Introduction and Importance

(i) The importance of plant maintenance varies with the type of plant and its production.

(ii) Equipment breakdown leads to an inevitable loss of production.

a. If a piece of equipment goes out of order in a flow production factory, the whole line will soon come to a halt. Other production lines may also stop unless the initial fault is cleared.

b. This results in an immediate loss in productivity and a diminution of several thousand rupees per hour of output.

(iii) An un-properly maintained or neglected plant will sooner or later require expensive and frequent repairs, because with the passage of time all machines or other facilities (such as transportation facilities), buildings, etc., wear out and need to be maintained to function properly.

(iv) Plant maintenance plays a prominent role in production management because plant breakdown creates problems such as:

a. Loss in production time.

b. Rescheduling of production.

c. Spoilt materials (because sudden stoppage of process damages in-process materials).

d. Failure to recover overheads (because of loss in production hours).