INDUSTRIAL AND MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES
IN THE ARMY
By Brig K Hari Kumar, BSc (Engg), MSc (Defence Studies), MBA, FIE, Dean, Faculty of Industrial Engineering & Tactics, MCEME, Secunderabad
INTRODUCTION
1.The Armed Forces of a country symbolises its national strength. India with its large landmass, population and strategic location can ill -afford to neglect its defence preparedness notwithstanding our proclaimed policy of peaceful coexistence with our neighbours. This century has witnessed a great increase in the quantity and complexity of weapons and equipment in the hands of troops. In adopting new technologies, the defence forces have become a complex fighting machine and management of weapons and equipment on scientific lines has become vital to ensure effective creation, employment and sustenance of these systems throughout their planned life cycle from concept formulation to discard and disposal.
2. The life cycle management of equipment is based on an integrated systems concept as there are a number of agencies involved from the design, development , users and maintenance departments, not to forget the various fiscal and other control mechanisms instituted by the government. For a selected national military strategy, resources will have to be found within the existing budget. Strategy leads to various operational concepts and a resultant logistics philosophy. The logistics philosophy incorporates a model for management of military hardware and their maintenance and upkeep for achieving the desired mission reliability, availability and sustainability in war.
THE BASIC CONCEPT
3.The Equipment Management functions in the army which incorporates various maintenance management and industrial management concepts and practices has no parallel in the civil industry. However, Plant Engineering and Management practices in Industry could be considered as the nearest equivalent in the civil. There are however many industrial undertakings which follow a lifecycle concept of equipment management like the railways, airlines or P&T with captive and institutionalised maintenance support organisations dedicated to them. While Plant Management or Equipment Management in the civil generally caters for static facilities, in the case of the armed forces, these are required to cater for mobile modes of operation with the productivity and profitability norms oriented towards winning a war with associated opportunity costs.
4.An Integrated approach to Maintenance Management aims at quick response for timely recycling/replacements throughout the anticipated life cycle of the equipment making adjustments/modifications to suit their varying usage and ageing profiles. It is a step-by-step support which can be subjected to management appraisal and control techniques. Maintenance support can be provided “In-house” or it can be arranged through “Contracts” on a need based philosophy. The latter can again be either from the OEM on a life time basis as part of a procurement contract or it can be offered to open tender from time to time to any vendor prepared to undertake the task on competitive terms.
5. The five basic functions of equipment management life cycle are:
(a) Perception of the Need. This involves consideration of the political situation and enemy capabilities, then the determination of what is desired, tempered with the current state of the art and a forecast of technical feasibility.
(b) Design and Development. This includes feasibility studies, describing alternative solutions, development of designs, evaluating alternative solutions (through trials) and making recommendations for final selection.
(c) Production. This involves the facilities, manpower, money, machines, materials and methods for production, as well as quality assurance and delivery of equipment to the user.
(d) Exploitation. This involves the In-Service management and covers training, usage, repair and maintenance, overhaul, modification and modernisation.
(e) Discard. This covers the decisions regarding the useful life of equipment, its eventual phasing out for discard and disposal.
6.Equipment management is therefore concerned with the complete equipment life cycle. During the life cycle there are a number of agencies which have to interact, the major ones being:
(a) User of the equipment.
(b) General Staff.
(c) R&D Organisation.
(d) The Agency for Quality Assurance.
(e) The Procurement Agency.
(f) EME – Maintenance Agency.
(g) DGOF, Public Sector Undertakings, Private Sector Production Agencies.
(h) Ministry of Defence.
(j) Ministry of Finance.
7.An integrated equipment management, based on ‘Systems Approach’ has therefore to be adopted in the army to ensure coordination among all the agencies involved so that the logistic management during the entire life cycle, is planned and executed smoothly.
8.In the design of a system many different requirements must be taken into consideration. Some of these are as follows:
(a) Producibility.
(b)Operability.
(c) Engineering support requirements such as spares, technical literature, training and so on.
(d) Maintainability, quantified by mean time to repair (MTTR).
(e) Reliability, quantified by mean time between failure (MTBF).
(f) Safety.
(g) Packaging.
(h) Performance.
9.All the above factors contribute to the measure of system’s worth and utilisation. These requirements exist within the constraints of time and cost which must be satisfied by the system, during the acquisition as well as its exploitation period.
