Planning and Control of Maintenance Systems: : Modeling and Analysis

Citation

Jardine, A.K.S. (1999), "Planning and Control of Maintenance Systems: : Modeling and Analysis", Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, Vol. 5 No. 2, pp. 219-221. https://doi.org/10.1108/jqme.1999.5.2.219.1

There have been very few texts in the general area of maintenance management/engineering. In part, this has been the result of maintenance having a relatively lower profile in industry and in engineering programs in the past. However, the growing sophistication of maintenance and the heightened need for industries to optimize their systems has created a greater need for better practices in system planning, including maintenance systems, by manufacturing and service organizations, and thereby a greater need for research and teaching. In this respect, the co‐authors of Planning and Control of Maintenance Systems bring valuable credentials to the writing of this text. Raouf and Duffuaa (the Editor‐in‐Chief and Editor of this journal, respectively) are experienced academics in the maintenance field who are in a position to consolidate the available research. Campbell (one of the Editorial Board Members) is prominent in the creation of leading edge maintenance procedures, having extensive experience in the field and through direct work with maintenance professionals; he is the partner responsible for the global activities of Physical Asset Management (PAM) for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Head of their International Center of Excellence in Maintenance Management.

Together, the authors have blended their strengths and created a text which is a welcome arrival on the scene, joining a small number of select works which have begun to reflect and contribute to the maturity of the maintenance field (Campbell, 1995; Coetzee, 1997; Pintelon et al., 1997). This most recent text has an appropriate audience in university or college teachers, engineering students, and practicing maintenance professionals and managers. For the academic, it has a strong blend of theory and practice, and covers a broad range of issues that are commonly addressed by practitioners and need to be incorporated into degree programs. In addition, students at both the undergraduate and graduate levels can experience the richness of maintenance as an area of expertise which, as noted, is acquiring an increasing demand in industry. For the practitioner who is involved in maintenance decisions but may be without specific academic expertise, the book provides a firm grounding in methodologies and tools now being used within leading edge organizations to optimize their maintenance practices; this includes the most current developments in PAM. For all users, the text presents the need and capacity for a rigorous, quantified approached to maintenance decisions.

One of the strengths of the text is its inclusion of chapters with fundamental concepts and practices which may seem elementary to some readers, but are essential parts of a comprehensive textbook. Students will find the first two chapters useful in presenting overviews of maintenance systems and some key considerations of maintenance organization in industry. Similarly, Chapter 6 summarizes planning and scheduling techniques which are well known to practitioners and have wide application. In contrast, Chapter 11 provides the maintenance practitioner with clear information on maintenance training, an aspect which may have limited interest to the student reader. For all of these chapters, the focus is on basic concepts which, particularly for the student, are quite necessary for the more sophisticated ideas presented in the rest of the text.

One of the most important developments in maintenance management/engineering has been the application of some extremely useful techniques from other areas of engineering. Chapter 3, “Preventive maintenance, concepts, modeling, and analysis”, provides quantitative procedures to make good replacement and inspection decisions, with a focus on the necessity of maintenance being a planned, controlled system. The chapter also includes some very important material on Christer′s Delay‐Time Modeling (appearing for the first time in a textbook). Chapter 5, “Maintenance forecasting and capacity planning”, explains the application of well‐known forecasting techniques, including stochastic techniques and simulation. Chapter 7, “Maintenance material control”, is particularly valuable to maintenance practitioners with its practical suggestions for the management of such concerns as inventory reorder levels and spare parts ordering strategies. Indeed, this chapter could have greater expansion in future editions; some information on slow moving spare parts would be a useful component. Finally, Chapter 8, “Maintenance quality control”, has some extremely useful insights in revealing maintenance procedures that could use other problem solving methods. One segment applies a standard fish‐tail diagram (used in manufacturing quality control) to maintenance downtime, in this way having a valuable connection to reliability controlled maintenance analysis. Together, these four chapters serve two important functions. First, engineering students can be introduced to some key connections between different areas of their studies and the maintenance field. Second, these very practical applications of sound methodologies are made more accessible to practitioners who are not directly involved in those fields of expertise.

The usefulness of any textbook would be limited if it were to ignore upcoming developments. This text includes two important components which satisfy this need. Chapter 10 is devoted to the present and evolving applications of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMSs). The topic is crucial because the maintenance data which can be accumulated by a CMMS are of considerable importance to the implementation of many of the latest methodologies which are described elsewhere in the text; indeed, for student and practitioner alike, it reveals the means by which optimization of maintenance decisions can be best informed. The final chapter of the text presents the latest advances in maintenance concepts, including Reliability‐centred maintenance, Total productive maintenance, Benchmarking and Maintenance process reengineering. In essence, these two chapters move the text beyond present practices and classical engineering problems, and into the future directions of maintenance management/engineering.

In addition, this text offers some important features in helping the reader to understand, apply, and extend the chapter content. Detailed mathematical information on statistics, reliability and failure analysis, and optimization methods, is included in three appendices, enabling the main body of the text to be free of the more esoteric aspects of mathematical modeling necessary for the analytical modeling of certain maintenance systems. Chapter questions are provided, some of which are directly manageable through the text material, others requiring greater research by the reader. This may imply that the text is not as comprehensive as may be possible, but it should be understood that many of the chapters could be or have been elaborated elsewhere in full texts of their own. References to available texts are handily included in chapter bibliographies. At the same time, solutions to the problems, even in the form of a teacher′s guide, could make future editions of this text more user‐friendly to the university or college instructor. Finally, an index is included for ease of reference to specific terms.

Duffuaa, Raouf, and Campbell have fulfilled the need for an accessible survey text of this growing area in management and engineering. By providing material in a useful textbook format on the fundamentals, recent innovations, and the future of maintenance systems, they have provided a crucial resource. Furthermore, future editions could be easily amended to reflect continuing changes in the field, making this text valuable for years to come.