Chapter Aims and Outcomes

To show how a maintenance administration can be mapped, modeled and if necessary modified.

On completion of this chapter you should be able to:

• map and model existing administrative structures and link them to their corresponding resource structures;

• understand the classical views on the design and operation of administrations, e.g. span of control, chain of command;

• appreciate the characteristics that are particular to a maintenance administration;

• understand a procedure to guide the design or modification of a maintenance administration.

Chapter Route Map

Key Words

• Organogram

• Job description

• Administrative theory

• Accountability

• Span of control

• Self-empowered teams

• Chain of command

• Staff and line authority

• Manufacturing units

• Business units

• Collateral relationships

• Matrix organizational structures

5.1 Introduction

The administrative structure, one of the principal elements of the maintenance organization, is a complex of managerial roles for deciding when and how an industrial plant should be maintained. It differs from a resource structure in that the latter is concerned with the composition and location of the shop floor resources, whereas it is concerned with allocating the management responsibility for carrying out the work. Its principal functions are:

• the initial formulation, and on-going modification, of the maintenance objectives, strategy, organization and control (including resource budgeting);

• the management of the maintenance resources (a necessary part...