Maintenance Management PDF

# Maintenance Management ## Functions and Responsibilities ### Concepts - **Maintenance:** An organized function that involves the preparation of mechanical, electrical, instrument and construction shops. The purpose is to maintain the production plant and its machines and equipment in the best f...

# Maintenance Management ## Functions and Responsibilities ### Concepts - **Maintenance:** An organized function that involves the preparation of mechanical, electrical, instrument and construction shops. The purpose is to maintain the production plant and its machines and equipment in the best functional condition to achieve the greatest operational stability at the least cost. - **Maintenance service:** In a broad sense, a "side job function" used to obtain goals such maintenance, work planning, maintenance planning mill security, transport, mill stores, general planning. ### Fields of Activity This comprises the factory area as a whole and possibly the residential area (with buildings) in the vicinity of the factory. ### Goals - **Maintain reliability and service** with the goal of keeping costs to a minimum during the planned operation period. This can be achieved by the following means: - **Minimizing production breaks** by maintaining machines and equipment at planned intervals and selecting the proper objects for maintenance. - **Maintaining machines and equipment in such running condition** that the correct production quality is maintained and drawing up the maintenance plans so that machine and equipment life will be extended - Make efforts to keep maintenance costs equal in different periods. ### Planning and Organization - Maintenance planning and organizing are an important part of enterprise functions, and signify the creation of a maintenance policy. - Maintenance is not a separate function, its planning should start at the investment stage, where goals are defined at a later date and are realistic only if this initial position is noted. - Planning and organizing of maintenance systems is a strategy applied on the basis of the policy created to achieve the set goals. - The planning and organization of maintenance are not separate and internal, they should be connected with the external and environmental factors of the enterprise. #### Function and Readiness to Act - Acceptable maintenance function may be either active or passive - **Active:** primarily prevention and improvement - **Passive:** repairs - Both are needed in correct proportions. #### Organization - So-called maintenance service branches, such as transport, mill stores, planning and purchasing, are important in the chain of maintenance functions. - These services branches should be recognized as belonging to the area of maintenance responsibility. - Maintenance service branches should be placed under the same management as maintenance, depending on the size of the plant, either a maintenance service management is required or maintenance comes directly under plant management. - The organizational structure should correspond to the requirements of the goals (not needs) and should be flexible. There is no "best model" and is affected by the following factors: - Size of the (industrial) plant - Location of departments in the factory - Operational efficiency - Available resources - amount & quality - How maintenance is distributed among mechanical, electrical, instrument and construction departments - Ratio between active and passive functions - Availability of outside services - The organization of maintenance can fall into one of three models: - **Centralized:** Administratively and geographically centralized. Maintenance is directly under the management of the enterprise, and its services are ordered directly from the central repair shop. The maintenance services department may also form a profit centre of its own. - **Decentralized:** broken up administratively and geographically. It is composed of maintenance departments under the production and plant service departments. The shops are thus connected to the different mill departments and function under the management of the production organization. . - **Combination:** Administratively centralized and geographically decentralized. The maintenance organization is administratively under the management of the enterprise and only special services are available from the central repair shop. The shops located in the mill departments function independently under the common maintenance management. ### Responsibilities for Maintenance - Responsibility for the immediate goals of production, like quantity and quality, is centralized under competent production specialists. - Services needed directly or indirectly by production have been transferred to maintenance. - The goals of an industrial plan should dictate the form of organization which is best able to perform each task. - The main responsibilities of the maintenance department are as follows: - Maintaining machines, equipment, buildings and factory areas in functional condition to ensure production and continuity of other operations without any production losses. - Keeping their own organization and personnel operational and instructing machine operators in maintenance. - Improving the quality and programming of maintenance and getting the best results from their work with respect to costs and preventing loss of production. - Informing operating departments about experiences gained during maintenance work. - Being responsible for drawing up and implementing the maintenance budget. - Informing the operating departments of required maintenance and proceeding with pertinent measures. - Before beginning maintenance, making sure that all aspects of mill security (safety) have been considered. - Directing controlling the