABSTRACT
A machine that has been designed and manufactured to perform a certain function, is expected to do so when installed in a plant for its designed life span. However, for reasons beyond one’s control, such a machine may fail to do so for several reasons. Some of the reasons could be a faulty design of the machine, inferior material and workmanship, incorrect installation and wrong operational procedure, among many others. However, in a plant where the output could be finished goods, the failure of the installed machine would lead to a loss of sales and loss in the earnings made by the plant. So, if care is not taken of the machine to avoid failures, a plant owner could incur serious financial loss and lead to bankruptcy. The machine thus has to be maintained to avoid such failures. All over the world, plant operators adopt three different types of maintenance techniques for machines, known as the reactive maintenance, preventive maintenance, and predictive maintenance. The benefits of planned maintenance are as follows:
• Eliminate unnecessary maintenance • Reduce rework costs • Reduce lost production caused by failures • Reduce repair parts inventory • Increase process efficiency • Improve product quality • Extend the operating life of plant systems • Increase production capacity • Reduce overall maintenance costs • Increase overall profit
In this chapter, a brief overview of these maintenance techniques is provided along with a procedure known as failure modes effects and criticality analysis (FMECA), which suggests a scientific way to decide about the type of maintenance to be adopted for a particular machine in a plant.
