Abstract
M.Ing. (Engineering Management)
South African railway operations for freight transportation is one of the key contributors to the GDP. The railway transportation company is one of the largest rail companies in Africa. Therefore, it is imperative that the execution of supporting functions to the business is conducted effectively and efficiently. Studies suggest that the cost of maintenance of rolling stock equipment is said to be the most significant operating cost for the business.
One of the biggest challenges that maintenance managers face is minimising the overall maintenance costs and maximising the reliability performance of the rolling stock. Therefore, this research aims to identify the factors that affect the performance of the maintenance strategy for rolling stock and the impact thereof on the operations of locomotives. To broadly understand the factors that affect the maintenance strategy and their impact, a coal line locomotive fleet was chosen as a case study. This was to ensure that the operational inefficiencies that affect the locomotive reliability are understood so that improvements can be made.
A questionnaire was distributed to the targeted participants, to ascertain the factors that they believe have the most significant impact on the performance of the maintenance strategy. A relative index analysis was conducted on the questionnaire results with the aim of the order of significance of the maintenance management factors. Findings of the relative index importance analysis were used to study the relationship between these factors and the impact they have on locomotive operations. Finally, a literature study was used as a benchmarking tool to identify the gaps of the maintenance strategy...