activities of outside contractors. - Taking charge of transport, transfer and other services connected with maintenance that has been separately agreed upon. - Participating in the planning and realization of investment plans within the resource limits available. - Participating in the planning and realization of experimental and developmental work. - These responsibilities demand that maintenance be given an appropriate status in the organizational structure of the enterprise. - Operational capability comprises: - Opertional reliability - "Maintainability" - Maintenance readiness - Improved operational reliability of machinery and equipment can be achieved by taking account of maintenance viewpoints as early as the planning and acquisition stages. - "Maintainability" can be kept to a high standard if the maintenance department is always ready to act, and, in other words, if it is efficiently organized. - The goals and responsibilities of many sectors should coincide with the production process and with the operation of the entire plant. ## Planning of the Maintenance Functions ### Introduction Based on experiences gained in the Finnish wood processing industry during the last 20 years. ### Concepts - **The aim** of systematic maintenance planning is to map the amount and kind of maintenance work required. - **The task and aim of maintenance work:** - Elimination of wasted time - Elimination of unnecessary work - Scheduling the workload of labour - Better planning of shut-down maintenance - Improvement of working methods - Improvement of equipment - Inspection of the completed work - The creation of a basis for objective work measurement. - **The tasks and actions of the work planning organization:** - **Preliminary action to define and examine work needs**: - Checking the correctness of the work order. - Checking the adequacy of drawings and instructions. - Agreeing a decision on the quality of the work. - Planning the workload of the labour. - Organizing machine cards, machine numbering and machine signs. - Setting up a card index of spare parts and planning for storage. - Documenting breakdowns and repairs and maintaining archives of technical documents on machines. - **Clarification of the work load:** - Determining the kind and amount of work - Apportioning work to different maintenance departments (machine, electrical, instrument, etc.). - Determining hourly work quotas. - Scheduling the work (desired, possible). - Writing work orders and forwarding them to the superintendent. - **Clarification of materials handling:** - Determining the materials needed. - Requisitioning materials from the stores. - Ordering supplies which are lacking in the stores. - Composing supply of data to the manufacturer. - **Monitoring:** - Monitoring work by means of completed orders - Summarizing the work - Subsequently informing the orderer about it. - **The organization of work planning** is an intermediary function carried out by the orderer and other interested parties. - **Responsibility for maintenance** begins with the orderer and ends with the orderer. - **The duties of the of orderer:** - Allow a reasonable time for the work to be prepared and implemented. - Keep contact with the organization of work planning. - Be cooperative. - Give complete information about the work. - Use the results of monitoring. ### How to Develop the Planning of Maintenance Work It is difficult to provide a detailed and generally acceptable rule for a function composed of the joint work of people living and working in different environments. - Factors that impact this: - Size of the enterprise - Layout and the general organization of the plant - Age of the plant - The sudden stoppage of a manufacturing process is one feature that is common in the planning of maintenance. - The line organization, most often the foreman, takes action in these circumstances. - The obligation of the line organization is to resume production, always taking safety aspects into consideration. - When the need for joint action on maintenance planning is evident the foreman, who himself plans the work performance, and the work planning organization which is responsible for the necessary resources, should cooperate to achieve the following: - Sharing essential data about the machines and mechanisms. - Reasonable sharing of responsibility. - The right attitude to the work on the part of all the participants, not as separate units but as links in a continuous chain. ## Preventive Maintenance ### Introduction Preventive maintenance is an old concept. The service life of machinery has been extended by greasing since early times. The concept of preventive maintenance and its field of activity has been extended. ### Concepts Preventive maintenance can be divided into three groups: - **Preventive servicing:** - This comprises maintenance not directly bound to time and for which no time limits are set. - The main object of this function is to see that for machines and mechanisms there are a practical recognition system, drawings, instructions, spare parts, lubricants, and a description of the normal running order of the machines in question, and that these have been noted carefully so that operations differing from the norm can be recognized. It also ensures that operators and supervisors have been given sufficient information on normal operating conditions. - **Periodical maintenance:** - Regular repetitions of limited maintenance functions are implemented in accordance with a programme drawn up in advance, usually suggested by the manufacturer. - These functions are: cleaning, inspection, lubrication adjustment and change of parts. - They are scheduled in accordance with experience and from the viewpoint of reducing cost. - **Predictive maintenance:** - Combines the above