Content Research areas and research strategies in maintenance - PDF document

Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 Some challenges in the mathematical and empirical research of the interdisciplinary Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management dimensions of the maintenance function -for discussion and future efforts MPMM 2014 Conference, September 04-05, 2014 Coimbra, Portugal Kari Komonen Promaint (Finnish Maintenance Society) Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 Content • Research areas and research strategies in maintenance Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management • Learning from the other disciplines • Need for “grounded theory” • Foundation • Challenges in empirical research • Empirical research at the plant level • Empirical research at the production department level • Identification of the best practices • Asset management perspective • Customer satisfaction • Some tools Kari Komonen 2014

Kari Komone 2014 Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 Research areas and research strategies in maintenance 1 Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management • Some of the practitioners in the field state that industrial maintenance is an engineering function. It is easy to agree with that opinion. • However, industrial maintenance is also a managerial function. The improvement and development of the maintenance activities require research projects in engineering, economics, organizational issues, commercial aspects, data management, decision making etc. • Typical researchers in the field master well the methods in technological research, which is natural, because they often have the background of the technical education. What can we say generally about research in the area of the managerial function. Kari Komonen 2014 Kari Komone 2014 Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 Research areas and research strategies in maintenance 2 Interdisciplinary research Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management • What about economics, behavioural sciences, consumer research, operation research, contracting etc.? • Do we master the methods of those subjects matters? • Do we know the challenges of the research processes in those areas? • These methods have been developed during decades in the area of management sciences, economics, sociology, psychology, contracting, ecology, biology etc. • In order to get reliable and valid results and understand the results correctly often sophisticated methodologies are needed. Kari Komonen 2014

Kari Komone 2014 Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 Learning from the other disciplines • In order to carry out relevant and high quality scientific research, we Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management should carefully discuss with the scientist of the other fields. • It seems that we often don’t do that carefully enough. • In the area of maintenance research e.g. we meet seldom multivariate statistical analysis which is a typical research method in the behavioural sciences, ecology, economics etc. • This method is essential because of the nature of the phenomena. Often, it is the only way to understand the phenomenon correctly. • Another example regards various kinds of surveys Kari Komonen 2014 Kari Komone 2014 Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 Various research strategies There exist several research strategies to employ • e.g. conceptual research, explorative research, taxonomic research, case Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management studies, classical statistical testing, statistical multivariate research, positivistic research (such as positive economics), action research and constructive research • Some of these strategies seem nowadays to be more popular than the others, (e.g. action research, case studies, constructive research) but the very important one is missing • The theory of regularities and causal relationship between various factors, variables and performance indicators is underdeveloped • We don’t have the widely accepted theory and framework to understand e.g. strategic, economic and organizational behaviour or modes of operations of the maintenance function Kari Komonen 2014

Kari Komone 2014 Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 Grounded theory • We understand that in the area on industrial maintenance we need a grounded theory based on mathematical reasoning and empirical verification or empirical Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management findings in addition to the well-established engineering research • Here, the grounded theory is not exactly the same concept as the original one • We mean empirically tested qualitative and quantitative modelling which explains e.g. the strategic, economic, structural, process design, organizational, customer relations and objective setting behaviour of the maintenance function • Grounded theory offers support to researchers, consultants and internal development experts to understand the message of various research, survey and status reports • Grounded theory supports also benchmarking activities • Grounded theory gives guidance to steer and implement development activities to the right direction • Grounded theory offers justified figures for world class maintenance Kari Komonen 2014 Kari Komone 2014 Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 Examples of benefits of the grounded theory • What is the influence of behavioural factors on the profitability or Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management efficiency of the maintenance function • How can we improve the performance of the organization • What is an appropriate proportion of preventive and planned maintenance of the total • What factors have greatest influence on customer satisfaction • What is the world class performance and mode of operations in different business and technological environment • What are excellent levels of performance for selected factors (indicators) in each case • What are the correct benchmarking levels of performance in each case • What questions we should investigate more Kari Komonen 2014

Kari Komone 2014 Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 An example for discussion from the economic and ecological discipline Theoretical Empirical exploratory exploratory Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management research research Modelling, reasoning and hypotheses Further Empirical testing Modification of empirical of the model the model studies Multivariate statistical analyses are widely used, Verification and because it is not possible Utilization and determination to fix variables in order to updating of parameters study the impact of one variable at a time Kari Komonen 2014 Kari Komone 2014 Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 An example for discussion from the behavioural discipline Theoretical Empirical exploratory exploratory Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management research research Multivariate statistical Selection of analyses e.g. a factor analysis research goal are widely used, in order to create a new questionnaire with new independent questions Tentative research A modified and tool e.g. a Empirical survey tested questionnaire questionnaire Multivariate statistical analyses are widely used, Further because it is not possible Utilization and empirical results to fix variables in order to updating and conclusions study the impact of one variable at a time Kari Komonen 2014

Kari Komone 2014 Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 Summary of challenges • Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management The grounded theory is mainly missing • The required research process is only partly employed • Mathematical modelling is widely employed in decision making exercises, but not for grounded theory • Multivariate statistical analysis is not sufficiently employed • Economists and behavioural scientist are often not familiar with the special features of the maintenance function • Maintenance experts are often not familiar with the research methods in economics and behavioural sciences Kari Komonen 2014 Kari Komone 2014 Coimbra, 4 th – 5 th September, 2014 Maintenance Performance Measurement and Management Some examples to start to build up a grounded theory Kari Komonen 2014