Abstract
M.Phil.
Production uptime and plant availability is the primary aim of present-day maintenance strategy making. In the past, this was accomplished by building in redundancies and excess production capacity, or by following an aggressive schedule to rebuild or overhaul critical systems. Both approaches are inherently inefficient. Redundant systems and excess capacity tie up scarce capital that could otherwise be deployed in a producing activity. Today we live in a world where change is not only common, but also inevitable. Mining companies and their people are all exposed to the massive scientific and technological explosion occurring and will need to adapt to be competitive or be doomed to oblivion. The mining businesses that are not prepared to change, will very quickly find that they have priced themselves out of the market and will be relegated to being dinosaurs from the past. Maintenance has undergone a metamorphosis in the past few decades and is now entrenched as a vital part of the industry. The availability, reliability and operability of assets have become imperative, demanding that maintenance methods and strategies become even more sophisticated. Excessive downtime and breakdowns of assets have become critical factors to the point of being totally unacceptable. Maintenance thus needs to become more efficient, contributing maximally to the profitability of the industry by coordinating operational readiness with production demand. The purpose of this study is to investigate the successful use of outsourced maintenance methods, principles as a way of achieving this efficiency. It furthermore seeks to identify the benefits of such an outsourcing approach to the mining industry. While a mining business can take advantage of transformational outsourcing at any point in its life cycle, "once a business leader has decided change is required, (whether, as a course correction or in response to economic cycles), outsourcing becomes a viable alternative business strategy to enable that transformation more rapidly, with less risk and with more flexibility" according to Jay Ward, from the outsourcing institute. Outsourcing delivers value beyond cost reduction. During the outsourcing process, the maintenance organisation of a mine is really looking for results such as improvement of its profit margin, by such things as inventory reduction, increased maintenance service efficiency, reduced cycle times, reduced meantime between failures, improved operating performance, and the availability of expert skills and cutting edge technologies. The question that this dissertation seeks to answer is: "how does the maintenance outsourcing process work in the new maintenance world, and what and how much maintenance should the mine management outsource?" The study focuses on the changing world of maintenance, maintenance policy making and World Class best practice maintenance strategies. It looks for ways of closing the gaps that exist in present maintenance practice in mining organisations, through maintenance outsourcing as one of the "best practice" drivers through which such organisations can position themselves for present economic realities. It thus serves to guide the individual mining business to be able to chart its own course to achieve flexibility and accelerate its business in ways that consistently minimise risk while delivering value to stakeholders.