Abstract:
The performance greatly affects the survival and prolonger life time of the
manufacturing industry of Sri Lanka. In measuring the corresponding level of
performance, the term “productivity” becomes vital. It entails updating the
productivity improvement techniques in accordance with the technological
advancements of the industry. Manufacturing Excellence programme has become the
most updated version of productivity improvement technique. It enhances all the
processes, people, goods and information within the work floor providing a good
performance in achieving of a higher level of productivity. Since maintenance also
has a strategic dimension, its performance measurement system should be linked to
the espoused strategy of the function in order to get the maximum impact. It has been
clearly recognized the presence of failures in former attempts of implementing
productivity techniques due to the unidentified proper maintenance function. This
research therefore attempts to develop a suitable maintenance function which
describes the relationship between the performance of productivity improvement and
different indicators of maintenance practices. Based on this conceptual framework
built on successful review of literature related to the area concerned, it was decided to
include six performance indicators of the maintenance process into the model. The
required data to develop the model was acquired through a structured questionnaire.
The model identified that the two significant performance indicators that influence the
performance of productivity improvement technique are the extent of training and
equipment failure responsiveness. The model was developed through step-wise
regression procedure and it was confirmed by both forward selection and backward
elimination procedure. As model was developed based on information from one
organization it is suggested to develop similar models for other organizations as well.