two. - Through the development of advanced measuring equipment, it is possible to predict the time when repairs will be required. - This method is particularly suitable for plants where deterioration is slow, with a small probability of sudden breakdowns. - It is most advantageous in cases where spare parts are expensive and the cost of machine shut-downs is high. ### Aims - To reduce the number and length of machine breakdowns and the seriousness of breakdowns. - To schedule the time required for maintenance in the work programme, thus enabling it to be carried out without undue disruption of the work flow. - To collect records to consult for modifications and renewals of decisions on production machines. - To foresee and to diminish safety risks. - To reduce capital invested in the stock of spare parts. ### How Preventive Maintenance Procedures Can Be Improved Before preventive maintenance systems can be improved, preparatory arrangements are needed. - The work should be realized as project work, which allows it to be carried out within reasonable time limits. An example of a preventive maintenance project is shown in Fig. 7. - The following matters must be clarified at the beginning of the project: - The most critically important production departments, to be dealt with first. - The procedure to be followed, chosen in accordance with available resources. It may be a lubrication service only, or more sophisticated instruments may be installed to control the operating conditions of the machine, such as instruments for measuring temperature, shock pulse and vibration. - The method of handling data. The choice here is between manual card indexes of different grades, or a computer if suitable programmes are available. - Economic goal. A follow-up method must be developed to show the improvement of productivity in maintenance work, improved quality of products, improved utilization of materials and how work appreciation and safety improve. - The costs which will be incurred in planning the system, the acquisition of measuring instruments, computerization and training. - The project organization. This has to be set up, the project share estimated, the management arranged, and cooperation between different organizations ensured. - A schedule. Enough time must be allowed for follow-up on the intermediary goals. Experience has shown that schedules are usually too tight. - A training programme. The persons responsible for the work must be capable of handling their tasks. ### Continuous Improvement of Preventive Maintenance It is impossible to create a perfect and permanent data centre as well as a functioning system for preventive maintenance. New machinery will be acquired and incorporated into the system from time to time. The problems at start-up of each machine should be eased. Maintenance requirements alter as a machine gets older, however, and for this reason, the maintenance programmes must also be changed. - Factors that influence the need for preventive maintenance: - The location of the machine in the production process. If the machine is located in a critical place in the production process, it therefore demands increased and better preventive maintenance to ensure that it stays operational. - A long continuous production chain requires relatively more preventive maintenance than a short one, when the same operational security is required of both. - Drawbacks caused by special weaknesses in some machines can be reduced by increasing the amount of preventive maintenance while that of machines which are more mechanically sound can be reduced. - The changes in degree of wear, changes in production requirements or changes in machinery construction also cause changes in the need for preventive maintenance. - The need for preventive maintenance for a brand new machine and an old one differs greatly. ### The Significance of Preventive Maintenance and Achieved Results - The need for maintenance is related to the construction of the production plant and the production method. The need for maintenance determines the maintenance functions. - Preventive maintenance, which takes approximately 10 percent share of all maintenance work, is not unreasonably burdensome. - A development project on preventive maintenance brings benefits which are difficult to calculate in terms of money. - It is inevitable that computerized maintenance control systems will become more normal in the near future, but they’ll be in relatively limited use because of their high cost. - Measuring instruments for maintenance will be improved, and their increased use can be foreseen. - Automatic lubrication systems are reliable and easy to operate. However, traditional preventive maintenance systems will always have their own place. ## Spare Parts Policy ### Introduction - Management of spare parts is an area of systematic maintenance. - Capital and storage costs are approximately 20 to 25 percent of the capital invested in the spare parts and supplies lying unused in the maintenance stores. However, serious interruptions of service indirect losses caused by a lack of spares could increase costs to several times above the norm. - The maintenance of spare parts is profitable. - Machines and equipment of an industrial enterprise are not manufactured to last forever. - Broken-down machinery causes loss of production, and raises costs. Precautions against such occurrences should be taken in the form of a proper spare-part policy. - The aim of a spare-part policy is that the machine should be reconditioned, economically and soon, minimizing shutdown periods. - Spare-part services may be considered as a fundamental system on which other important systems of maintenance are based. ### Concept Maintenance materials can be divided into four main groups as