10. To achieve the effective design desired, one must be able to handle all these parameters qualitatively and quantitatively in various system models. Optimisation of the system will then consist of cost-effective trade-offs among pertinent parameters. The methodology for combining each of these parameters into the optimised system, as well as for handling each one separately within its own discipline is called a ‘System Engineering Process’.
THE ENGINEERING SUPPORT SYSTEM
11. Engineering support is an important part of logistics planning. Considering the importance of equipment availability as a prime battle winning factor for the Army, a dynamic engineering system for support of Army equipment is vital. The maintaining agency is responsible for planning and executing the engineering support. The objective of the engineering support system is ‘to keep equipment in the hands of troops in an operationally fit condition’. It aims at timely provision of all engineering resources required to maintain the maximum number of weapons and equipment in battle worthy condition at all times at economic cost.
12. Equipment can be maintained in good condition by following the recommended servicing schedules and procedures for correct operation. Preventive maintenance may help in reducing malfunctioning and defects. However, malfunctioning and breakdowns do take place. Speedy repairs can only be executed if engineering support is available near the location of failure of equipment. Extricating the casualty and taking it to the repair point i.e recovery is considered a part of the repair process. Elements of engineering support are:
(a) Spare Parts. Spares and expendable materials have to be ensured at the right time, at the right place and in the right quantity.
(b) Tools. Tools, both general purpose and SMTS for the equipment are needed to be provided when required.
(c) Test Equipment. Gauges, general purpose and special test equipment, are needed to check the performance of weapons and equipment. This should also be calibrated frequently.
(d) Publications. These include technical manuals, spare parts lists, catalogues and repair regulations.
(e) Manpower. Availability of trained technical man power is an essential prerequisite for undertaking repairs on current as well as newly introduced equipment.
(f) Organisation. Adequate engineering support elements and infrastructure for providing effective repair Cover to equipment should be provided as forward as possible.
(g) Facilities. Workshop facilities including buildings, plants and machinery, storage and special repair vehicles are required.
DESIGN-OUT MAINTENANCE
Mission Reliability
13. Reliability and maintainability of a system are related to each other in terms of operational readiness, mission success and system availability. They both jointly as well as independently decide the availability of an equipment System. Adequate performance describing in unambiguous terms, what is expected of a device or a system specifying the duration of adequate performance and the environmental factors or operating conditions, in which a device or equipment is expected to function should also be laid down, for comparative evaluation of systems. The most common measure of Reliability is MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure).
14. Mission Reliability in military parlour is concerned with the establishment of likely successful completion of a mission assigned to a body of troops holding a set of weapon systems, deployed in a given operating environment. Uncertainty is built in this statement because the mission itself is dependent on the weapons deployed, to a large extent. Thus, while reliability may be considered for a single piece of equipment, mission reliability is for a group of equipment of mixed age which have to be deployed as a force to fight a battle.
.15. Increase in reliability would mean increased cost of design and development as well as cost of production. The exponential growth of cost prohibits enhancing reliability beyond a certain optimum level except in case of non-maintainable one shot devices such as rockets or missiles. On the other hand, enhanced reliability results in failure being far and few causing reduction in Maintenance costs. Therefore, in all maintenance systems, it is prudent to accept a lower reliability with an appropriate concurrent maintenance support to keep the overall cost to minimum.
Designing for Maintainability
16. Achieving maintainability is a design function, while maintenance is a consequence of design and use. At the design stage there are two options; the first is to spend a lot of money in getting an equipment that would almost never fail. and the second is to let it fail as often as it would, but spend a lot of money in ensuring that it is almost instantly restorable. This second approach is called “Maintainability”. The optimum and most economical approach is somewhere in between these two extremes.
17. Designing for maintainability, assures that maintenance action can be accomplished in minimum time, with minimum efforts, and with maximum safety. In order to have a clear understanding as to how this can be achieved. Let us consider the factors which contribute to maintainability:-
(a) Accessibility. Components requiring frequent maintenance and adjustment by the operator and also those which are fault prone needing removal, repair, and refitment, should be readily accessible / approachable.
(b) Monitoring Facilities. There are always some critical parameters which are vital for the proper functioning of the equipment. Means to monitor such parameters must be provided by audio or visual indicating facilities. Where this is not possible suitable test points can be given. These help in identifying malfunctions at the earliest, so that minor faults are prevented from developing into major failures.
