Abstract
The subject of maintenance is surely one of the oldest known to mankind. Until recently, it was thought of as a very basic action for which only the most basic knowledge is needed. Let alone having a maintenance department was considered to be necessary but viewed as an expensive luxury. This opinion disregards the fact that a correctly managed maintenance function generates and sustains great levels of availability and reliability of plant or equipment. The study is based on an organisation with the biggest fleet of aerial access platforms that provide safe working at height solution in South Africa. The organisation has seen an increase in the demand for their equipment and at the same time a proportional sharp surge in equipment failure. Traditional maintenance approaches such as breakdown and preventive maintenance have been ineffective and resulted in high operational costs. Hence there is a need for an appropriate approach that guarantees high equipment availability and reliability at the least cost in the equipment leasing industry. The overarching aim of this research is to optimise maintenance by developing and implementing a Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) program to improve machine quality, reliability, and availability. The objectives of the study are to evaluate the challenges affecting current maintenance practices, determine how RCM will optimise maintenance and present a framework to implement RCM in an equipment rental environment. The research work starts by reviewing the literature on maintenance and subsequently different maintenance approaches. Preventive maintenance, corrective maintenance, predictive maintenance, and reliability centred maintenance processes were also reviewed. Furthermore, the concepts of availability and reliability were evaluated. The research took a case study approach and data was collected quantitatively using an online questionnaire. Results of the study show that with a good maintenance procedure in place, there would be a decrease in the number of breakdowns but an increase in maintenance costs as expected. Furthermore, it was observed that breakdown maintenance, preventive and condition-based maintenance strategies are being applied haphazardly at different stages with the organisation. The exploration and identification of patterns and obstacles are important because organisational leaders in the equipment lease industry may use this knowledge to assist in embedding the process more smoothly, efficiently, and effectively to obtain the desired results.
M.Tech. (Quality and Operations Management)