Question :

(a) When equipment or a part thereof suddenly stops working, the operating costs in that environment start increasing due to production losses, capacity losses and extra damage to the surroundings due to explosions, fire and other disturbances to people or equipment. Today organizations implement preventive maintenance practices in view of reducing the excessive and uncontrollable costs associated with breakdowns. Discuss the tradeoff between repairs (costs) and preventive maintenance.

(b) Many companies often experience difficulties with quality control, production levels, and schedule adherence due to their equipment not being properly maintained. Organizations are moving towards and adopting Total Productive Maintenance practices in order to maximize their maintenance effectiveness, productivity and equipment uptime. Discuss the eight pillars of Total productive Maintenance.

(c) Operator Involved Maintenance (OIM) is a standard industrial approach aimed at providing operators better understanding or operations in an industrial setting to prevent problems, create a safe work environment and free-up dedicated maintenance resources. Discuss the different types of responsibilities of operators in an industrial setting.