(c) Procedures. The sequence of fault diagnosis and the way the repairs have to be carried out, have to be laid down so that avoidable delay at various stages can be cut down.
(d) Standardisation. Equipment should use standard components, as far as possible. Besides giving a higher assurance in managing the inventory, it also reduces the repair time by eliminating the need of frequent change of tools.
(e) Identification. A modern weapon system often consists of such a large number of components that it is not possible for a person to identify them all. Hence parts and assemblies should be clearly marked, labeled and use of colour codes made, so that fault diagnosis and repairs are speeded up.
(f) Safety. Safety measures to protect the user and repair men, wherever required, should be provided.
(g) Literature. Technical literature of an equipment contains detailed instructions on correct operation, maintenance and repairs. The literature should be comprehensive and made available if not at the trial stage but certainly at the time of its introduction into service.
(h) Training. The skill with which the equipment would be handled, used, maintained or repaired would largely depend on the training imparted, both to the user and to the personnel of the maintenance agency. Neglect of training is bound to affect the effective exploitation of the equipment adversely.
18. During concept and development phase, the maintenance agency can provide necessary maintenance support concepts, plans and maintenance experience data to enable finalisation of “Qualitative Requirements’ for new weapon systems or equipment. The maintenance agency (EME), through the “Maintainability Advisory Groups” (MAG), participates in design reviews and evaluation of test results to reduce the need for maintenance support. The maintenance engineer is concerned with how the fielded system will be operated and maintained. He is concerned with the environment in which the system will be operated and maintained, the level of maintenance, maintenance and other support resources, and maintenance actions. It is his responsibility to see that the user’s needs with regard to maintenance are reflected in design requirements. The main activities of the MAG are given at Appendix to this paper.
19. The failure rate of the equipment depends on the external factors of designed and manufactured reliability and in-service operation and maintenance. In spite of everything, certain equipment failures would take place. Now it depends on the designed maintainability coupled with the engineering support resources like manpower, spares, tools, facilities and a responsive resupply system of these resources, to ensure quick restoration of the equipment back in service. The eventual availability of operationally fit equipment to the user, would depend upon how well these design and logistic sub-systems are managed.
THE MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
20. The selection of a suitable Maintenance Support System is dictated by the following considerations :
(a) The complexity and sophistication of the equipment design.
(b) The anticipated usage conditions viz climate, weather, terrain static or mobile modes etc.
(c)The acceptable recycling time.
(d) Requirement of in situ’ maintenance and repairs.
(e) Availability of reserve equipment or redundancy in design features in respect of components or assemblies.
(f) Expected life span of the equipment.
(g)Inventory carrying costs.
(h) Cost of facilities.
(j) Cost of manpower – both initial and recurring.
(k) Proximity of Maintenance Services consideration- a vital consideration in defence applications.
21.Most of the large industrial undertakings and Defence Departments have gone in for ‘in house! Institutionalised Maintenance Support Organisations in preference to Contract Maintenance for reasons of Operational effectiveness, degree of assurance and overall cost. The Railways, Post and Telegraph, Airlines and Defence all have their own captive’ organisations and the necessary facilities Countrywide for such functions. In all these cases, Contract Maintenance is built into the overall system wherever economic considerations so dictate, either through subcontracting or through open tenders in the fields of servicing, repairs or manufacture of spares and material.
22. An Institutional Maintenance Support System demands an overall strategy and planning, an organisational framework with policies and procedures laid down for its effective performance, creation of facilities for forecasting requirements, acquisition, movement, logistics, storage and distribution of maintenance stores, location of infrastructural facilities, Training and Development of maintenance staff, a suitable Management Information System and a method for costing and budgeting various maintenance functions. These are discussed in the succeeding paragraphs.
23. The strategic maintenance planning entails the following: –
(a) Development of a Maintenance Concept. A concept is developed based on the requirement of end use or end users. In Defence in order to achieve the desired operational availability, the concept may dictate a multi-layered echelon repair and maintenance philosophy to save on reserves and recycling time and associated opportunity costs. The concept is also formulated to conform to the peculiar requirements of equipment necessitated by design or functional characteristics. For example, in the Army, a concept of ‘Replace forward and Repair rearwards’ have been evolved to cater for the various mission needs. This is more so in case of those equipment Systems based on electronics where diagnostic skill and requirement of test equipment dictate that the major repair be centralised on a regional, theatre or national basis.
