THE EFFECT OF POOR MAINTENANCE STUDIO EQUIPMENT AND THE PRACTICE
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 INTRODUCTION
The issue of poor maintenance culture as it affects tools and equipment used in art production in tertiary institutions in Nigeria cannot be over emphasized. The Oxford dictionary defined machine as a piece of equipment with moving parts that is designed to do a particular job. The power used to work a machine may be electric steam, gas etc and machinery as, group of machine while the penguin English dictionary describe it as any tool or device for overcoming resistance by applying force, usually at another point, any apparatus that applies power so as to perform work or direct movement; and machinery as the part of a machine. Maintenance as the act of keeping something in good condition by checking or repairing it regularly; or act of maintaining. Our experience throughout our stay in this institution has brought us to focus that something is wrong as far as the machinery and equipment of the ceramic art studio is concerned especially the potters wheel. What obtains within the larger society obtains also within department of Art studios of most institutions of higher learning where art is taught. Most of these institutions cannot boast of adequate tools and equipment for art production where some of these equipment exist they are in very despicable state. Banyi Adis of the Guardian Newspaper discussed “maintenance culture” he said that this is one of the most abused expression in this part of the world, yet it does not have much meaning to us. If it does how come public building, highway (roads) facilities and utilities are abandoned to elements to destroy despites, the huge amount government spends to build them?. It is not as if the government is simply the lack of will to do it that is the problem. Yes in the line with government lack of will to do these maintenance so also the managements of the institution lack the will to repair or maintain these machinery. At obafemi Awolowo university, the faculty of agriculture engages in many profitable agricultural production ventures. using some of the profits to rehabilitate some of the equipment and farm facilities(Kehinde Adio, 2005) This could be remedy where scarcity of fund is the major factor responsible for poor maintenance culture, But in Art studios, where the student artists art the users of tools and equipment john B Kenny 1953 pg 31 B of the view that all tools deserve good treatment and any artist worthy of the name has as much respect for his tools, as he has for the day. Much later he concluded that as (an artist ) you must learn how to handle your tools and your material P. 301. As technical working, an understanding of the working mechanism of whatever machines use artists creative skills. Cardew (1969) pointed out that difficulties and natural obstacles presented by the technical sides of the potters art are themselves a potent source of inspiration. As could be observed with motor drivers with clear knowledge of mechanics they possess additional advantage in the driving profession. Therefore an artist with a technical knowledge of his working tools and machines, possess an added advantage to his creative ability and as cardew (1969) would say, they enhance the artist creativity To this and therefore, an artist must learn how to handle his tools and machines and other equipments. Such knowledge builds confidence and gives satisfaction. Brain (2005) enjoys working on automobile, knowing that (he) (had) the ability to repair something that is broken down and make it as good as new, give a sense of confidence and satisfaction. Aduoso (2002 ) refused to accept that abandoned project were due to finance he states, siting examples with some abandoned Housing project, that it is not surprising that the claim that the project were abandoned for financial reasons. He disagreed with this claim but that it was due to several other factor of hidden agenda even if fund are available. Maintenance is also seen as a worthwhile activity through which worthwhile values through the use of machine could be developed and transmitted to the younger generation. Mann and milligan 1972 in their compilation of the symposium on Aircraft fatigue tried to establish structural defects in acoustic fatigues the design of joints: importance of fatigue problems on machines and the need to maintain them regularly. We wish to agree with Blandford (1985) that much of the efficient maintenance of his equipment – in particular the sharpness of his tools. An experienced artist or craftsman does not begrudge time spent on maintaining his equipment and tools. He knows that frequent touching up will ensure good result. The careful pursuit of the handling machine and other equipment for production would help overcome bottled- nect of ten encountered in ceramics studio. With the adverse effect of poor economy on most institution of higher learning studio practice is almost in possible. Therefore student artist with sound technical knowledge and skills prove themselves assets to their institutions and academic department. An art student who carefully studies his working tools and production equipment would sooner or later understand the working mechanism. The working relationship between the various parts of the machine will easily be known. And with the right tool an effective repair will be carried out, this demand hard work add to your sense of self reliance and general confidence it can foster self discipline and order which are foundations for successful employment. (Awake, March, 2005 pg 20 ). The case of maintenance in I. M. T. has tended to be an emergency service performance in an adhoc fashion. The case of F.A.A department is quite pitiable as most of the equipment are left to rust away due to minor faults. We have sampled opinion of what maintenance is all about from some people by caring out interviews with them. Is one of our able lecturer and supervisor Mr Ogbu S.C. whose professional guide exposes us to the vast and interesting areas of this research? He so vast in the maintenance of nearly all the equipments and machinery in the section of the kiln, pugmill, potters wheels, spray gun etc. These were his explanation of how he came to have knowledge about these things. First from childhood he had been very curious and always having that desire to explore and concern about the idle machinery being put back to use seeing that the faults could be handled. The other is making sure the section is kept alive not minding that management pays lip service to the department. He also talked about his experiences during his industrial attachment days at PRODA. He was putting in more effort to see how the technicians work and this added more advantage to him because sooner than he knows it, handling faulty machines was like nothing to him. To crown it all he had good knowledge of science and read books on machines and ceramics equipment. The other person we interviewed is Mr. T Umunna who also showed that he is not just an ordinary artist but someone who can explain how the machines and equipment used in ceramics studio works because he has for the past years study and master how it works, what part develops fault and the next action to take to see to it repair. Another is Mr Ndubisi Ani who guided us throughout the repair and maintenance of the wheels. This is because of his knowledge toward the different parts of the potter’s wheel. In conclusion cardew (1969) noted that the technical apparatus of pottery making. are provided by Engineers and technologists who are not themselves to deliver the potter from the strenuous demands of his technical problems, puts too great a strain on the integrity of most artist” from this reason he saw the difficulties and natural obstacles presented by the technical sides of the potters are (as) being in themselves potential sources of inspiration.