follows: - **Spare parts:** - Parts are intended for a certain machine or equipment which does not function independently, such as a gear or shaft of an engine. - Supplies of this group usually come from only one manufacturer, generally, the original manufacturer of the machine or equipment. - **Exchange parts or equipment:** - Complete units composed of several spare parts which are used to substitute a whole machine or a component performing an independent function, such as a gear drive unit or the oil pump of a gear. - **Maintenance supplies:** - Include standard bearings, seals, V-belts, etc. - These supplies are made by different manufacturers who use exchangeable products. - Goods such as pipes, structural steel and screws are included in this group. - **Maintenance materials removed from use:** - Usable materials which are not scrapped but are stored for possible use or repair at a later date. - This kind of maintenance material comes from the production line when changes are made, and the materials removed cannot be installed immediately into another machine. ### Spares Requirements - One important question is: which machine should be given priority for spare parts so that it can be kept functioning? - It does not pay to acquire spare parts for all machines and some risks must be accepted. - Machines which would cause an immediate production shutdown if they stopped are the most important, but they too are in an order of relative importance. - Stand-by machines and exchange parts reduce the need for spare parts, but the trend nowadays is to avoid installing stand-by machines. - The need for spare parts is also reduced by different cross-line production possibilities. - Determining the needs for spare parts is especially difficult in the first stages of an enterprise, or when new machines and equipment are acquired, of which there is no operational experience, or if machines and equipment are installed in environments where they have not been operated before. - A rule-of-thumb often used is that the value of spare parts to be acquired in connection with the investment should be approximately 5 percent of the delivery price of machines and equipment. - This estimate is valid only if there are excellent communications with suppliers and importers. ### Choice of Spare Parts - When the development of a spare-part system is started, and individual spare parts for machines and equipment have been selected, it is worthwhile to collect full information. - Small mistakes in numbers, in distinctive codes or in understanding of a foreign language may prove expensive. - In order to select the necessary spare parts for a machine or equipment, the machine structure, mode of function and conditions of process flow should be well understood, for only then will the choice be successful. - Make use of the competence of the machine manufacturer. - It is important to have it in writing that drawings and lists of spare parts are prepared by the manufacturer using international signs and codes, and not only the manufacturer’s codes. This will make recognition easier and also make it possible to acquire spare parts from a source other than the original manufacturer. - Request drawings of parts which wear before a business deal is closed. - Shorter delivery times gained in this way are particularly valuable when the machines and equipment come from abroad. - Drawing appear to be especially important when an "operation-proof" machine breaks down. - Dependence on the machine manufacturer is reduced. - It often makes more economic sense and makes better acquisitions possible. - The purchaser may have to make the drawings, and this should be noted, as even this is not free of charge. - Possession of the manufacturers' drawings makes it possible to test other materials which may be better suited to the purpose. - Manufacturers generally aim at minimizing their own stores of spare parts and manufacturing spares only as ordered. - They often use subcontractors to make these parts and only collect a commission. - The purchaser should always request a list of subcontractors and the codes used by the manufacturer. - The most economic method is to make purchases of spare parts straight from the original manufacturer, but there is sometimes a contract between machine manufacturers and component manufacturers which prohibits machine part manufacturers from selling direct to the customer. - It may be difficult to recognize spare parts when they arrive if code signs or drawings are lacking. - It is reasonable to request the supplier to pack spare parts separately and to mark them either with the purchaser's code signs or his own. - Examine shipping lists and forms thoroughly because they may contain valuable information about subcontractors. ### The Price of Spare Parts - When spare parts are selected, attention is generally paid to their price. - If the price seems to be high, the decision to buy becomes more difficult. - A comparison should be made between the price of the spare part and the loss of production that will ensue from its lack. - The price of a spare part for a machine may be small in comparison with the production loss caused by a shutdown. - **Factors that impact importance of spare parts**: - Volume of intermediate product on hand. - Spare parts are classed as insurance — if they are not needed, good but when needed they will prevent those losses which would have resulted had they not been readily available. ### Priority and Interchangeability of Spare Parts - All spare parts the same machine or equipment are not of the same operational importance. - Small alterations can be made to a machine. A sliding contact bearing can be exchanged for a roller bearing, or a mechanical sealing for a twist packing without altering the function