MS 57 IGNOU MBA Solved Assignment -Write the short notes on the following a) Terotechnology b)Spare Parts Inventory c) Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) d) Condition Based Maintenance (CBM)

Write the short notes on the following

a)      Terotechnology

b)      Spare Parts Inventory

c)      Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

d)      Condition Based Maintenance (CBM)

a)      Terotechnology

Terotechnology is a kind of applied science for measuring the operational values of physical assets. It is concerned with things such as the installation, maintenance and replacement of those assets. Professionals who are involved in terotechnology look at tangible assets of a company or business such as buildings, equipment and vehicles. They measure how these items will provide a net value for certain years until they need to be replaced.

Part of terotechnology is called life-cycle costing. Life-cycle costing can include attention to depreciation and other tax-related values. Generally, in life-cycle costing, one adds up all of the positive and negative values associated with a physical asset during a certain period of time to produce a net result. Companies use this net value to understand how ownership and use of a piece of equipment or other physical asset during that period of time will affect their bottom line.

A big part of terotechnology is in understanding the role of maintenance and the value of a warranty. Many larger pieces of equipment and other physical assets come with warranties offered by the manufacturer or vendor. In terotechnology, the way in which these warranties provide value relative to projected costs is examined.

Spare Parts Inventory
Few companies are self-insured, and most pay premiums to their insurance company to the tune of maybe 5 percent or more of the total inventory value. Even fewer are cash-rich, and have to borrow money for major capital improvements and other projects. While the cost of capital (i.e. interest rate) is relatively low these days, another 5 percent or more is very realistic to borrow funds even in today’s economy. Every dollar invested in inventory represents another dollar that has to be borrowed somewhere else. Then, of course, there’s the Governor. For states that have an inventory tax, the spare parts inventory is taxed on total value, not on the inventory items that are used in the daily operation. If you own it, it gets taxed.

Taking into account embedded costs like salaries and wages, buildings and utilities to manage the spare parts inventory, the total administrative exposure for carrying cost can add up to as much as 20 percent or more. And that cost is not just a once-and-done expense. That’s every year, year after year, for as long as you carry storeroom inventory investment as an asset. It becomes clear that if you buy a spare motor for $5,000 to keep in the storeroom inventory “just in case” you need it, that motor will cost you an additional $1,000 each year that you carry the spare motor in inventory. It doesn’t take long to double the cost of a spare part. Plus, if the motor isn’t under a scheduled preventive maintenance program, there’s a good chance that when the motor is put into service it will not perform as expected or have the life expectancy of a new motor.

The good news is that if you are turning your storeroom inventory on a regular basis, you are more likely to be able to reduce these carrying costs by minimizing the inventory on the shelf. But what if you aren’t using it? Many people say (with conviction), “Don’t get rid of it, just hang onto it. We might need it someday. Besides, it doesn’t cost anything to hold onto it.” Well, it is clear that isn’t the case. If it costs money to house usable inventory, then it stands to reason that it also costs at least that much to maintain obsolete or unusable parts as well.

In fact, one could argue that it actually costs more to keep obsolete and excess inventory of spare parts in stock, because those items consume valuable storekeeper time and storeroom space to count, move, clean and perform other non-value added activities associated with trying to keep the inventory straight. Each time a spare part is moved or handled during its time in the storeroom, there is a cost involved. Inventory management practices that do not review inventory regularly to identify obsolete items and target items over the maximum stocking levels also drive up the carrying cost of spare parts inventory. During inventory reviews parts that have damage from rust, corrosion, and assemblies that have been cannibalized or broken should be removed from the inventory and replacement parts ordered as needed.

It is critical for the storeroom to provide the right part, in the right condition, at the right time and at the right cost to support equipment reliability and production up-time. Creating supplier partnerships and striving to have only spare parts that have been identified as critical to the production process in the storeroom inventory are positive steps to reducing the spare parts inventory investment and inventory carrying cost. Taking the steps necessary to remove obsolete inventory and reduce inventory exceeding the maximum stocking level are two areas of inventory management that have an immediate effect on reducing carrying cost exposure. Some of these costs are harder to quantify than others. However, the general concept of inventory carrying costs, as well as the additional costs associated with maintaining obsolete and unusable materials, should be easy enough to rationalize that even the staunchest unbeliever can be convinced to rethink their position.
Few companies are self-insured, and most pay premiums to their insurance company to the tune of maybe 5 percent or more of the total inventory value. Even fewer are cash-rich, and have to borrow money for major capital improvements and other projects. While the cost of capital (i.e. interest rate) is relatively low these days, another 5 percent or more is very realistic to borrow funds even in today’s economy. Every dollar invested in inventory represents another dollar that has to be borrowed somewhere else. Then, of course, there’s the Governor. For states that have an inventory tax, the spare parts inventory is taxed on total value, not on the inventory items that are used in the daily operation. If you own it, it gets taxed.
Taking into account embedded costs like salaries and wages, buildings and utilities to manage the spare parts inventory, the total administrative exposure for carrying cost can add up to as much as 20 percent or more. And that cost is not just a once-and-done expense. That’s every year, year after year, for as long as you carry storeroom inventory investment as an asset. It becomes clear that if you buy a spare motor for $5,000 to keep in the storeroom inventory “just in case” you need it, that motor will cost you an additional $1,000 each year that you carry the spare motor in inventory. It doesn’t take long to double the cost of a spare part. Plus, if the motor isn’t under a scheduled preventive maintenance program, there’s a good chance that when the motor is put into service it will not perform as expected or have the life expectancy of a new motor.

