Achieving Business Strategic Objectives: The Place of Maintenance Department

Many manufacturing industries formulate strategic business plans, sometimes, with little or no input from the maintenance department. However, where a maintenance department is fully recognised, the performance of the department determines how the operations of the unit are aligned towards achieving the strategic objectives of the industry. The single site case study method of qualitative research was adopted. Two interrelated approaches were used for data collection. First, a quantitative survey of responses from selected strategic, tactical, and operational leaders from the maintenance, production, and quality assurance department. The analysis revealed that the performance and operations of the maintenance department were not positively aligned towards achieving the strategic objectives of the industry. Secondly, a focus group session was conducted for the operatives of the maintenance department to discuss the survey outcome, identify problems and develop performance improvement strategies, to be monitored every three months. The outcome of this research provides objective information, which enables the maintenance department to continuously appraise their performance and align it towards achieving the strategic objectives of the manufacturing industries.