Ranking of maintenance wastes present in Indian organizations (a statistical analysis)

Abstract

Purpose The maintenance department of today, like many other departments, is under sustained pressure to slash costs, show outcome and to support the assignments of the organization, as it is a commonsensical prospect from the business perspective. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to find out the wastes level present in maintenance and, after that, do the ranking of maintenance wastes currently present in the operations of Indian organizations with the help of a questionnaire survey. Design/methodology/approach For this, a database of 421 Indian industries was identified and a structured questionnaire was designed. The questionnaire was divided into two sections A and B to assist with data interpretation. The aim of section A was to build general information of participants and their position, type of organization, number of employees, annual turnover of the organization, etc. Section B was also a structured questionnaire developed based on a five-point Likert scale for assessing the level of maintenance wastes currently present in the maintenance. Findings Waste of inventory in terms of spare parts storage and obsolesce, etc., waste of rejects/rework/scrap in case of poor maintenance, waste of processing that leads to increases in maintenance and waste of overproduction/excessive maintenance activity has a high level of presence in the maintenance of Indian organizations and gets the top ranks in all the seven types of maintenance wastes. Practical implications This paper will be extremely useful for the researchers, maintenance professionals and others concerned with maintenance to understand the after effects of maintenance wastes in Indian industries. Originality/value These findings will be highly valuable for professionals relating to manufacturing sector desiring to implement effective maintenance approach in the maintenance management system.