2.2 EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF MAINTENANCE RESOURCES
From the perspective of the maintenance manager, maintenance resources are finite, and usually below the level they should be. Production stoppages, breakdowns, power stoppages, shortage in manpower, lack of materials (supply), demand (external) and others business factors, directly or indirectly affect the level of production. Thus, making maintenance scheduling a dynamic process (Paz & Leigh, 1994). As such, the limited capacities and resources have to be shared, rather than competed for (Gits, 1994). Developing a maintenance planning programme is an iterative process that involves different decision makers, who may have conflicting objectives. In deriving these objectives, maintenance managers usually try to achieve multiple, and sometimes, conflicting objectives, such as maximizing throughput, availability, and quality, subject to the constraints on production plans (Labib, 1998). The literature points to the existence of tradeoffs among the different aspects of performance (Silveira & Slack, 2001). Performance measures will not have equal importance for an individual operation, thus they tend to be tradedoff against each other (Slack & Lewis, 2008). Therefore, in order to solve conflicting objectives, such as system reliability and profit maximization, an organization must establish appropriate maintenance guidelines that regulate (1) costs associated with performing production activities, (2) costs associated with performing maintenance activities, and (3) the various costs associated with equipments failure and the resulting interruptions to the production plan (Weinstein & Chung, 1999). When manufacturing organizations choose to compete in the global market, they usually use several competitive priorities, such us cost, quality, flexibility, and other competitive methods, depending of their manufacturing process capabilities. Therefore, their manufacturing equipment availability becomes critical, and their maintenance, as an integral part of manufacturing process, can influence those competitive priorities, and hence the business strategy (Pinjala, Pintelon, & Vereecke, 2006). Therefore, it is fundamental for maintenance managers to be aware of the organizational business strategy. Business strategy, in turn, should drive the maintenance approaches, models and strategies utilized. For instance, if on one hand JIT requires high machine availability, which requires excellent preventive maintenance. On the other hand, total quality management (TQM) requires that machines are in excellent working condition (Chen, 1994). Therefore it is important to have an organizational systematic maintenance strategy 7 to guide the strategic as well as the operational utilization of these models and techniques (Jonsson, 1997). There are many models, techniques, systems and approaches available to support maintenance management of activities and decisions (Garg & Deshmukh, 2006). In this context, several new approaches and strategies/tactics/technologies can be utilized. These included among others, self-maintenance, web-based maintenance, integration of product and maintenance design, proactive maintenance based on intelligent units, life cycle simulation for maintenance strategy planning, model-based maintenance, TPM, RCM, PM, CBM, CM (Takata et al., 2004). Therefore approaching maintenance management strategically and systematically has become essential to make the right choices, especially in capital-intensive industries. The literature points to strong linkages between business strategy and manufacturing maintenance strategies (Madu, 2000; Pinjala, Pintelon, & Vereecke, 2006; Rosqvist, Laakso, & Reunanen, 2009). Thus, there is a need for a carefully designed and implemented organizational system to manage maintenance and related performance aspects from a strategic perspective. According to Alsyouf (2006), such system should have the following characteristics and abilities.
- Assess the contribution of the maintenance function to the strategic business objectives;
- Identify the weaknesses and strengths of the implemented maintenance strategy;
- Establish a sound foundation for a comprehensive maintenance improvement strategy using quantitative and qualitative data;
- Re-evaluate benchmarking maintenance practice and performance with the best practice within and outside the same industry;
- Track maintenance impact and showing the linkages between operational and financial measures, holistically. Some of the important factors, which need to be considered in the road toward effective performance maintenance management, are highlighted in the reviewed literature (Tsang, 1998; Kumar, 2006; Parida & Kumar, 2006). They include:
- Measuring value created by the maintenance; - Justifying investment and maximize asset utilization; - Revising resource allocations, improving responsiveness;
- Health safety and environmental issues;
- Focus on knowledge management and developing core competences;
- Adapting to new trends in operation and maintenance strategy;
- Organizational structural changes. In this context, the following considerations are in order.