(b) Anticipated Life. Maintenance Planning is not feasible unless the currency of the plans are predetermined. Any support system should be effective throughout the anticipated usage of an equipment system. This is also necessary for economical usage of facilities, inventory and skills. Replacement policies will have to be formulated side-by-side with inductions to facilitate adequate reaction time at various levels
(c) Infrastructural Facilities. Facilities take a considerable time to come up and may involve Cost overruns if not planned in detail. Decision On acquisition, or construction, maintenance, operation and disposition of facility and a thorough appreciation of the lead time needed will go a long way in ensuring their effectiveness in time.
(d) Maintenance Budgeting. Modern managerial practice caters for life cycle costing for equipment. Various elements of cost will have to be identified at the planning stage itself. Experience has shown that as the equipment becomes more and more complex and sophisticated, the operating and support costs get to be out of proportion to the original cost of equipment. One must be aware of these support costs.
24. Effectiveness of a Maintenance Support System :- In order to facilitate the top management to recognise the maintenance support department’s contribution to the profit or loss of the Company or to the effectiveness of a mission, it is necessary to measure what maintenance does and what it does not do. Some of the indices which could help maintenance support decision and measurement of its effectiveness are:-
(a) Total maintenance cost per unit of measure (per unit of production, per annum or per combat unit etc).
(b) .Total maintenance cost as a percentage of Total Cost.
(c) Total maintenance cost as a percentage of replacement value of an equipment.
(d)Cost of total maintenance manpower per unit.
(e) Mean time between failure (MTBF), up time ratios or operational availability parameters.
25.Theoverall effectiveness of an institutional maintenance support system will depend on the following factors:
(a) Integration. The system should be integrated to cover the material, engineering support, logistics and training aspects. The framework for planning should cater from initial conception through development, production, distribution, operational use and final disposal – that is from womb to tomb. Integration at the departmental and national level should include: –
(i) Unification and/or coordination of interservice maintenance agencies.
(ii) Assessing and projecting the necessary infrastructure taking into account the national assets available.
(iii) Generating and organising resources in various sectors or segments of the society.
(iv) Liaison with R&D organisations.
(b) Responsiveness. From the ‘quick-fix’ or ‘first aid’ to the planned and scheduled overhaul, maintenance management in any field involves a multi-echelon philosophy. As a result, the responsiveness will also be graded to meet the requirements of various echelons. The replace forward and repair rear wards policy followed in the Army is to ensure that the system is sensitive and responsive at any level. Properly structured information systems with periodical updating, logistic mobility, location of facilities in close proximity to the load centres, control over the ingredients of mean time to repair (MTTR) and scheduled maintenance activities will all contribute towards responsiveness.
(c) Flexibility. Maintenance activities are always done in a dynamic environment. Equipment usage conditions, obsolescence and technological revolution will demand an organisation responsive to changes and capable of adaptation through innovations and creativity. In the military field maintenance initiatives have carried the day in many wars whether it was in the North African campaign, J&K in 1947, Sri. Lanka during Op Pawan or in the recent Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf region.
(d) Simplicity. Simplicity in maintenance support is enhanced by imaginative and forward planning, streamlining of procedures and in the case of military applications, organising peacetime maintenance structures and activities with an eye to their war time role, all on a continual review and updating process. Incorporating maintainability in design features of an equipment system also facilitates simplicity in in-service maintenance support.
(e) Anticipation. Anticipation is the heart of maintenance support planning. It is a balance of art and science that seeks to predict the relative times, locations and nature of equipment failure within the context of the operational parameters laid down. Sustainment considerations both influence and are in turn, influenced by operational planning whether in industry or in battle missions. the art of maintenance support allows the user of equipment to expand the envelope of feasibility to its fullest extent and to both support execution and identify opportunity. The imperative of anticipation demands that maintenance planning coincide with operational planning.
(f) Adequacy. The maintenance support structure should continue to cater for varying performance requirements and conditions of usage. Adequacy also denotes the timeliness, quality, proper prioritisation guarantee of performance of repaired equipment with reasonable mean time between failures (MTBF). A participative philosophy with a result oriented approach to maintenance support will go a long way in achieving adequacy.
