Abstract
South Africa is one of the leading exporters of Ferro-alloy metal in the world. In 2024 South Africa generated an export value of $4.18 Billion which accounted for 10.48% of the overall international export value. Attributed to several Ferro-alloy smelter companies and the abundance of natural resources across the country, the Ferro-alloy industry has remained a major competitor in the Ferro-alloy production industry worldwide. To run a competitive Ferroalloy producing organization, a well-managed maintenance engineering department is a pre-requisite. For an organization to embark on a continuous improvement journey, a comprehensive understanding of current status of maintenance management practices needs to be sought to evaluate where the organization is in terms of maintenance, where it is headed and how it will get there. The research study herein evaluates maintenance management practices at one of the Ferroalloy producing companies in South Africa using a maintenance maturity model. The study evaluates the core maintenance management practices carried out daily to determine the current level of maintenance maturity in the engineering department. A comprehensive literature review was conducted to give a brief overview of the history of the ferro-alloy industry, core maintenance equipment and their functions, relevant maintenance management practices and an overview of existing maturity models to assess maintenance maturity within organizations. The study further evaluates the gaps within the literature reviewed on maturity models and derives a maintenance maturity model suitable for applications within the Ferro-alloy industry following quantitative research methodology. Fifteen participants were sampled to take part in the study by responding to a close-ended research questionnaire distributed to their respective email addresses. The reliability of the data obtained from the participants was confirmed by Spearman-Brown correlation value of 0.932 which is greater than 0.8 and indicates an excellent internal consistency. The data obtained from the participants revealed that the current overall maturity level of maintenance management practices within the case-study organization is 2.99/5, indicating that practices are well defined and balanced. However, they are not yet advanced or world class. Further analysis indicated performance classes where the organization can deploy its resources to gradually elevate to higher maturity levels. The study herein aids the case study company to discover the maturity of its maintenance practices and provides recommendations for elevation to higher maturity levels. Furthermore, the study contributes to the research pool focusing on maintenance maturity model within African countries.