Super Ltd is one of the leading oil refining companies. The company has three plants - one each situated in North, South and West. The company has a refining capacity of 30 million barrels. The company currently enjoys a 40% share of the domestic market. The plants run on all 365 days in a year and operate at 100% of the capacity. The company currently does not have any maintenance schedule in place for its plant and machinery. Any repair requirement of plant and machinery is carried out on ad-hoc basis. The company has implemented Total Quality Management (TQM) to ensure that the company rolls out top quality products. The company did not receive any complaints from its customers regarding poor quality of products or products not meeting the specifications. The entire production team is quite excited with superior quality of products.

However, in the last three months, about 30% of the dispatches to customers were delayed. This comes at a time when the entire plant had to be shut for maintenance activity due to breakdown in the machineries for a week. The company also witnessed 20% rejection of the final products. The customers claimed that the products did not meet the specification agreed by them with the company. The Director of Refineries is worried about the worsening situation of production at plants. Another concern for the director is the increase in number of accidents and loss of productive time due to this. The plants run on all 365 days in a year and operate at 100% of the capacity. The company currently does not have any maintenance schedule in place for its plant and machinery. Any repair requirement of plant and machinery is carried out on ad-hoc basis. The company has implemented Total Quality Management (TQM) to ensure that the company rolls out top quality products. The chairman of the company convened an urgent meeting of the Board of Directors to understand the impact and reasons of the situation at production plants. A key issue highlighted by plant supervisors is that the scheduled maintenance activity for plants was never carried out. The underlying assumption for not carrying out such maintenance activity was - “Since the plant is running smoothly, there is no requirement of preventive maintenance activity. Such activities cost a lot in terms of money and also cause loss of productive time which could otherwise be used for production”. The maintenance departments and production department functioned in silos with almost no co-ordination amongst themselves. The most critical parts of the plant were not maintained for a long time. Advice the various types of maintenance practices that the company can implement. The chairman called you after the meeting and asked you to help him understand the current issue at the plant. “We had Total Quality Management (TQM) in place at all our plants. I understand from the production director that TQM is working as intended. Why are we facing the breakdown problem inspite of having a TQM in place”- said the Chairman? The plants run on all 365 days in a year and operate at 100% of the capacity. The company currently does not have any maintenance schedule in place for its plant and machinery. Any repair requirement of plant and machinery is carried out on ad-hoc basis. The company has implemented Total Quality Management (TQM) to ensure that the company rolls out top quality products.