Abstract
M.Ing. (Engineering Management)
Rand Water is a bulk water distributor, which supplies water to over 12 million people in and around the Gauteng area located in South Africa. The purification and subsequent distribution of potable water is key to Rand Waters’ core business goals. Centrifugal pumps are used extensively for the transportation of potable water via pipelines.
The maintenance of centrifugal pumps is crucial for achieving Rand Waters’ business objectives’. The extended downtime during the repair/overhaul of centrifugal pumps hinders the Operations Department from meeting their client's orders for potable water during the peak season namely summer.
The various operations within the maintenance process, specifically for the overhaul of large centrifugal pumps, are found to contain a lot of waste. This waste results in extended turn-around times for the overhaul of centrifugal pumps at Rand Water.
The current maintenance processes are documented in order to determine which operations contribute to waste. The lean maintenance methodology is subsequently applied and the wasteful operations are reviewed in order to minimise wasteful activities. These wasteful activities are then leaned out resulting in a more efficient maintenance process and a reduction in the turn-around time when refurbishing/repairing centrifugal pumps.
The application of lean principles may be applied in both the actual manufacturing process and business processes also. The lean methodology can be a generalized approach to many business operations. The outcome of this research work provides recommendations derived from the lean maintenance methodology in order to identify and reduce waste.