A METHOD OF PLANNED MAINTENANCE APPLIED TO A LARGE TANKER FLEET

The reasons for requiring a planned maintenance system are briefly discussed, together with the main benefits which could be expected to follow. Comparison is made between past and present approaches to shipboard maintenance, to show the changes in attitudes. Development of a basic system of calendar maintenance is described, giving an outline of the initial investigations necessary and the establishing of the administrative procedures which followed. Various features necessary to operate the system are described, including the assessment of maintenance requirements and the development of routine instruction from these requirements. Some of the preliminary work in estimating available manpower and the balancing of planned workloads is covered, and this leads on to an outline of the on-board planning procedure which have been developed. Since a comparatively large number of ships were to be covered by these maintenance procedures, it was decided to utilize computer facilities which were available. This required the development of reporting procedures that would be compatible with the specially written computer programs. This would further provide the administering office with sufficient information to compile and interpret existing maintenance data. The chosen method of monitoring work done is described, together with examples of the resulting data and ways in which it could be used. This method of maintenance met due requirements at the time of its development, but it is recognized that such a system of calender maintenance is open to improvement. New areas are therefore being investigated, including scheduling work on a basis of machinery running hours and procedures for monitoring machinery condition before establishing maintenance intervals.