The impact of preventive maintenance practices on manufacturing performance: A proposed model for SMEs in Malaysia

Preventive maintenance (PM) plays important role to avoid or mitigate potential stoppages and disruptions of equipment or machinery from occurring in daily operations. PM emphasized total employee involvement and it is important for companies as well as Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs). SME sectors contribution to the Malaysian economy makes up 95% of the total manufacturers, however PM remain relatively lacking. The ability, reliability and effective maintenance management is highly important in order to achieve desired manufacturing performance. Therefore, organizational capability in planning, controlling, implementing and monitoring PM activities is important. Furthermore, empirical evidence on the potential impact of PM practices towards manufacturing performance with organizational capability as a moderating effect is still limited and indecisive. Henceforth, this paper aims to explore and investigate potential relationships between PM practices and manufacturing performance moderated by organizational capability in the contact of Malaysian SMEs in the manufacturing sector. Correspondently, the study intends to propose a new research framework and hypotheses to examine the abovementioned relationships. The proposed framework includes PM team, PM strategy and planned maintenance as the determinants, while organizational capability serves as the moderating variable. Manufacturing performance will be viewed in terms of innovation and financial factors. Proposed research direction and conclusion are discussed at the end of the study.