Maintenance Management Performance of Malaysian Palm Oil Mills

Performance of an organization should be appraised simultaneously, both in terms of its efficiency in resource utilization process and effectiveness in realizing the pre-determined goals. Measuring performance provides the required information to the management for effective decision making and is used by industries to assess progress against set goals and objectives in a quantifiable way. Deficient maintenance management can severely affect competitiveness of an organization by reducing throughput, increasing inventory, and leading to poor performance. Applying Overall Equipment Effectiveness, this research study, has evaluated maintenance management performance in Malaysian palm oil mills, highlighted how it helps to identify the factors causing poor performance and demonstrates how to improve and perpetuate company’s productivity, profits, and sustainability by adopting world class maintenance strategies such as Total Productive Maintenance. This research study supplicated data by mail survey questionnaire sent to all Malaysia palm oil mills, validated data through triangulation, and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The research exalts practitioner’s perspective and has determined that Scientific Management Theory axioms and Total Productive Maintenance principles are not being applied to optimize productivity in palm oil mills. The research also identified theory and practice gaps pertinent to maintenance management in palm oil mills and provided shop-level solutions to bridge those gaps. Research findings established how efficient and effective maintenance management offers, besides substantial cost savings, a wide scope of improvements for the palm oil industry. In order to ensure competitiveness and sustainability in the 21st century, it is obligatory for Malaysian palm oil mills to adopt best management practices in processing, manufacturing and maintenance.