It is essential for a factory to maintain its equipment in order to produce a product within an acceptable cost and time period. If the equipment in the factory is erratic in performance, only an underoptimal result can be obtained. How erratic the equipment performance is, will determine the degree of under optimal operation. The mission of maintenance engineering is to severely depress the occurrences of erratic equipment performance, thereby minimizing a negative productivity factor.
The basic task of maintenance engineering is to develop preventive routines for equipment so that it is capable of running to specific design requirements. This means that maintenance engineering is interested in determining what checks, inspections, and replacement of parts should be performed during scheduled downtimes so that the machines run as designed and unscheduled downtimes are prevented. However, when breakdowns occur the unit must react quickly to return the affected equipment to service. A secondary objective of maintenance engineering is to keep the facilities and office spaces in good repair to foster excellent employee morale. With these objectives in mind, let us examine the techniques used by the maintenance engineering unit.