(g) Standardisation. Progressive standardisation at the departmental, national and global levels can be of areat help in achieving economy in maintenance Support as it aims at the reduction of unnecessary types, sizes, variety of parts, materials and suppliers. Standardisation also endeavors at selection and usage of reliable and economic components. Alongwith standardisation of components, design and test standards, it is necessary and desirable to develop standard maintenance practices.
(h) Single Window. All over the world, the emphasis is shifting towards single point accountability in institutionalised maintenance support practices for better control, coordination and integration. Elements of activities even when subcontracted or bought out are centrally planned and executed by one agency whether at the departmental, national or international level. In the case of the Army, the Corps of EME is the ‘Single Window’ for all maintenance and engineering support functions for equipment management.
THE REPAIR SYSTEM
26. The Army needs to have all the equipment available all times in readiness for war, but due to unreliability of the equipment a certain failure rate will develop. It is the job of the maintenance and repair organisation to return the failed equipment as fast as possible to the user. The aim of any repair system is therefore two fold. Firstly to return failed equipment to service within a short time and secondly to do so economically.
27. The main problem of repairables is forecasting the repairables arising, from period to period and then determining when and where the repair and procurement action should be initiated, so as to maintain a chosen level of availability of serviceable items. To support the unit holding we must, therefore, have a repair policy and repair concept. The question which need to be answered to formulate a repair concept or a repair policy are:
(a) Whether to repair, and where to repair.
(b) Whether to reclaim and where to reclaim.
(c) Whether to manufacture parts and where to manufacture them.
28. These require examination of each and every component and then the repair policy is finalised. If it is decided to repair then one needs to have the following:
(a) Repair pool or reserves.
(b)Spare parts.
(c)Tools.
(d)Test equipment.
(e) Technical publications.
(f) Manpower.
(g). Organisation.
(h) Facilities.
Echelon Repair System
29. The EME follows a time tested echelon repair system to cater for the nature and frequency of faults to which equipment are likely to be subjected in an operational environment. Repairs are classified into various echelons, and eachechelon is undertaken by a different workshop or different element of EME. The system is however, flexible and can be modified to suit particular requirements.
Repair Concept
30. The repair concept in the context of the Army is guided by criticality of the equipment and the cost of the equipment. For equipment of less criticality and also less cost it is advisable to have aggregate support i.e echelon repair system, spares or reserves centralised,generous repair pools, long overhaul cycle and withdrawal in anticipation of failure. In case of equipment of high criticality and also high cost, it is however advisable to have an intimate support e.g a full time resident repair team, test equipment and full range of spares deployed at location, high speed transportation of spares, withdrawal of failure and in situ repair. For all other equipment which do not come in these extremes and have a balanced mix of cost and criticality, the type of repair support also will be a mix of aggregate and intimate support and will have to be formulated for each equipment separately.
Scope of Repair
31.The scope and nature of repairs that are normally carried out in each of these echelons for different equipment are given as a guide in Permissible Repair Schedules. The category of a unit and the spares held by them are based on these schedules. Repairs of progressively heavier nature are handled in different echelons from front to rear. The echelon system of repair has been adopted because of the following reasons: –
(a) To carry out repairs as far forward as possible, thereby reducing the time the equipment is out of action.
(b) To minimise backloading of equipment and consequent deterioration in transit.
(c ) To reduce provision of a high percentage of reserve.
(d) To avoid concentration of unwieldy repair facilities with forward troops, which, apart from vulnerability, would hamper the mobility of these units.
(e) To achieve flexibility to meet rapidly changing situations during active operations.
(f) To ensure economical use of plants and machinery.
Repair Decision
32. The decision to repair the equipment casualty is affected by a number of factors varying in peace and war, and in field or static environment. In field and under operational conditions the level and location, at which repair will be carried out or whether it will be carried out at all, depends upon the following factors:-
(a) Difficulty of moving equipment casualty.
(b) Availability of spares and test equipment.
(c) Location of workshops and their loading.
(d) Tactical situation and time available for repair.
(e) Available trade skills.
(f) Availability of reserve for the repairable equipment. Equipment for which replacement is not available is given higher priority of repairs.
(g) The economics of repair and criticality equipment.