The good news is that if you are turning your storeroom inventory on a regular basis, you are more likely to be able to reduce these carrying costs by minimizing the inventory on the shelf. But what if you aren’t using it? Many people say (with conviction), “Don’t get rid of it, just hang onto it. We might need it someday. Besides, it doesn’t cost anything to hold onto it.” Well, it is clear that isn’t the case. If it costs money to house usable inventory, then it stands to reason that it also costs at least that much to maintain obsolete or unusable parts as well.

In fact, one could argue that it actually costs more to keep obsolete and excess inventory of spare parts in stock, because those items consume valuable storekeeper time and storeroom space to count, move, clean and perform other non-value added activities associated with trying to keep the inventory straight. Each time a spare part is moved or handled during its time in the storeroom, there is a cost involved. Inventory management practices that do not review inventory regularly to identify obsolete items and target items over the maximum stocking levels also drive up the carrying cost of spare parts inventory. During inventory reviews parts that have damage from rust, corrosion, and assemblies that have been cannibalized or broken should be removed from the inventory and replacement parts ordered as needed.

It is critical for the storeroom to provide the right part, in the right condition, at the right time and at the right cost to support equipment reliability and production up-time. Creating supplier partnerships and striving to have only spare parts that have been identified as critical to the production process in the storeroom inventory are positive steps to reducing the spare parts inventory investment and inventory carrying cost. Taking the steps necessary to remove obsolete inventory and reduce inventory exceeding the maximum stocking level are two areas of inventory management that have an immediate effect on reducing carrying cost exposure. Some of these costs are harder to quantify than others. However, the general concept of inventory carrying costs, as well as the additional costs associated with maintaining obsolete and unusable materials, should be easy enough to rationalize that even the staunchest unbeliever can be convinced to rethink their position.
Taking into account embedded costs like salaries and wages, buildings and utilities to manage the spare parts inventory, the total administrative exposure for carrying cost can add up to as much as 20 percent or more. And that cost is not just a once-and-done expense. That’s every year, year after year, for as long as you carry storeroom inventory investment as an asset. It becomes clear that if you buy a spare motor for $5,000 to keep in the storeroom inventory “just in case” you need it, that motor will cost you an additional $1,000 each year that you carry the spare motor in inventory. It doesn’t take long to double the cost of a spare part. Plus, if the motor isn’t under a scheduled preventive maintenance program, there’s a good chance that when the motor is put into service it will not perform as expected or have the life expectancy of a new motor.
The good news is that if you are turning your storeroom inventory on a regular basis, you are more likely to be able to reduce these carrying costs by minimizing the inventory on the shelf. But what if you aren’t using it? Many people say (with conviction), “Don’t get rid of it, just hang onto it. We might need it someday. Besides, it doesn’t cost anything to hold onto it.” Well, it is clear that isn’t the case. If it costs money to house usable inventory, then it stands to reason that it also costs at least that much to maintain obsolete or unusable parts as well.

In fact, one could argue that it actually costs more to keep obsolete and excess inventory of spare parts in stock, because those items consume valuable storekeeper time and storeroom space to count, move, clean and perform other non-value added activities associated with trying to keep the inventory straight. Each time a spare part is moved or handled during its time in the storeroom, there is a cost involved. Inventory management practices that do not review inventory regularly to identify obsolete items and target items over the maximum stocking levels also drive up the carrying cost of spare parts inventory. During inventory reviews parts that have damage from rust, corrosion, and assemblies that have been cannibalized or broken should be removed from the inventory and replacement parts ordered as needed.

