APPLYING TQM APPROACH IN EQUIPMENT MAINTENANCE OF OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY

Companies providing services in the oilfields do not possess suitable equipment maintenance programs, and are not qualified enough to tackle equipment maintenance. Usually, equipment returning from work sites is just washed and painted, and is then ready to take subsequent assignments. Thus, only lip service or facelift service is provided to the equipment as neither specialized inspection nor performance evaluation of its mechanized components are made. Also, no minute observations of their myriads of parts are done. This approach of service providers just show that they want simply to shy away from the real problems developing with the constant use of equipment, and lack of their maintenance in the real sense. The approach enhances equipment availability, but diminishes equipment durability and reliability. As per records held internally, a contemporary oil service company incurred huge revenue loss to the tune of $300000 during a period of seven months only due to the mal-functioning and non-performance of the equipment. This paper dwelled at length on the characteristics of Total Quality Management (TQM), its approaches and scope. It also stresses TQM based maintenance program that encompasses structured communication channel and employee empowerment to redress the malady of equipment maintenance in the forms of downtime and equipment failures. The paper suggested the use of various TQM tools in order to resolve the issues of equipment maintenance are coming across management levels.