- Business strategy and maintenance strategy must be consistent and linked with each other?
- Maintenance should maximize equipment/resources availability in order to allow strategy flexibility?
- Links between business strategy and maintenance must be well established and made clear to relevant members of the organization?
- There must be a clear maintenance vision statement specifying what goals to accomplish and how such goals can be measured?
2.3 REACTIVE MAINTENANCE: ALLOWING PARTS TO RUN TO FAILURE
As the least technologically advanced and most common level of asset maintenance,5 reactive maintenance involves repairing or remediating parts or equipment only after it has broken down or been run to the point of failure. Reactive maintenance strategies offer the maximum utilization of tooling or machine components by using them to their very limits. However, this can lead to catastrophic machine damage as parts begin to vibrate, overheat, and break, potentially resulting in further damage. Similarly, reactive maintenance can lead organizations to treat the symptom rather than the problem itself, such as repeatedly addressing bearing vibration issues rather than their root cause, perhaps thermal expansion.6 While this approach may be acceptable in machines that feature very cheap, reliable, or redundant parts,7 for most applications, more frequent replacement of parts and servicing of equipment can be a more cost-effective strategy.
2.4 PLANNED MAINTENANCE: PREVENTING PROBLEMS BEFORE THEY OCCUR
By replacing parts before they fail, a planned, timebased preventative maintenance approach can help avoid broken machinery and decrease downtime by replacing parts at regular, preplanned intervals. While planned maintenance may be more cost-effective than reactive strategies, however, it also can be more difficult to justify. Because parts are replaced while they still have useful lifespan remaining, additional spare parts are typically kept on hand, adding spare parts inventory management to an already complex task. Also, planned maintenance often requires greater planned downtime, which can be difficult to justify as seemingly perfect machines are taken offline and operations disrupted
2.5 PROACTIVE MAINTENANCE: TREATING THE ROOT CAUSE, NOT THE SYMPTOM
Whereas planned maintenance provides a regularly scheduled time for part replacements and repairs, proactive maintenance represents a more data driven, analytical approach. Proactive maintenance strives to identify and address the problems that can lead to those breakdowns in the first place, such as improper machinery lubrication, contamination, misalignment, or suboptimal humidity and temperature conditions.9 By identifying and addressing these root causes of many part failures, proactive maintenance typically helps to prevent the wear and tear that leads to equipment failure, ultimately decreasing failures and downtime. Other benefits include fewer unnecessary repairs, less need for spare parts inventory, and longer lifespan of equipment and parts—ultimately reducing costs. Another advantage may be that proactive maintenance can be combined with other maintenance strategies. It is likely to be optimal for large, costly equipment that operates in challenging conditions.
2.6 TOTAL MAINTENANCE AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS SUPPORT
The literature reviewed has underscored the relevance of certain tools and techniques in relation to organizational maintenance and its role (Goh & Guan-How, 1995; Ben-Daya & Duffuaa, 1995). In the past, reactive maintenance approaches have resulted in consistent but not necessarily effective performance maintenance results (Azadivar & Shu, 1999). However, more recently, new maintenance approaches along with business integration at all levels and across all disciplines has been advocated as important factors to manufacturing competitiveness (Bamber, Sharp, & Castka, 2004). As such, total productive maintenance (TPM) can drive and facilitate an integrated manufacturing management system capable of supporting the different operational sub-systems. This integrated maintenance management approach within a manufacturing environment, places the maintenance function at the heart of the manufacturing system. Integration can be facilitated by overlapping practices related to manufacturing initiatives, such as JIT and TQM with TPM (Miyake, Enkawa, & Fleury, 1995; Cua, Mckone, & Schroeder, 2001). Significant support was found for a positive correlation between TPM and business performance. Thus, showing that business performance of firms with TPM was significantly superior to the non-TPM firms (Brah & Chong, 2004). In this context, the role of an integrated information system is critical in order to ensure the availability of data needed for true reliabilitybased maintenance schedule optimization (Sherwin & Jonsson, 1995). Information sharing practices, information attributes, information technology use, collaborative foundation, timerelated issues, processes and activities are all considered as critical elements of information integration (Uusipaavalniemi & Juga, 2009). Information technology (IT) can be beneficial in reducing costs, and assisting in providing services, which were infeasible before (Concetti, Cuccioletta, Fedele, & Mercuri, 2009). IT can also be expensive and wasteful both in terms of time and money. It is therefore essential that the software design of the maintenance performance management system incorporate the culture and resources of the organization for which it is intended (Davies, 1990; Pinjala, Pintelon, & Vereecke, 2006; Hwang, Tien, & Shu, 2007; Kans, 2008). The literature reviewed presented computerized maintenance management systems that included many of the features needed to support the maintenance management and performance measurement system (Labib, 1998; Labib, 2004). However, typical software usually does not support important features, such as failure reports, which are specific to production functions. Also, the suitable maintenance management software support tends to depend on the maintenance strategy used (Kans & Ingwald, 2008). Manufacturing organizations, especially small and medium-sized enterprises would benefit from having easy-to-use tools and methods for determining their maintenance management information technologies needs to be able in order to choose the relatively best solution available off-the shelf (Kans, 2008). A common database can be an important instrument for decision-making in maintenance (Kans & Ingwald, 2008). Since it includes data from several relevant operational organizational areas, it can form a basis for a quick overview of the current situation. Applying the common database methodology makes it possible to store and access a more current view of activities related to operations. Us it tends to enhance decision-making related to maintenance, as all data is integrated (Uusipaavalniemi & Juga, 2009). Furthermore, since it gives easy access to relevant on real time and on-demand data, it enables the detection of deviations at an early stage, thereby avoiding unnecessary costs. The backward data identification process ensures that the data-set supports relevant performance measures for maintenance monitoring and follow-up (Kans & Ingwald, 2008).
