Maintenance Management Performance of Malaysian Palm Oil Mills

Deficient maintenance management can severely affect competitiveness of an organization by reducing throughput, increasing inventory, and leading to poor performance. Applying Overall Equipment Effectiveness, this research study, has evaluated maintenance management performance in Malaysian palm oil mills, highlighted how it helps to identify the factors causing poor performance and demonstrates how to improve and perpetuate company’s productivity, profits, and sustainability by adopting world class maintenance strategies such as Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). The research exalts practitioner’s perspective and has determined that Scientific Management Theory axioms and TPM principles are not being applied to optimize productivity in palm oil mills. The research also identified theory and practice gaps pertinent to maintenance management in palm oil mills and provided shop-level solutions to bridge those gaps. Research findings established how efficient and effective maintenance management offers, besides substantial cost savings, a wide scope of improvements for the Malaysian palm oil industry.