FORTIFICATION OF PLANT MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES: ROLE OF SIX SIGMA APPROACH

Today, only those companies which are capable of permanent and fast adaptation to quickly-changing conditions can survive. Six Sigma is at the top of the agenda for many manufacturing companies that try to reduce cost, process variability and improve productivity. In order for a company to remain competitive and maintain maximal efficiency and availability of all its plants and machinery, what is needed is an approach different from the traditional concept of doing plant maintenance. In this paper an attempt is made to investigate the gap between plant maintenance practices and Six Sigma approach that led us to suggest that there is a great deal of scope in the prescription of Six Sigma in maintenance theory. Further, this paper explores the possibilities of enhancing the usefulness and effectiveness of plant maintenance practices by the integration with established Six Sigma Operation Techniques (SSOT). Thus to enhance maintenance deployment in manufacturing environments, a new roadmap for core maintenance professionals for integration has been proposed. The conclusion that can be drawn from this ongoing research, in an automobile industry is that, in order to reach its goals, the maintenance departments must implement Six Sigma program to change the way in which traditional practices employ at work for continual improvement of the maintenance function.