The maintenance of modern production equipment has become an increasingly important and complex activity – particularly within the automotive supply chain. Tier-1 suppliers need a world-class manufacturing infrastructure to remain competitive, and therefore a matching maintenance strategy to support their operations. The opportunity exists for many automotive Tier 1, and potentially Tier 2 suppliers, to see substantial improvements to their competitiveness and profitability by improving their maintenance performance within an industry where research has shown modern maintenance practices are, at best, limited. Other Industrial sectors have a different performance profile in terms of maintenance. For example, aerospace production and their supply chain companies are seen to be ‘high achievers’ in maintenance. Part of the reason for these differences is the ability, within an individual sector, to identify the cost benefits of improving maintenance performance, as well as other drivers – such as health and safety, or regulatory requirements. The adoption of modern maintenance practices within the automotive industry is often led by available budgets and the absence of any strategic vision. This paper will present a review of the literature regarding manufacturing and
Proceedings of 1st International Conference on
Maintenance Engineering, IncoME-I 2016
The University of Manchester, UK
Paper No ME2016_1110
maintenance practices within two industrial sectors, automotive and aerospace. In addition, the paper will identify the need for the development of a unified approach to maintenance which could be suited to automotive Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers.