The lack of maintenance and not maintenance which costs: A model to describe and quantify the impact of vibration-based maintenance on company's business

Maintenance is usually considered as a cost-centre or necessary evil, because (according to this aspect) it costs the company unnecessarily big budget, while it should be treated as a profit-generating centre. The problem addressed in this paper is that if maintenance is a profit contributor how does maintenance technical impact transfer to the plant other activities such as production, quality and tied up capital, and how can this effect ultimately influence company's profit and competitiveness? In this paper, we discuss maintenance role in maintaining the quality of the essential elements contribute in the manufacturing process such as production/operation and quality on the economic basis for achieving the competitive advantages desired. Interactions between maintenance, production and quality, and how simple technical effects of maintenance in the operative level can be transferred to the economic effect in the strategic level influencing company's profitability and competitiveness is discussed. A model describes the mechanisms through which vibration-based maintenance (VBM) impact is transferred to the plant other activities and company's business is developed and verified using real and typical data based on the author's experience in the Swedish paper mills. The main result of this study is developing a model for converting vibration-based maintenance technical to financial impact and assessing it. The model potential and applicability is tested using a combination of real and typical data. The result also demonstrates how the potential of the VBM impact on the production, quality, tied up capital and different relevant expenses can be assessed financially. Furthermore, the model can be utilised for two additional objectives; for examining whether the investment done in maintenance is cost-effective or not, and simulating maintenance financial impact on the relevant working areas in order to assess the investment required before selecting and applying the improvement plan. The major conclusions are; applying the model, VBM policy can be introduced as a profit centre, and identifying the transferring mechanisms of maintenance impact highlights where, why and how much should be invested in order to enhance production and maintenance performance continuously and cost-effectively. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.