(h) The condition of equipment casualty.
Base Overhaul
33 .The failure of equipment increases with age and usage ,especially in case of mechanical assemblies and subassemblies. The electronic devices display a comparatively random failure pattern which is a function of failure frequency and failure rate and is constant till it starts ageing. Thus beyond a certain usage , reliability and availability fall below the acceptance level and the cost of field repairs becomes very exorbitant. Such equipment can either be discarded or recycled through overhaul and 1ssued thus giving it a new lease of life. Such decisions are based on cost and availability of replacement.
34. In order to determine the economic life of an equipment we need to know the operational life at which the annual average total cost of the equipment is minimum. The annual average total cost comprises two components namely an exponentially decreasing annual average capital cost and a linearly increasing annual average maintenance cost.
35. The role of the Army Base Workshops is to carry out the base overhaul/repairs to the army vehicles and equipment and limited manufacture of spares/components on as required basis. The following specific tasks are undertaken by Army Base Workshops in general: –
(a)Complete overhaul of vehicles and equipment.
(b) Modification/conversion of specified equipment.
(c) Specified base repairs.
(d)Manufacture of stores and spares required for (a) and b) above, when such stores and spares are not readily available from the normal sources of supply and local purchase.
(e) Indigenisation of stores and spares either for their own anticipated requirement or to meet the demands of other organisations where parts are not available and there is no likelihood of their being available in the foreseeable future.
(f) Product improvements.
(g) Base repair to rotables.
(h) Modernisation projects.
(g) Payment and experimental work orders.
(k) Bodybuilding commitments.
(l) Repair of class B stores.
MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM
36. The Army employs an elaborate Logistics Decision Support System using automated data processing. The maintenance management information sub-System in this total system caters for the following: –
(a) Equipment authorisation/holdings, wastages and disposal data.
(b)Data on repair pools.
(c) Provision Review for complete equipment and spare parts.
(d) Mission reliability.
(e) Management of fuels and lubricants.
(f) Transportation.
(g) Repair data of workshops.
CONCLUSION
37. Special and unique features of the Maintenance Management system followed in the Army are as under:–
(a) Emphasis on Design-out Maintenance.
(b)Measures taken to improve Reliability and Maintainability of equipment using a proactive approach
(c) A systems concept for Maintenance.
(d) An Echelon Repair system to ensure quick recycling of repairables during war in various defensive and offensive operations.
(e) Emphasis on replace forward and repair rear wards concept.
(f) Facilities for In-situ repairs with matching mobility to repair agencies in conformity with the desired speed of military operations.
(g) An elaborate system for recovery of damaged equipment in war.
(h) A cost effective Materials Management system to manage distributed inventory to cater for multiple service points.
(i) Condition based and time based maintenance, repair and overhaul.
(i) Emphasis on Preventive Maintenance.
(k) An elaborate network of base repair facilities for overhauling and manufacture of spares which incorporate various industrial engineering practices with centralised control on repair pools and war reserves.
(1) A modern Management Information System using Automated Data Processing and Decision Support Systems.
(m) A large facility for training and development of tradesmen, supervisors and officers at various levels.
(n) Large scale cooperation with civil industry in the fields of research, testing, calibration, standardisation and technology updates.
(o) A closely monitored management audit, accounting and performance review system.
(p)Indigenisation.
(q) Provision for product improvement, and modernisation activities.
(r) An extensive geographical network of repair facilities to cater for the requirements in peace and war.
(s) A comprehensive quality management system to ensure customer orientation and satisfaction.
38 . The Army has deployed a part of its manpower on maintenance management to ensure the operational availability of a vast array of equipment with multi-disciplinary technology and sophistication. The efficient and effective orchestration and utilisation of these resources calls for imagination, innovation and creativity. The organisation is comparable with the best of systems in the Industry and the mission of this organisation is customer satisfaction and quality output at economic costs. Instead of supporting an operational plan, they help evolve jointly with the General Staff a supportable plan to meet various contingencies in war.
References
1.Proceedings of a Seminar on Engineering Support for Equipment Management held at Technical Group, Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, Delhi Cantonment in Dec 72.
2.Proceedings of a National Seminar on Management of Maintenance held at Vígyan Bhavan, New Delhi in Mar 84.
