Evidence-based asset management applied to maintenance function control

Abstract

Purpose Every day a large volume of information is generated in the maintenance department relating to its business assets whose detailed analysis has a direct impact on the effectiveness of the company. Taking into account the aforementioned, it is necessary to develop and implement a set of indicators that allow a practical evaluation of the maintenance function in any firm. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the maintenance function through a thorough analysis of historical data of a biotechnology sector firm. Design/methodology/approach The method used to evaluate the maintenance function of a Cuban company is based on the quantification of a set of indicators, represented graphically. The data processed in this paper were obtained through an informatics application, designed to computerize the maintenance function in the firm. This application is validated and is part of the company quality management system, which is audited every two years by the national regulatory authority CECMED (Centro para el Control Estatal de Medicamentos, Equipos y Dispositivos Médicos de Cuba, by its Spanish acronym), for issuing the certificates of sanitary license and good manufacturing practices. Findings Evidence-based control alternatives were used to evaluate the adequacy of the maintenance function in a biotechnology company. The results demonstrate graphically the maintenance operations of the National Center for Scientific Research, production department, during a period from January 2013 to December 2017. Finally, based on the analysis, it was discovered that the performance of the maintenance department was inadequate and had poor effectiveness, and a new maintenance strategy was established to be followed for the next quinquennium. Originality/value The research proposal provides information on how to evaluate the proactive and reactive maintenance actions through graphical indicators. The results obtained together with traditional maintenance indicators such as availability, maintainability and reliability could be interesting to technicians or engineers who decide to evaluate directly the effectiveness of a maintenance department.