Public organizations in Nigeria operate under the purview of the government. There are many such public facilities that are faced with difficulties that arise due to poor and irregular maintenance regime.
Several studies have been conducted to find out a way to alleviate these problems that include irregularities pertaining to finances, underperforming management departments, poor and outdated spare parts, lack of maintenance and cleaning up culture, and interruptions in power supply.
All these lead to hiccups and hindrance in the maintenance of the public facilities in Nigeria. In this write up, let us find out more about issues related to the same and how it can be tamed by employing appropriate measures. So, read on for better insight.
The implementation of preventative maintenance plan can be better understood with the help of an example. Earlier, the Nigerian government had set up Nigerian Railway Corporation in order to generate employment and as a venture for extending social service facilities to the common man rather than for earning profit.
However, after functioning well for a specific period of time, irregularities started surfacing in the way of functioning of these facilities. Few reasons that can be attributed to the irregularities include corruption, inadequate training in operating machinery and equipments, non maintenance of fixtures, machinery, workshop instruments, and productivity equipments. The accuracy with each machinery or equipment functions depends on maintenance and this was something that lacked.
Preventative maintenance for public facilities in Nigeria
By adopting preventive maintenance plan, you are in a better position to safeguard your equipments and machinery much before they finally breakdown. In other words, by incorporating this maintenance schedule you are preventing your machinery from breakdown. While this type of maintenance might attract some extra cash but in the long run, you are saved from incurring expense on repairing equipments that might be damaged in a major breakdown.
Essential features of preventative maintenance plan
Check out the following facts-
- Timely examination of machinery is carried out
- Allows enough time for adjustment and replacement
- Prevents failures
- Prevents breakdown
These days most of the organizations that opt for this maintenance plan usually do so by implementing CMMS software or Computerized Management Maintenance System. And with the advent of mobile CMMS, you can control the work order and the entire schedule related to the maintenance plan even while you are on the move. Thanks to the hand held devices that allow you to do so.
When is it a good idea to opt for preventive maintenance?
Ideally, it makes sense in investing in the plan under the following circumstances as per experts keeping track of the working of the Nigerian Railway Corporation-
- When the failure rate of the equipment has been low for a considerable period of time and the deterioration catches up pace rather rapidly within a short period of time
- The cost of repairing machinery following a major breakdown is more than preventive maintenance plan
- The failure of equipments and machinery will disrupt production and manufacturing activities if applicable.
- When the working conditions of the workers are hazardous and the workplace becomes unsafe to work at
- When quality of product nosedives thereby increasing the number of complaints from customers
- When downtime becomes a frequent affair
In order that the maintenance plan is carried out in an appropriate manner, there are few parameters that you ought to take into account and these include the following-
- Progress of work order
- Justifying the expenses
- Performance of plant and equipment machinery
- Costs incurred on services offered
In a nut shell, in order to make the public facilities to work to their optimum capacity, it is basically a joint effort of all the departments that include the financial, human resource, purchasing, supply management, and project departments that are required to work in tandem.
