TQM, maintenance and plant availability

Modern production management systems are being increasingly computerized in the pursuit of higher quality, the faster development of new products and lower unit costs. But the present generation of methods and software, e.g. JIT, MRP II, CIM, omit to integrate the maintenance function and do not properly consider plant availability and renewal. Considers how these can be included in the next CIM generation, the advantages and costs of doing so, and the quality and market-share consequences of failure to do it. Total productive maintenance (TPM) and reliability-centred maintenance (RCM) are considered inadequate in themselves, but each has features which can be used within an integrated management information system to implement TQM and optimize life cycle profit (LCP), provided that the need to collect and analyse failure, repair and maintenance data in respect of increasingly expensive plant is fully recognized.