or reliability of the machine to any noteworthy degree. - The absence of a spare part does not always incapacitate the machine if one can make use of such tricks. - The old part may be kept functioning by welding, or glueing, or with a bushing, for the time required for a new part to arrive at the site. ### Organization of Spare-Parts Service - A code system is basic to an efficient spare-parts service. - It makes the recognition of machines and equipment and their geographical locations possible. - It must show which spare parts are stored for a certain machine and conversely which machines a certain spare part can serve and where these machines are located. - When this information has been collected good order will start to be imposed on the stock of spare parts. - The code sign of a spare part must be so clear that recognition does not require any technical knowledge and ordinary stores personnel should be able to handle the stores function. - Some spare parts could be procured in a routine complementary delivery system, but where a spare part may possibly be reconditioned, a technically educated spare-parts specialist should decide whether reconditioning or a new part is called for. - Classify the possibility of human error may be descriptive and/or may classify information which would be helpful, particularly in manual coding systems. The inconvenience of this is that it can easily get too long and the possibility of human error increases. On the other hand, a running number may be used. This would require a good machine and spare-part card index or, if a computer is used, some other classifying system based, for example, on the Brussels nomenclature, an internationally recognized coding system. ### Maintenance Store Capacities - The capacity of maintenance stores must be planned in accordance with the stock requirements of the enterprise. The aim should be to provide effective flexible and fast service from stores. - The concentration or decentralization of maintenance stores depends on the location of the actual maintenance shops. - If the maintenance functions are concentrated at the centralized workshop, the main part of the stores should be in the vicinity of the workshop’s registry office. - Spare parts and exchange units for only one machine should preferably be located near the place of use. - **Decentralized stores** have the advantage of making the stock users feel more responsible for the stocks and take a greater interest in whether spares are lacking. - It is easy to shift responsibility for the presence of needed spare-parts to the stores organization, A disadvantage of a decentralized system is the task or problem of keeping the stores books up to date. - When storage spaces are planned special attention should be paid to the easy movement of materials and supplies. - The arrival and despatch of supplies should follow clearly marked routes so that transport equipment delivery vans, lift trucks and store trucks can be used without hindrance. - Point of distribution should be so located that no unauthorized persons can enter the stores. - **The spare-parts stock** can be arranged in many ways such as: according to factory departments, types of machines, or types of parts. - Special storage places are needed for other materials used in maintenance, such as lubricants, combustibles, welding gases, paints, voluminous pipes and steel sheets, rejected machinery and scrap. ### Development Perspectives - The spare-parts policy of an enterprise is to an ever-increasing degree directed to the use of exchange parts. - In this way expensive shutdown periods are shortened. - Stores services are developed with the aim of reducing the visits of maintenance personnel to the stores. - Even now 95 percent of calls at maintenance stores can be taken care of by telephone or by access to a display terminal. - Stores transport services deliver spare parts where they are needed and thus the time of skilled workmen is not wasted wandering between their workplace and the stores. - Modern computer-aided techniques provide a means of speeding up acquisitions by transferring information of a minimum-stock alarm straight into the supplier's sales department without intermediate red tape and handling of paper. - Manufacturers and suppliers keep registers of machinery delivered and at times it may be possible to cannibalize an incomplete machine or part of it for temporary use. - In other instances, industrial plants may agree to establish a bank for expensive and exceptional parts. - It is a rare occurrence for production to be discontinued for some days because of the lack of stand-by machines or parts. - This is due to well-organized spare-parts maintenance services. ## Mill Transport ### General - A condition for an unbroken production process is a well-organized transport system connected with it. - In accordance with requirements, transport can be divided into two part-functions: - Transport needs caused by the production process. - Transport needs caused by the maintenance of production machinery. - The choice of production-plant transport systems and equipment is always determined largely by local conditions, the requirements of the goods to be transported and technical characteristics of the transport means. - Requisite assets for efficient transportation are flexibility, operational reliability and economy. - Maintenance is generally a minor part of the aggregate needs of an industrial plant when measured as a product. - Transportation connected with maintenance and problems pertaining to this, as well as possible solutions to them are examined below. ### Transportation Connected with Maintenance - The reasons for transportation problems are various. - The variety of materials which must be handled by