Definition
In an industry, cost of unscheduled stoppage of an equipment is very high, in terms of loss of production and money. Maintenance is an activity carried out to avoid unscheduled stoppages and breakdowns of the equipment, to improve availability and life of plant and machineries, thereby improving the performance of the industry. The effectiveness of production is highly dependent on quality of maintenance. One of the key factor for the success of an industry is an effective maintenance management system.

Proper maintenance management can improve existing capacity utilization rather than going in for additional capacities to meet the ever increasing demand of a large number of products and services.

Maintenance is only viewed as a repair function, however it is a combination of any actions carried out to retain an item in or restore it to an acceptance condition.



The principal objectives of maintenance activity are:

1. To maximise the availability and reliability of all assets (equipment, machinery)
2. To extend the useful life of assets by minimising wear and tear and deterioration.
3. To ensure operation readiness of all equipments required for emergency use at all times.
4. To ensure the safety of personnel/using facility.

The availability (A) of a plant can be defined as:
A = Tup / Tup + Tdown

Where,
Tup = The cumulative time of operation in the normal working state
T down = The cumulative downtime.
Reliability - The probability that a unit will function normally when used according to specified conditions for at least a stated period of time.
Maintainabilty - The probability that a failed unit is put back to satisfactory, operable condition in a given down time.

In a changing world of competition the survival of industries depends on quick decision making and effective management of maintenance function. To accomplish the above objective presently "Computer Aided Maintenance Management Software Packages" are available for the maintenance managers.

CAMM System is a reliable tool available to plan effectively complete tasks on schedule and make quick reviews. This can also be treated as part of "ERP" software.

Typical CAMM system provides:

" Decision support for equipment
" Reliability management
" Real time data capture for condition monitoring of equipment
" Work orders management
" Planning spares requirements
" Planning maintenance budgets
" Monitoring of labour productivity
" Comprehensive equipment databases
" Automatic sequencing of inspections

A typical planned maintenance package consists of three modules:
1. Maintenance administration and control
2. Equipment
3. Maintenance operations