The Advantages of Maintenance Planning - Term Paper Example

The logistics of physical items normally consist of a series of information flows. The complexities associated with logistic activities need to be analyzed and a proper logistics management system must be followed for the success of any organization.
Maintenance Planning:
The advantages of Maintenance Planning Advantages in an Organisation:


Thus, in a sense equipment is vital to the profitability of a business. Low or poor working conditions of equipment can also cause quality-related issues, so it is highly significant to provide proper and periodic maintenance to operating equipment. The cost is also an important constraint to be considered in the maintenance of the same. An incorporated approach is taken to analyze the cost involved in the maintenance, the proper action should be taken to utilize the cost economically.

In the competitive world of business, each company tries its level best to be number one in the industry and the business is much concerned with meeting the current trends in the market. To be successful and competent maintenance planning is essential. Planning is the stage where a company decides which equipment is to be maintained and which obsolete ones are to be discarded. Maintenance falls into two categories: preventive maintenance and breakdown maintenance. Preventive maintenance is the assessment and examination process at regular intervals and breakdown maintenance is the mending and thinking done when the equipment is not in working condition. The maintenance planning primarily concerns two aspects relating to equipment such as temporary breakdown or its becoming obsolete. Proper planning of equipment maintenance has a significant role in the output of a production or a service unit as a primary resource for such organizations is the equipment. Thus, any compromise done in this regard will impede the basic functioning of the organization, entailing hefty losses.
Life Cycle Cost:
Life-Cycle Cost (LCC) is an effective method to measure an economic assessment of equipment. The cost being utilized for the equipment is to be channeled economically. LCC takes into account the total savings, IRR, the payback period, etc while considering the maintenance and repair of equipment. LCC can also be perceived as an efficient tool for choosing within a competing environment, useful in comparison of the costs of competing projects, decreasing the total cost, taking appropriate decisions, excellent planning, and budgetary decisions. “LCC analysis is required to demonstrate that operational savings are sufficient to justify the investment costs.LCC helps change provincial perspectives for business issues with an emphasis on enhancing economic competitiveness by working for the lowest long-term cost of ownership which is not an easy answer to obtain” (Barringer, 2003, p.2).

Reliability:
Reliability refers to the quality of measurement and in a daily routine, reliability is the "constancy" of various measures. The organization should be reliable Besides, only such a reliable organization in every aspect of its operation to achieve profitability can service in a competitive marketplace.
“Three important statements summarize the organization's success are:
1) Reliability must be designed into products and processes using the best available science-based methods.
2) Knowing how to calculate reliability is important, but knowing how to achieve reliability is equally, if not more, important.
3) Reliability practices must begin early in the design process and must be well integrated into the overall product development cycle” (Design for Reliability: Overview of the Process and Applicable Techniques, 1992, p.4).

Maintainability:
Maintainability enables the organization to function effectively and efficiently without breakdowns or any pauses in operations. Maintainability is not considered a skill but it is a virtue of doing things directly with less time wasted on the restoration process after a breakdown. Maintainable projects can facilitate better output and they will add much to the reputation of the organizations by providing a seamless flow of quality products and services.

Availability:
Availability is a measure of the amount of time a system or component performs its specified function and is extremely important for the firm to be operative. The firm always needs to make adequate planning on the availability of resources, to avoid any hurdles in its operation. “To a large extent, reliability and serviceability influence availability. The more failure reduction built into a system, the more available it is likely to be. Features and technologies that reduce failure recovery time, or that speed up diagnosis and repair, increase a system’s overall availability” (Availability, Reliability, and Serviceability, 1996, p.7).

Deliver More, Deliver Further, Deliver Faster, Deliver Cleaner and
Deliver Better:
Delivery is the final process in the operations and it should be considered by the organization as the concluding process. Therefore proper emphasis needs to be given to these aspects as they should be treated as a significant component in the delivery cycle. Deliveries should never be overdue and they should reach the customer at a right time and the right place. Read More