maintenance, sometimes makes it difficult to find the right transport. - This quite often happens when large and heavy parts and machines must be transported. - This kind of transport, however, does not turn out to be urgent. - Internal transport problems may also occur in the factory because of a lack of cranes. - Since transport has been organized to move products the equipment, and methods have been designed and acquired to serve these purposes. - A true transport department and its equipment do not exist and maintenance transport has to be carried out by production transportation units. - This raises uncertainty about where or from which production unit the transport vehicle has to be ordered. - The main streams of internal transport, in other words, the ones connected with production, are handled more successfully than the often sporadic maintenance ones. - It is of prime importance that maintenance transport be foreseen as a need, and arrangements made for it. ### Maintenance Transportation for Industrial Plant Projects and for Renovation - Maintenance transport equipment should already be considered when new industrial plants are in the design stage or while old plants are in the process of being renovated. - The entire process should be examined machine by machine and a rough maintenance plan sketched out: - Machines to be repaired on the spot. - Machines to be transported somewhere else for repair. - Ample free space should be left around machines that will be repaired on the spot. #### Doorways and Lifting Traps, Passages, and Pulldown Walls - When dimensions of doorways and internal passages are being decided, it should be remembered that the production machine or equipment alone does not determine what space is needed but the total size of the unit formed by the machine to be transferred plus the transport system and/or lifting machine that will move it. - There should be enough doors or gates planned for the walls and roofs of an industrial plant, especially where the machine or equipment is so situated that it can be removed from the building in one lift. - Large machines usually create transport problems. Small machines are generally easy to move through interior routes. - Modern element-construction allows part of a wall or roof to be removed for the transport of an especially large machine or equipment. - Such cases are for extraordinary or rarely repeated maintenance operations because the demolition of a well-designed wall is no small job. #### Hoists - Often machines have to be located where they cannot be reached by any transport and lifting machine (lift truck, mobile crane, wall crane, etc.). - For these cases there should be a hoisting beam above the machine so that it can be transferred within the reach of a transport vehicle. - Whether to install a permanent or temporary portable hoist on the beam will depend on the frequency of repairs required by the machine. ### Character of Transport - Maintenance transports can be categorized according to their characteristics. #### Planned Transportations - Maintenance transport machines are generally a contributing factor in planned repair work, closely incorporated into the execution of the whole work. - This kind of repair work consists of a series of operations which include detachment of the machine, lifting, transportation, repair, lifting and re-installation. - Correct timing of transport is important to the smooth running of the repair work. - Thus, when repair work is being planned, the person responsible for the transportation side of the operation should be informed at the earliest stage. #### Periodic Transportation - In maintenance work there are several functions which do not immediately affect the flow of the production process to any noteworthy degree; for example, the maintenance of sewers and water pipes, rail tracks and roads. - Transportation needs for this can in many cases be defined as regularly repeated functions, e.g. garbage transport, rolling of roads, salting and sprinkling of streets. - Transportation of material from storage to repair points can be arranged at certain intervals, taking into account the need to load and unload. - Loading and unloading problems can be solved by providing the transport vehicle with the necessary extra equipment. #### Installation Transportation - A characteristic of installation transportation is that it is usually needed once only. - The size of the material to be transported may vary from a small hand-carried piece to units weighing tens of tons. - Other characteristics of the materials may vary from one extreme to another. - A factory seldom has the transport equipment available for all the above and thus must seek aid from special services outside. ### Urgent Transport Needs - This kind of transport is especially required in the following circumstances: - When the person who needs the transport has been negligent or forgetful. - When the material in question is needed urgently. - It may be common to both cases that there is no proper transportation equipment available. - It is also probable that the production process is either being closed down or in danger of it. - Transportation in such circumstances will not usually be the best, technically or economically speaking. - If such transport needs occur often, the matter should be thoroughly examined and a solution sought to eliminate the problems. ### The Organization of Transport - The organizational system does not have great significance for maintenance transportation. - What is important is that when transport is needed there is accurate information on where the vehicle is to be sent and from whom it is to be ordered. #### Transport Centre - Orders for transport may be concentrated on a centre where those who need it make their