2.7 EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE CHECKLIST
Your studio equipment is a huge investment. Safety of your clients, your staff and yourself are of the utmost importance to your business. If you are using the equipment daily in a studio environment, we strongly suggest a maintenance program, incorporating the following elements: Regular inspection of all apparatus and hardware
It is highly recommended that you undertake a regular inspection of all hardware on all the equipment to make sure every nut, bolt and fastener is secure. A small assortment of basic tools should service your equipment.
Inspection of springs and clips
Even with extensive pre-testing and rigorous quality inspection, the possibility of failure due to undetected, random defects always exists. In addition, as a result of improper use or failure to replace fatigued springs in a timely manner, severe nicks or abrasions may occur. While this is a remote possibility, periodic inspection of your springs and immediate replacement once defects are identified is critical. Failure to do so could result in serious injury to the user or operator. We strongly advise establishing a routine program to monitor springs as well as replacing any spring in continuous daily use for over 24 months (or sooner in a high use facility). Any spring that exhibits early signs of fatigue (i.e. separation in coils, even if slight) must be replaced immediately. Wearing or fatigue in clips can be identified by a change to the shape of the clip head to that of the ring it sits in.
Cleaning framework and tracking systems
If your equipment is wood finished, then it is usually finished with a non-toxic, water-based lacquer that is virtually impenetrable. Other than an occasional wipe down using a mild soapy solution or furniture polish, no additional maintenance is necessary. If your equipment has metal frames then you need to take care to keep all equipment dust and hair free. Uses a mild detergent (just a few drops in a large container of water) and wipe down the surface with a damp cloth.
Inspection of wheels
Every 2 to 3 months, it is wise to inspect the wheels on your reformers. Make sure you remove any debris that might be entwined between the wheel and metal housing and tighten the axles if any wheel ‘play’ is evident. Also remove debris from corner and hard to get at places with a paintbrush. Make sure you protect your floor when doing this. Clean the tracks on an as-needed basis with a warm, mild soapy water solution and dry thoroughly with a soft cloth.
Cleaning upholstery
Wipe down your upholstery after use with a mild cleaning solution that does not contain silicone. A dilute solution of mild soap and water can be used to clean not only the upholstery, but also wooden surfaces, aluminum rails, chromed and galvanized steel poles and carriage riding wheels - basically anything other than the ropes and/or leather straps. Wipe with a cloth dampened with plain water and dry the surfaces after cleaning. A few drops of eucalyptus oil in your water spray bottle is a good way to keep your upholstery fresh. Eucalyptus oil has no oily residue and is safe to use of delicate fabrics such as silks and satins as well as on your upholstery. Use it sparingly. Just few drops in a large water spray bottle.
Primary leather straps
To prevent leather straps from drying out, it’s a good idea to apply a coat of leather conditioner from time to time. Leather straps may stretch over time and sometimes the stretching will occur unevenly from strap to strap. Make sure strap lengths are checked regularly as it will greatly affect the stability and precision of your client’s workout.
Springs and ropes
Ropes used with the swivel pulley/riser system are under warranty and are not designed to last a lifetime. You may experience some minor ‘fraying’ on the rope as a result of use. Any ropes that tear or could otherwise fail should be replaced immediately.
Small apparatus
It is recommended that you inspect all small apparatus including the mats in your studio every 3 to 6 months. Of particular importance is the equipment that could cause injury, including but not limited to: resistance bands, fitballs, ankle weights and balance equipment such as wobble boards, Bosu and rotator or Dura discs.