It is critical for the storeroom to provide the right part, in the right condition, at the right time and at the right cost to support equipment reliability and production up-time. Creating supplier partnerships and striving to have only spare parts that have been identified as critical to the production process in the storeroom inventory are positive steps to reducing the spare parts inventory investment and inventory carrying cost. Taking the steps necessary to remove obsolete inventory and reduce inventory exceeding the maximum stocking level are two areas of inventory management that have an immediate effect on reducing carrying cost exposure. Some of these costs are harder to quantify than others. However, the general concept of inventory carrying costs, as well as the additional costs associated with maintaining obsolete and unusable materials, should be easy enough to rationalize that even the staunchest unbeliever can be convinced to rethink their position.
The good news is that if you are turning your storeroom inventory on a regular basis, you are more likely to be able to reduce these carrying costs by minimizing the inventory on the shelf. But what if you aren’t using it? Many people say (with conviction), “Don’t get rid of it, just hang onto it. We might need it someday. Besides, it doesn’t cost anything to hold onto it.” Well, it is clear that isn’t the case. If it costs money to house usable inventory, then it stands to reason that it also costs at least that much to maintain obsolete or unusable parts as well.
In fact, one could argue that it actually costs more to keep obsolete and excess inventory of spare parts in stock, because those items consume valuable storekeeper time and storeroom space to count, move, clean and perform other non-value added activities associated with trying to keep the inventory straight. Each time a spare part is moved or handled during its time in the storeroom, there is a cost involved. Inventory management practices that do not review inventory regularly to identify obsolete items and target items over the maximum stocking levels also drive up the carrying cost of spare parts inventory. During inventory reviews parts that have damage from rust, corrosion, and assemblies that have been cannibalized or broken should be removed from the inventory and replacement parts ordered as needed.

It is critical for the storeroom to provide the right part, in the right condition, at the right time and at the right cost to support equipment reliability and production up-time. Creating supplier partnerships and striving to have only spare parts that have been identified as critical to the production process in the storeroom inventory are positive steps to reducing the spare parts inventory investment and inventory carrying cost. Taking the steps necessary to remove obsolete inventory and reduce inventory exceeding the maximum stocking level are two areas of inventory management that have an immediate effect on reducing carrying cost exposure. Some of these costs are harder to quantify than others. However, the general concept of inventory carrying costs, as well as the additional costs associated with maintaining obsolete and unusable materials, should be easy enough to rationalize that even the staunchest unbeliever can be convinced to rethink their position.
In fact, one could argue that it actually costs more to keep obsolete and excess inventory of spare parts in stock, because those items consume valuable storekeeper time and storeroom space to count, move, clean and perform other non-value added activities associated with trying to keep the inventory straight. Each time a spare part is moved or handled during its time in the storeroom, there is a cost involved. Inventory management practices that do not review inventory regularly to identify obsolete items and target items over the maximum stocking levels also drive up the carrying cost of spare parts inventory. During inventory reviews parts that have damage from rust, corrosion, and assemblies that have been cannibalized or broken should be removed from the inventory and replacement parts ordered as needed.
It is critical for the storeroom to provide the right part, in the right condition, at the right time and at the right cost to support equipment reliability and production up-time. Creating supplier partnerships and striving to have only spare parts that have been identified as critical to the production process in the storeroom inventory are positive steps to reducing the spare parts inventory investment and inventory carrying cost. Taking the steps necessary to remove obsolete inventory and reduce inventory exceeding the maximum stocking level are two areas of inventory management that have an immediate effect on reducing carrying cost exposure. Some of these costs are harder to quantify than others. However, the general concept of inventory carrying costs, as well as the additional costs associated with maintaining obsolete and unusable materials, should be easy enough to rationalize that even the staunchest unbeliever can be convinced to rethink their position.
It is critical for the storeroom to provide the right part, in the right condition, at the right time and at the right cost to support equipment reliability and production up-time. Creating supplier partnerships and striving to have only spare parts that have been identified as critical to the production process in the storeroom inventory are positive steps to reducing the spare parts inventory investment and inventory carrying cost. Taking the steps necessary to remove obsolete inventory and reduce inventory exceeding the maximum stocking level are two areas of inventory management that have an immediate effect on reducing carrying cost exposure. Some of these costs are harder to quantify than others. However, the general concept of inventory carrying costs, as well as the additional costs associated with maintaining obsolete and unusable materials, should be easy enough to rationalize that even the staunchest unbeliever can be convinced to rethink their position.

• Avoid wastage in a quickly changing economic environment.

• Producing goods without reducing product quality.

• Reduce cost.

• Produce a low batch quantity at the earliest possible time.

• Goods send to the customers must be non defective.

