EVALUATION OF MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN TOTAL EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION NIGERIA LIMITED, OBAGI BASE, OML58, RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA. A RESEARCH PROJECT MATERIAL ON MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background Of The Study
Theimportance of maintenance functions and, therefore, of maintenance management has grown in recent years. Maintenance has achieved a significant role in organizations performance because it is directly responsible for the properoperation of the production process. Maintenance area needs to keep equipment in good working conditions and available to achieve high productivity level of quality products (Isabelet.al. 2014).
Maintenance is to ensure that equipment are available or fit for use for its lifetime by the incorporation of all technical, administrative and managerial actions.
Maintenance is a critically important function of any engineering or business organization that is dependent on physical assets for producing products. Like the expensive and production critical equipment found in the Oil and Gas industry, it (maintenance) has a very crucial part to play during the life cycle of such equipment. It tries to maximize the performance of the equipment by ensuring that it operates regularly and efficiently, by attempting to prevent breakdowns or failures, and by minimizing the losses incurred by breakdowns or failure (Ramiet.al. 2011).
Conversely, Maintenance in the industry has two essential objectives which are a high availability of production equipment and low maintenance costs. However, a strong factor militating against the achievement of these objectives is the nature and intensity of equipment failures in plants. Since system failure can lead to costly stoppages of an organization’s operation, which may result in low human, material, and equipment utilization, the occurrence of failure must therefore be reduced or eliminated. An organization can have its customers build confidence in it by having uninterrupted flow in operations. Thus, maintenance ensures system sustenance by avoiding factors that can bother effective productivity, such as machine breakdown and its several attendant consequences (Hasrulnizzamet.al. 2011).
When focusing on budget performance issues, management seldom looks to maintenance as an area with the potential for significant gains. It’s often a “necessary evil”. However, maintenance management ineffectiveness in the Oil and Gas industry guarantees a significant financial loss for the company(an oracle white paper, 2009). The paper further stated that “significant financial profit can be made by improving maintenance performance”.