Engineering: issues, challenges and opportunities for development ...

ENGINEERING FOR DEVELOPMENT: APPLICATIONS AND INFRASTRUCTUREin the longer term. This may be countered to some degree bythe use of better cost reporting of maintenance and the use of‘Z Charts’ of maintenance cost information that compensatefor annual fluctuations.In a case study of a typical sugar milling industry consisting offour mills in a developing country it is estimated that approximately25 per cent of costs are attributable to maintenancerelatedactivities, mainly on labour costs. The company has nocontrol over the price of sugar, so its ability to survive mainlydepends on operational efficiency and the containment of cost,and fall particularly on the cost of maintenance. Maintenanceactivities in the four mills suffered as a result of this neglect,with maintenance activities depending mainly on the skill andinventiveness of maintenance staff at each mill; recalling tomemory the ‘smell of an oily rag’ portrayals of the operationof ageing machines and technology in the film world. In thiscase, a lack of management interest was reflected in the lack ofany systematic approach and absence of maintenance records.With an asset value of US$6 million, direct maintenance at thefour mills cost around US$10 million per year. Indirect costsnot only increased the costs of production, but also reducedtotal output due to wastage, and lead to lost income to themills, the sugar cane farmers, industry, and export income andcredibility. A planned and systematic approach to maintenancecould have considerably reduced these losses and costs,and at less overall cost.In an interesting study on the culture of maintenance forsustainable development in Tanzania, it was reported thatthe efficient and effective maintenance of production andinfrastructure facilities in Tanzania and similar economies isrooted in a broad-based social appreciation of the value ofthe facilities in question. 162 They also identified a major challengefacing development in such economies as the need toinstil, nurture, upgrade, enhance and maintain a set of socialand cultural attitudes, beliefs and empowerment that attachvalue, significance and importance of, and care for, public andprivate equipment and infrastructure. This is seen as the keyto efficient and effective maintenance, which in turn forms anessential condition for long-term competitiveness and sustainabledevelopment.Maintainability and reliabilityWhile maintenance relates to the actions required to keepequipment and infrastructure in an effective operational condition,the maintainability of equipment and infrastructure isdefined by its ability to be maintained. The maintainability ofequipment and infrastructure is primarily a design factor, butimportantly also relates to maintenance, operability and performance,and also importantly to the human factor. Designfactors for maintainability include design specifications andmaterials. Maintenance factors include the ease and regularityof maintenance of the equipment required. Human factorsinclude required skills, training and experience. Maintainabilityrelates to the costs of downtime and labour. Maintainabilityrequires planning in the context of design, human andsystem conditions and requirements. Important issues andchallenges for engineering in international development relateto the maintainability of equipment and infrastructure in differingconditions of climate, available skills and maintenanceresources, and in turn relate to technological appropriatenessand choice, and the modes of technology transfer.Reliability relates to the ability and probability of success ofequipment and infrastructure to perform required functionsunder stated conditions and periods of time. The reliability ofequipment relates to quality and is an important considerationfor maintenance management, in so far as it is expectedthat better quality items are more reliable and will need lessmaintenance; the question then being one of balance betweencost and desired reliability. Apart from quality, factors affectingreliability include production methods, operation and maintenancetechniques. Reliability may be observed, assessed, extrapolatedor predicted, and is the subject of mathematical analysis.Reliability-Centred Maintenance (RCM) was introduced inthe late 1960s in the reliability-critical aviation industry, andhas now become standard practice in many other industries.RCM focuses on system functions, function failures and consequencesof failure, from which information is then used todetermine appropriate maintenance tasks and procedures.There are several techniques used in reliability analysis, themost widely used being Failure Mode, Effects and CriticalityAnalysis (FMECA) and Fault Tree Analysis (FTA). FMECA is themost widely used technique and is based on hardware and The Huguenot Tunnelunder construction outsideCape Town.162 Bavu, I. K., Sheya, M. S., Mlawa, H. M., and Kawambwa, S. J. 1997. Culture of MaintenanceFor Sustainable Development in Tanzania, Institute of Technology Management, Dar esSalaam, Tanzania.© SAICE297