Advantages and disadvantages

• Improved system reliability

• Decreased maintenance costs

• Decreased number of maintenance operations causes a reduction of human error influences

• High installation costs, for minor equipment items often more than the value of the equipment

• Unpredictable maintenance periods cause costs to be divided unequally

• Increased number of parts (the CBM installation itself) that need maintenance and checking

• Maximum Productivity

• Maximum Uptime

• Lowest Daily Operating Costs

It’s always disappointing, but no longer surprising, to find people who actually believe that once you pay for material and put it on the shelf in the storeroom, it no longer costs anything to keep it there. The fact is, there are significant costs associated with holding spare parts on the books.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)

What is Total Productive Maintenance ( TPM ) ?

It can be considered as the medical science of machines. Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is a maintenance program which involves a newly defined concept for maintaining plants and equipment. The goal of the TPM program is to markedly increase production while, at the same time, increasing employee morale and job satisfaction.

TPM brings maintenance into focus as a necessary and vitally important part of the business. It is no longer regarded as a non-profit activity. Down time for maintenance is scheduled as a part of the manufacturing day and, in some cases, as an integral part of the manufacturing process. The goal is to hold emergency and unscheduled maintenance to a minimum.

Why TPM ?

TPM was introduced to achieve the following objectives. The important ones are listed below.

Today, with competition in industry at an all time high, TPM may be the only thing that stands between success and total failure for some companies. It has been proven to be a program that works. It can be adapted to work not only in industrial plants, but in construction, building maintenance, transportation, and in a variety of other situations. Employees must be educated and convinced that TPM is not just another "program of the month" and that management is totally committed to the program and the extended time frame necessary for full implementation. If everyone involved in a TPM program does his or her part, an unusually high rate of return compared to resources invested may be expected. 

Condition Based Maintenance (CBM)

Condition-based maintenance (CBM), shortly described, is maintenance when need arises. This maintenance is performed after one or more indicators show that equipment is going to fail or that equipment performance is deteriorating.

This concept is applicable to mission critical systems that incorporate active redundancy and fault reporting. It is also applicable to non-mission critical systems that lack redundancy and fault reporting.

Condition-based maintenance was introduced to try to maintain the correct equipment at the right time. CBM is based on using real-time data to prioritize and optimize maintenance resources. Observing the state of the system is known as condition monitoring. Such a system will determine the equipment's health, and act only when maintenance is actually necessary. Developments in recent years have allowed extensive instrumentation of equipment, and together with better tools for analyzing condition data, the maintenance personnel of today are more than ever able to decide what is the right time to perform maintenance on some piece of equipment. Ideally condition-based maintenance will allow the maintenance personnel to do only the right things, minimizing spare parts cost, system downtime and time spent on maintenance.

Despite its usefulness, there are several challenges to the use of CBM. First and most important of all, the initial cost of CBM is high. It requires improved instrumentation of the equipment. Often the cost of sufficient instruments can be quite large, especially on equipment that is already installed. Therefore, it is important for the installer to decide the importance of the investment before adding CBM to all equipment. A result of this cost is that the first generation of CBM in the oil and gas industry has only focused on vibration in heavy rotating equipment .

Secondly, introducing CBM will invoke a major change in how maintenance is performed, and potentially to the whole maintenance organization in a company. Organizational changes are in general difficult.

Also, the technical side of it is not always as simple. Even if some types of equipment can easily be observed by measuring simple values as vibration (displacement or acceleration), temperature or pressure, it is not trivial to turn this measured data into actionable knowledge about health of the equipment

CBM has some advantages over planned maintenance:

Its disadvantages are:

Today, due to its costs, CBM is not used for less important parts of machinery despite obvious advantages. However it can be found everywhere where increased reliability and safety is required, and in future will be applied even more widely.

CBM delivers machine performance customers have come to expect from John Deere. Although PM has proven to prevent some failures, many machines still experience premature and/or major failures. Unanticipated failures and emergency repairs have a negative effect on your uptime and don't match up with the John Deere value proposition:

The fact is that even a small failure can lead to a catastrophic one if not addressed proactively. Monitoring machine health and controlling contamination are key to eliminating failures. In addition, extending oil and filter service internals through the use of bypass filtration, shown below, contributes to lowering machine operating cost.

MS 57 IGNOU MBA Solved Assignment -Explain Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) and its process of implementation.

Explain Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM) and its process of implementation.

Reliability-centred maintenance (RCM) is a systematic process of preserving a system's

function by selecting and applying effective Preventive Maintenance (PM) tasks.

However it differs from most approaches to PM by focusing on function rather than equipment.

RCM governs the maintenance policy at the level of plant or equipment type. In general the concept of RCM is applicable in large and complex systems such as large passenger aircraft, chemical plant, oil refineries and power stations.

