Recognising maintenance as a key business process

摘要

Many maintenance managers are very close to the 'coal face' and are expected to be manager, troubleshooter, HR specialist, PLC guru and fiscal genius all in one. In the morning, they are expected to know precisely why pump no. 37 didn't function last night, whilst in the afternoon; they must be able to prepare a financial case for replacement of equipment. Too often, though, the performance of maintenance managers in meeting the above requirements means that they take their eye off the overall picture or simply don't have the time to focus on it. The downside is that the maintenance function is seen by senior management as nothing more than a cost to the business and, indeed, a very high cost at that. However, with production asset values in most manufacturing facilities running to tens of millions of euro and the pressure continuously rising for more and more availability, clearly a maintenance strategy, in line with the business needs, is the first step towards changing that perception and getting maintenance accepted as a key business process.