Evaluating Company's Maintenance Strategy Effectiveness by Maintenance Improvement Index - A Case Study

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to present development of a methodology for identifying improvement areas and supporting decision making process in the field of maintenance; an index for measuring the performance level of different maintenance approaches is proposed. Empirical data for this case study was drawn from a Slovenian textile company. The results of this study indicate that from respondents' points of view, maintenance practices related to condition-based maintenance approach represent the highest opportunity for improvements in this company. Further, this study provides key insights for managers to evaluate maintenance approaches, and to identify potential areas for improvements. In this regard, companies can gain a better understanding of how to measure and diagnose the effectiveness of the selected (implemented) maintenance strategy. As such, the presented work provides an intuitive and simple approach to identify the areas where a company effectively deploys its resources, and those areas that need more attention. Presented approach therefore represents an effective way of selecting areas for improvements for companies searching an approach how to improve effectiveness of maintenance strategy, and therefore company's competitiveness.