The RCM approach arose in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the increasing complexity

of systems and consequent increasing size of the preventive maintenance task forced a rethink of maintenance policies among manufacturers and operators of large passenger aircraft. Pioneering work on the subject was done by United Airlines in the 1970s to support the development and licensing of the Boeing 747.

The principles which define and characterise RCM are:

• a focus on the preservation of system function;

• the identification of specific failure modes to define loss of function or functional failure;

• the prioritisation of the importance of the failure modes, because not all functions or functional failures are equal; and

• the identification of effective and applicable PM tasks for the appropriate failure modes. Applicable means that the task will prevent, mitigate, detect the onset of, or discover, the failure mode. Effective means that among competing candidates the selected PM task is the most cost-effective option.

1. The objectives of maintenance with respect to any particular item/asset are defined by the functions of the asset and its associated desired performance standards.

1. Functional failure (the inability of an item/asset to meet a desired standard of performance) is identified. This can only be identified after the functions and performance standards of the asset have been defined.

1. Failure modes are identified, which are reasonably likely to cause loss of each function.

1. Failure effects are documented, describing what will happen if any of the failure modes occur.

1. Failure consequences are quantified to identify the criticality of failure. RCM not only recognises the importance of the failure consequences but also classifies these into four groups: Hidden failure; Safety and environmental; Operational and Non-operational.

1. Functions, functional failures, failure modes and consequences are criticality analysed to identify opportunities for improving performance and/or safety.

These principles are implemented in a seven step process:

Preventive tasks are established. These may be one of three main types i) scheduled on-condition tasks which employ condition-based or predictive maintenance; ii) scheduled restoration; and iii) scheduled discard tasks.

MS 57 IGNOU MBA Solved Assignment -What do you mean by Reliability? How it is different from Quality? Explain BATH-TUB CURVE.

What do you mean by Reliability? How it is different from Quality? Explain BATH-TUB CURVE.

What is reliability? We hear the term used a lot in research contexts, but what does it really mean? If you think about how we use the word "reliable" in everyday language, you might get a hint. For instance, we often speak about a machine as reliable: "I have a reliable car." Or, news people talk about a "usually reliable source". In both cases, the word reliable usually means "dependable" or "trustworthy." In research, the term "reliable" also means dependable in a general sense, but that's not a precise enough definition. What does it mean to have a dependable measure or observation in a research context? The reason "dependable" is not a good enough description is that it can be confused too easily with the idea of a valid measure (see Measurement Validity). Certainly, when we speak of a dependable measure, we mean one that is both reliable and valid. So we have to be a little more precise when we try to define reliability.

In research, the term reliability means "repeatability" or "consistency". A measure is considered reliable if it would give us the same result over and over again (assuming that what we are measuring isn't changing!).

Quality versus Reliability

A Quality problem?

A Reliability problem?

An Unreliability problem?

Isn't it all about Quality? True, but at the same time that is also the problem. There are so many definitions about quality that is has lead to at least confusion. Quality has to be built into the design, you can not create it during manufacturing. It is very well known that quality is a top-down issue. If the top-down chain does not support quality in actively then no quality will be delivered other than by coincidence. The same is valid for reliability. But one needs to

know what it is.

Also quality is too massive to be understood completely by anyone. Quality concerns organizations, management, services, people, procedures, products, life etc. There are many books available, too many maybe.

Relia-Easy limits itself to a specific area , a technical product. It concerns something touchable, a bike, a car, a TV. With products one needs to distinguish between Quality and Reliability.

Quality and Reliability belong together but related to the required activities they belong to different worlds.

Many companies define Quality as "conformance to specifications". Unfortunately this is not true or at least incomplete. There are enough examples known where the product was exactly

according to specification but did not satisfy the customers' wishes. And that brings us to a definition of quality I like best.

"Quality is conformance to customer expectations"

That is all. The product may be excellent but if it not according to the expectations of the customer you still have a problem. Specifications (and they can be numerous) are just tools to

comply to the expectations of the customers. Also a certain life time belongs to these expectations, depending on the product and the customer. If a car breaks down within 10 thousand km then the customer complains, but if it concerns a walking shoe no complaints are heard.

To clear up the differences between quality and reliability Relia-Easy agrees with other specialists who simply state:

        Quality is everything until put into operation (0-hours)

Reliability is everything happening after 0-hours

Quality is today. Reliability is the future. Quality is measurable and controllable. Reliability

is crystal ball magic. The only problem is to define the exact moment of 0 hours. This depends strongly on the logistics around the creation of a product. Think about suppliers, sub modules etc. The product can be stored in a shop for a long period before it is sold. Spare parts can be on stock for years before they are used. The more complex the product the vaguer the 0 hour point. But that is only a technical detail.