3.Proceedings of a National Seminar on Maintenance Support to Electronics Equipments held at New Delhi in Sep 94, organised by EME and the Confederation of Indian Industries.
4.Logistics Engineering and Management By Benjamin S Blanchard.
5. Preventive Maintenance and its Impact on Equipment Management – An article by Major (now Brigadier) K Hari Kumar in the annual issue of Plant Engineers 1979.
APPENDIX
MAINTAINABILITY ADVISORY GROUPS – MAIN ACTIVITIES
With Design Agencies
(a) Detailed study of system and facilities planned to be provided during Requirement/Proposal stage.
(b) Study/discuss Maintainability concepts.
(c) Discuss assembly\sub assembly in detail and evaluate them for Maintainability.
(d) Collect and analyse data on component failure.
(e) Examine techniques used and approach adopted in practice.
(f) Carry out Maintenance Evaluation on ‘A’ model of the equipment and progress their incorporation.
(g) Discuss defect reports which have a bearing on design of equipment.
With Production Agencies
(a) Study production methods at ‘B ‘model stage.
(b) Collect information on Special Maintenance Tools/Test Jigs and progress their development/production.
(c)Re-examine equipment from a maintainability point of view.
(d)Study inspection test schedule.
(e)Collect information on alternation/modifications.
(f) Plan maintainability demonstration.
(g) Carry out maintenance support appreciation.
(h) Discuss defect reports.
(j) Study special techniques adopted.
(k) Finalise training requirements.
(l)nCollect information on progress of indents on spares, test jigs.
(m) Progress preparation and vetting of technical memoranda.
(n) Vetting of MRLS (Manufacturers Recommended List of Spares) and preparation of ISG/SSG/MS (Initial Stocking Guide/Special Stocking Guide/Maintenance Scales)
With Quality Assurance Agencies
(a) Investigation of defect reports.
(b) Discuss alterations and modifications.
(c) Discussion/vetting of technical literature.
(d) Progress introduction of test equipment/test Maintenance Tools.
(e) Progress allotment of CAT/Part Nos.
(f) Associate in indigenisation/standardisation of components.
(g) Study inspection schedules.
(h) Study result of technical/environmental test/evaluation
(j) Study inspection schedules.
(k) Discuss recommendations on maintainability Maintainability Support Appreciation.
With Depot/Base Workshop
(a) Provide technical assistance to Depot/Base WC matters of spares requirements and planning of load F to undertake manufacture of test jigs/Special Maintenance Tools at Base Workshops.
(b) Preparation of Scales/EME Regulations.
BIO-DATA : BRIGADIER K HARI KUMAR
A graduate in Mechanical Engineering from Kerala University and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineers.
A post graduate in Armament Engineering from EME School, Baroda.
MSc (Defence Studies) from Madras University and
MBA from Indore University.
Has qualified from the Defence Services Staff College and attended the prestigious Higher Command Course at College of Combat, Mhow. He is also an alumni of National Institute for Training in Industrial Engineering Bombay and attended Executive Development Programmes in Organisation and Techniques of Training, and Total Quality Management and ISO 9000, there.
Trained in USSR on Capital Repairs to Air Defence Gun Systems.
Important appointments include: –
(a) Officer Commanding, Field workshop Company in high altitude areas of Sikkim.
(b) Officer Commanding, an Artillery Brigade Workshop Company.
(c) A Logistics Staff Officer in a brigade HG deployed in the line of control of J&K.
(d) A Faculty member at the EME School, and College of Combat.
(e) Commanding Officer Station Workshop EME ,Bangalore
(f) Assistant Military Secretary, and Director (Operations & Plans) at the Army HQ.
(g) Commandant and Managing Director 508 Army Base Workshop, Allahabad and presently Dean, Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Tactics at the Military College of electronics and Mechanical Engineering, Secunderabad.
He has been awarded Chief of Army Staff’s Commendation Card in 1987 for his innovative work at Bangalore in support of the Sri Lanka operations of the Indian Army.
Associated with a number of study assignments at the Macro level which includes his assignment as Member- Secretary of the All Arms Study on Equipment Management Concepts and a co-opted member of the Army HQ study team to review the Logistics Systems in the Army.
A visiting faculty at the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, College of Defence Management, Secunderabad, Institute of Armament Technology, Pune and the College of Combat Mhow.