For effective discharge of the maintenance function, a well-designed information system is an essential tool. Such systems serve as effective decision support tools in the maintenance planning and execution. For optimal maintenance scheduling, large volume of data pertaining to men, money and equipment is required to be handled. This is a difficult task to be performed manually. For a planned and advanced maintenance system use of computers is essential. Here programmes are prepared to have an available inputs processed by the computer. Such a computer based system can be used as and when required for effective performance of the maintenance tasks.
There are wide varieties of software package available in the market for different types of maintenance systems.
A computerised maintenance system includes the following aspects:
- Development of a database
- Analysis of past records if available
- Development of maintenance schedules
- Availability of maintenance materials
- Feedback control system
- Project management
Following are some computer based maintenance systems which can be implemented:
- Job card system: It is essential to prepare a job card for each component to record the maintenance work carried out or the work to be done. Job card shows the plant code, equipment code, the job code, the nature of the jobs, the start time and finishing time
of the card, man-hour spent and etc. The use of computers facilitates the issue of job cards, recording of job history and control of manpower. - Spare part life monitoring system: Under this system, information about a spare part such as its description, anticipated life and date of its installation in equipment is recorded. As and when a particular spare part is replaced during breakdown failures or
scheduled maintenance, the updating of this information is done in their respective files stored in the computer. This helps to prepare the following reports: - Spares repeatability in various machines indicating the performance of such spare parts
- Comparisons of the actual life with the estimated life of the spare parts
- Spare parts tracking system: In most of the cases maximum time is consumed in procurement of spare parts. The total time required to rectify the breakdown is summation of the time to identify the cause of the failure, time to determine the requirements of spare parts, time to procure spare parts and the time to rectify the failure. In a computerised system, the spare part tracking system is beneficial in getting required material at the earliest. A spare part file is created that contains the
information about the material code, spare part identification number, the assembly or sub-assembly number and the place where the spare part is used. This helps in knowing the current position about a particular spare part and facilitates timely
requirement for future demands.