Quality is important. Even more important is that this quality should be reproducible. Black belts and six sigma projects play an important role in this area. A lot of literature is available.

Reliability is everything in the future. Crystal ball magic. It is the ultimate challenge to forecast a 5 year life period within 3 months. Within certain limits and with the right tools this is possible. But it requires a different approach and discipline as in use with quality . In line with the definition for quality reliability is best described as:

"Reliability is quality over time"

Unfortunately a lot of companies focus on the quality aspects until 0-hours and during itsdevelopment barely attention is given to the reliability. Reliability is an essential part of the

overall quality but different in approach. Therefore Relia-Easy treats them as two different

disciplines.

Many companies have a Q&R department, a short for Quality and Reliability department.

The R part is often questionable. It is confusing if companies defines Q&R as Quality and

Regularity. Reliability has completely disappeared. Or is it part of Quality?

MS 57 IGNOU MBA Solved Assignment -What do you understand by the term ‘Total Safety Management’? Differentiate between investigation of incidents and audits.

What do you understand by the term ‘Total Safety Management’? Differentiate between investigation of incidents and audits.

Total Safety Management’

1. Management Commitment. It starts at the top. Members of management must believe in the program and support all the people who play a role in making the program work. They commit time, talent and financial resources. They set the example. Commit your safety policy to writing and religiously adhere to it.

2. Goal Setting. We set goals for productivity, quality and financial performance. Why not for safety? Goals help us to achieve our objectives. There are several ways to quantify safety goals. We put an emphasis on measuring the dollars. After all, if workers compensation costs are declining, the accident incidence rate is declining as well.

3. Engineering. The first step in employee safety is to “engineer-out” or remove the hazard. Although only 20% of accidents are caused by unsafe conditions, engineering is an important part of the program. Eliminate hazards continually through safety inspections, job safety analyses, good housekeeping and other techniques. OSHA compliance is essentially an engineering task because most OSHA regulations are concerned with either eliminating unsafe conditions or designing controls for them.

4. Training. About 80% of accidents are caused by unsafe acts or deviation from proper procedure. Training is simply a method to communicate procedures to employees. It also demonstrates management commitment. It is typically a supervisor’s responsibility.

5. Recognition. People need positive strokes. While individual recognition is important, group recognition is more effective. We recommend reward systems in which the entire group is rewarded for achieving a goal such as working a period of time without injury. This type of program also keeps employees honest and controls abuse of workers compensation. Be sure to design your program in such a way that it does not discourage the reporting of injuries.

6. Hiring and Developing Employees. Have you ever hired someone you wish you hadn’t? A quality safety program begins with quality employees – people that are willing and able to perform their job duties in accordance with company procedure. Finding those people is easier said than done. Once you do find them, develop and nurture them. Learn how to identify quality people and learn the red flags that lead to workers compensation claims.

7. Employee Safety Committee. This is the engine that drives your program. It gets hourly and management employees involved and meets every month. This group sets policy, runs the recognition program and assists with accident investigations. Safety committee members are your ambassadors for safety.

8. Record Keeping/Data Analysis. Keep score for your recognition program, prepare OSHA and insurance required documents, keep track of progressive discipline, monitor actual performance vs. goals, document accident and near miss incidents, review open claims with the claims administrator, and analyze claims for type, cause and frequency.

9. Loss Prevention Services. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Your insurance carrier often offers free site visits and free written training materials. Your state also offers various resources, including free inspections for the purpose of identifying areas that are not in compliance with OSHA. Or, you can contract for expert help with us at American Safety.

10. Accident Investigation. Learn what happened. Don’t repeat past history. Investigate near miss accidents. These are a “free opportunity” to learn. Accident and near-miss investigations are a supervisor’s responsibility, but the safety committee can and should assist.

11. Medical Community Relationships. Take advantage of your right to pick the doctor if you are in one of the states that allow this. If not, learn how to work with the employee’s choice of physician. Medical providers must understand you are the customer. Develop return to work programs in cooperation with medical providers.

12. Light Duty. People recover faster if they are at work doing something. We are required to pay temporary total disability to an injured employee regardless, so we may as well have that person at work doing something productive. The longer someone is off, the harder it is to get them back. Light duty also helps to control abuse. Have “zero tolerance” for lost time.

13. Injury Management. These are the things you do from the time of injury until the employee is stabilized. For life-threatening injuries, call 911. When in doubt, call 911. For less serious injuries, drive the employee to the treating physician. Remind the employee of his or her workers compensation benefits. Make sure the doctor is aware of your light duty program.