requests. - The centre personnel select the most suitable means to find the right transport. - A condition of its efficient operation is that the centre controls all transport means or can make them available. - The person who orders transport should be a member of the superintendence of the maintenance department. #### Transport Department - The transport department of many industrial plants is under the supervision of the maintenance service department which is responsible for mill maintenance. - This department is responsible for the maintenance, repairs and cost control of the transportation means ordered from and commanded by it. - The transport and the maintenance departments together examine the needs and timing of periodic transport. - The transport means are handled by persons nominated especially for that duty. - The transport department is responsible for the training of its personnel. - The training includes in addition to technical command of the vehicles, other matters such as cooperation, responsibility and work safety. ### Means of Transportation - Because the transport needs of maintenance departments are only a small part of total transportation needs in an industry, it is natural that the vehicles are provided mainly to meet production requirements. - Through small changes, these vehicles could also be made available for maintenance purposes. - In general, the transportation means of an industrial plant are lorries, tractors and front loaders, and those for special maintenance purposes are mobile cranes, service trucks and tractors. #### Cranes and Containers - The usefulness of a lorry or a tractor-trailer combination can be augmented by a crane or a back-board hoisting crane, which will make loading and unloading easier and obviate the need for special facilities for these functions. - Loading and unloading is made easier by the use of interchangeable containers. - Industrial plants usually employ them, especially in garbage and trash transport. - Container systems can also be used with tractors. - On the other hand, the relatively less expensive delivery price of tractor-trailers may make the so-called change-trailers more convenient. - A tractor is applicable to other needs such as road maintenance. #### Trucks - Trucks form a big group in transportation equipment. - There are numerous types, the most usual being those with supporting legs (outriggers), push-boom trucks and back-balanced trucks. - Their driving mechanisms are either combustion engines or electric motors. - Their hoisting capacity varies from a few hundred kilos up to tens of tons. - Generally their lifting heights are in the range of three to five metres, though special trucks lift over ten metres. - Trucks are used for in-plant and external transport needs. - The truck may take and leave its load without auxiliary equipment if the load is dimensioned to fit the forks of lifting devices on the truck. - Outdoor trucks generally need better roads than lorries or tractors. - In addition to transportation, trucks can be used for maintenance lifting works. #### Front Loaders - Different types of clam-shell and general loaders have similar applications in maintenance. - The use of loaders is less frequent than that of trucks, however, because loaders generally operate in close connection with the loading process. - With different auxiliary devices the usefulness of a clam-shell loader is well adapted to the maintenance of different types of roads. #### Light Transport Equipment - Closed or delivery vans are well suited to transport small objects. - They can be used flexibly, such as for periodic distribution of materials. - Besides vans, motorcycles can be used for goods deliveries. #### Other Types of Transport Machinery - There are generally numerous different types of bridge and mobile cranes in industrial plants. - Most of them are installed especially for maintenance work. - Lifting equipment may be complemented by mobile cranes which can be used for different lifting and transport services. - One of the auxiliary pieces of equipment, which has come into more general use of late, is the vehicle telephone, with which the effective operation of a vehicle can be significantly increased. ## Mill Safety ### General - Safety is one of the most important functions of an enterprise. - Even though some aspects are handled according to rules and regulations of the authorities, the effectiveness and purposefulness of safety arrangements is in the hands of the enterprise. - The goal of mill safety arrangements is to avoid all kinds of accidents and mishaps through preventive measures and also, if accidents do happen, to be capable of limiting their consequences to the minimum. - Mill safety arrangements can be divided in accordance with different group risks as listed below: - Accident prevention - Fire protection - Environmental protection - Guard duty - Confidential information safety - Special mill safety - Mill safety depends on all personnel being safety-conscious in their daily work. - A mill safety programme must not become only a series of exercises carried out from time to time, but must be continuous. - It must have an impact on personnel so that its significance is understood by individual workers throughout the enterprise. - In order to obtain satisfactory results, goals must be definite, which presupposes that management clearly outlines the safety policy to be observed. - Goals and responsibilities should be pointed out. ### Coordination of the Safety System - It is necessary to concentrate the available resources on reaching the most important goals. - Mill safety contains parallel, even coordinated needs and problems. - Therefore the expertise of various departments and persons should be used in handling matter of safety.