Maintenance Strategy, Practices and Spare Parts Management

This chapter deals with the selection and formulation of asset maintenance strategies for operations-intensive organizations. Many of the organizations’ choice of a maintenance strategy are selecting suitable maintenance tactics/methods such as corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance, reliability-based maintenance, and Total Productive Maintenance. There is a need to view maintenance strategy selection in a holistic manner considering all the processes related to asset maintenance strategy and practices. The key elements of asset maintenance strategy selection are maintenance personnel experience, Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) recommendations, maintenance policy guidelines, asset criticality and availability, and process severity and complexity. These are the major deciding elements in selecting a particular maintenance strategy for a specific equipment/process. The insights provided in this chapter are based on the knowledge captured from industry experts and professionals of operations-intensive organizations through semi-structured interviews. The Maintenance Decision Support System is beneficial in selecting a maintenance strategy for multiple equipment systems discussed in this chapter. The interlinking roles of asset maintenance contributing factors with asset maintenance strategy and the importance of alignment of maintenance strategy with business and operation strategies are also deliberated. The organizations must follow best asset maintenance practices while implementing the chosen maintenance strategy. The mission for best maintenance practices leads to contemporary asset maintenance management, which captures technical and operational datasets from the ecosystem and manufacturers’ data to effectively implement the selected maintenance strategy considering the condition of the asset/equipment and the system’s overall life cycle. A typical contemporary maintenance program attempts to optimize old-style maintenance practices and incorporate condition assessment of the asset, historical information, and other best practices. It is recommended to follow a nine-step process of the organization’s asset maintenance practices to implement the selected maintenance strategy effectively. This chapter also describes the applications of OR and MS concepts in spare parts management and maintenance decision-making.