14. Monitoring Recuperation. This is longer term management of injuries until maximum medical improvement is reached. Be supportive. Visit employees in the hospital, send cards and flowers, and contact the family and reassure them. Remember that employees on light duty are also recuperating.

15. Investigation, Surveillance & Litigation. Once in a while you may have a hard core case that requires this step. If we perform the other 14 steps well, there should rarely be a need for this one.

Do you understand what is required of your organisation to comply with health and safety legislation? Do you have the resource or expertise to implement it?

At Quality Safety Consultants (QSC) we have in-house safety experts with knowledge of bothsite safety management andcorporate safety managementand can tailor a package of safety support to suit your needs.

The elements of Total Safety Management:

MS 57 IGNOU MBA Solved Assignment -Explain the importance of maintenance budgeting. Discuss the advantages of Zero Based Budget.

Explain the importance of maintenance budgeting. Discuss the advantages of Zero Based Budget.

Ans :

We often hear the term “budget” in our day-to-day living. What exactly is it and what is its importance in our lives? Budget is the systematic allocation of one’s resources or income to the various requirements, which are nothing but expenses. Though a tedious and high-maintenance task, budget can help control one’s income. Budgeting can have different connotations for different people. While for some it is a process of keeping a track of each source where money is being spent, for others it might mean keeping the monthly savings aside and then utilizing the leftover amount for everyday expenses. Budgeting is a prerequisite if one wants to achieve long-term financial goals

Be it the wholesome nation or a small nuclear family, budgeting is necessary to make money matters simple and hence, life easy to handle. Budgeting can be done on a weekly, monthly or yearly basis. A weekly budget portrays the transactions that took place in the entire week. Likewise, monthly and yearly budgets showcase the transactions undertaken in a month or the entire year respectively. Hence, by regulating the expenses, a budget can contribute towards enhancing profits of the organization, business or an individual. Given here are the primary things that one should keep in mind in order to stay within a specific budget.

Significance Of Budget

For Government

In case of an annual budget of a nation, budgeting is all about making a blueprint of the overall funds that the concerned government will spend on various sectors, the kinds of taxes that would be levied and how the prices of essential commodities would increase or decrease in the months ahead. Like any other budget, a government budget too relies on revenues and expenses. While the revenues are generated from the various taxes imposed, expenses usually include the expenditure amount on goods and services, consumption, investments, retirement benefits, and so on. In the absence of a good budget, the government officials will have to struggle hard in developing processes for the same.

For Family

The safety and security is the foremost concern for a family. Hence, planning a personal family budget is highly significant. Budgeting in a family is simply done by streamlining the expenses of every family member in accordance to the overall funds collected by the earning members of the family. While some people believe the budget to be a complicated matter of numbers and accounting practices, others assume planning the budget to prevent them from unforeseen problems, downfalls and financial losses. The major issue that comes forward with planning a family budget is that it limits the control of a person over his/her money. However, the fact is that budget does not restrict anyone. It, instead, only guides people towards the allocation of money in different sectors, such as food, shelter, clothing, household expenses, medical care, utilities, etc. on a monthly basis.

For Business Organizations

Business organizations have a strong reason for planning a budget. It helps them in planning targets for the future, in terms of laying figures that the organization plans to achieve. It is of no use to plan a budget with a host of high figures that is practically unachievable. Similarly, a budget that is too easy to achieve is also pointless as the business would then not be making enough progress that it should. Hence, a good budget is one that is achievable in reality with the motive of striving for the highest profits. While most budgets are planned annually, some can be set for a prolonged period as well. To put the budget into action, it should be prepared well in advance before the commencement of the financial year.

advantages of Zero Based Budget

In zero-based budgeting, a company draws up its budget from scratch every year, requiring managers to justify every dollar they plan to spend. Traditional "incremental" budgeting, by contrast, uses the previous year's budget as a starting point, and managers must explain only why they need more or less money this year than last. Zero-based budgeting is time-consuming, but it can produce a wide range of benefits.

Encourages Efficiency

Makes Room for New ProjectsFocuses the MissionEliminates Redundancy

1. It helps in forming the budget more rationally than traditional budget.

1. Since resources are allocated from lower priority area to higher priority area it reduces the surplus expenditure.

1. Enables the top management to better evaluate the performance of various department heads.

1. It leads to better cost control among the various departments which in turn increases the efficiency of the whole organization as a whole.

1. Zero based budgeting increases the overall communication and coordination within the organization and thus create a better environment in the organization.

The chief advantage of zero-based budgeting is that it promotes efficiency. Incremental budgeting essentially assumes that the previous year's budget figure was the "correct" amount, and therefore the budget needs only to be adjusted based on projections for the coming year. But it never asks whether last year's budget was spent wisely or effectively. By forcing managers to go back to square one and justify all their projects as if they were brand new, zero-based budgeting encourages them to seek the most efficient, most cost-effective solutions.

