Economic impact of maintenance management ineffectiveness of an oil and gas company

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the economic impact of an oil and gas company's maintenance management ineffectiveness and identify its causes.

Design/methodology/approach

The method followed in this paper consists of the examination of official documents, the observation of operations at the oil and gas company and interviews with company employees. For that purpose, a questionnaire was prepared and used to detect dysfunctions in the existing maintenance system. A statistical tool was also used to evaluate the degree of conformity between the maintenance system and maintenance management effectiveness according to various factors.

Findings

Maintenance management ineffectiveness generates a significant financial loss for the company.

Research limitations/implications

This paper does not examine the impact of maintenance management ineffectiveness on safety, health and the environment. For reasons of confidentiality, the company name is not mentioned.

Practical implications

This paper presents an evaluation of the financial losses caused by maintenance management ineffectiveness, findings which may prove useful to top management. In another way, this paper demonstrates that significant financial profit can be made by improving maintenance performance. Furthermore, system maintenance auditing may be extended to the company's other plants and subsidiaries using the methods presented in this paper. The results of these audits can be generalized usefully such as to be used as a guide to outline plans for improving maintenance performance in the company.

Originality/value

This paper evaluates the impact of maintenance management ineffectiveness in order to convince top management of the necessity of being involved in the process of maintenance improvement.

Citation

Aoudia, M., Belmokhtar, O. and Zwingelstein, G. (2008), "Economic impact of maintenance management ineffectiveness of an oil and gas company", Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, Vol. 14 No. 3, pp. 237-261. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552510810899454