When a company that uses traditional budgeting wants to pursue a new initiative -- coming out with additional products or services, for example, or expanding into a new geographical location -- it must try to "find money" in the existing budget. That means fighting with entrenched interests that want to maintain their slice of the pie. With zero-based budgeting, new projects are placed on par with old projects and can compete for financing on a more or less equal basis. Managers of existing projects will want to protect their own funding, of course, but they will be forced to mount a vigorous defense of their own merits.

It's not uncommon for a company to spend money on long-running projects or departments that no longer serve its core mission and don't contribute to profits in any significant way. When budgets are prepared incrementally, such spending continues from year to year through simple inertia -- "We spend money on it because we've always spent money on it." Zero-based budgeting puts this spending under a microscope, allowing the company to examine whether it would be better off shutting down these non-essential operations, selling them off or, in the case of such things as maintenance or payroll services, outsourcing them.

The larger a company gets, the more likely it is to experience redundancies -- different departments or people doing the same job. These redundancies may remain hidden in incremental budgeting but will become evident during the thorough, top-to-bottom review that comes with zero-based budgeting. Once management identifies redundant functions, it can save money through consolidating them. Instead of, say, six different workers handling purchasing for different departments, the company may create a separate, centralized purchasing department hat needs only three workers, cutting labor costs in half.

In Short

MS 57 IGNOU MBA Solved Assignment -Elaborate your understanding about maintenance planning and scheduling

Elaborate your understanding about maintenance planning and scheduling

Planning decides what, how and time estimate for a job. Scheduling decides when and who will do the job. Planning of a job should be done before Scheduling a job.

• Customized or standard on-site classroom training in planning and scheduling

• Coaching and implementation support to improve planning and scheduling on-site

• Define or verify existing work processes.

• Make sure all key functions such as planners, supervisors, and operations coordinators have clear roles.

• Set clear priority rules and establish meaning and criteria for existing codes.

• Improve work request usage and clarity.

• Check backlog management and clean up if needed.

• On-the-job planning enhancement for shutdowns (if applicable).

• Shutdown/ Turnaround critique communication.

• On-The-Job planning enhancement for day-to-day work.

• Job package creation.

• Staging areas.

• Enhance and practice planning and scheduling meetings between operations and maintenance.

• Implement Key Performance indicators (KPI’s).

• Work on effective use of CMMS.

• Hand-on support for history documentation.

• Improvement of technical database (Bill Of Materials, technical data, equipment identification, etc.)

• Improve integration with materials management

• Contractor management and integration of work processes.

• A Customized training for your plant

• A standard training

• On-The-Job Training

Ans : Maintenance Planning and Scheduling are key elements that influence the true success of any organization. Many times we have a planner or planner/scheduler, but do not know how to use him or her effectively or efficiently. When we talk about maintenance planning, we are talking about higher wrench time. At this time of economic uncertainty, a higher wrench time equals lower cost, which results in job security for all. Past studies have shown that most companies do not perform maintenance planning effectively thus impacting negatively work effectiveness, wrench time, equipment uptime, equipment reliability, and cost. If we were “Effective in Maintenance Planning”, it would result in Higher Wrench Time and Higher Equipment Reliability.

In Maintenance Scheduling, once we have achieved the discipline required and maintenance plans are completed on time the reliability of facilities and assets increase at a high rate.

A short definition of maintenance planning and scheduling: 

A common implementation initiative after a maintenance assessment is maintenance planning and scheduling.  IDCON can help your organization with:

Classroom training is usually effective to increase planning and scheduling awareness, however, in order to achieve sustainable improvement training has to be followed by immediate implementation after the training or very mediocre results will be the achieved.

On site and on-the-job training and implementation of a better work management process is – combined with a good condition based preventive maintenance program and an up to date accessible bill of materials – the most important process used to enable people to become more productive.

Implementation and coaching of better planning and scheduling is usually customized to our client. Typical activities include:

IDCON believes strongly in making sure the change process has buy-in and ownership in the organization.

It is therefore important that client’s organization takes ownership as soon as possible. IDCON role is to act as a catalyst, trainer, accelerator to coach improvements. 

Maintenance Planning and scheduling of work orders is the hub of a well functioning maintenance organization. In order for maintenance planning and scheduling to work many other systems need to work well. Most importantly equipment inspections through preventive maintenance, technical database such as bill of materials, work order history, and standard job plans. Maintenance spare part stores have to function well.

IDCON also provides training in planning and scheduling - Click here for more information