ASSESSING PRACTICES AND CHALLENGES of BREAKDOWN MAINTENANCE PROJECT WORKS AND ITS EFFECT ON PRODUCTIVITY: CASE STUDY on EAST AFRICA BOTTLING S.C. of Addis Ababa Plant

Abstract

Breakdown maintenance management needs attention and strategic approach as it happens without plan. in this study, due to equipment breakdown alone the company has lost a volume of 1.5Million cases of product in 2021 a revenue of 450Million birr has been lost. Most of the breakdowns happen several times indicating there was lack attention to detail to the nature of breakdown. Descriptive research has been used and a mixed approach of data collection has been utilized to conduct the study. The population size was 33 and a census of the population was used. Maintenance of equipment assures the sustainability of productivity in a manufacturing facility. Corporate companies like East Africa Bottling requires well-structured and organized maintenance team to meet the business goals at large. Related with productivity and efficiency of production lines, making sure the equipment within the production lines maintenance be made properly executed. There are several factors which affect the availability of lines to sustain it productivity. One of the factors that affect the availability of a production line is breakdown of machinery. In this paper, the effect of equipment breakdown on plant productivity done on Addis Ababa plant of East Africa Bottling has been analyzed. In the analysis several equipment breakdowns have been seen to be redundant and the 5% breakdown standard has not been met though the set standard were to meet an equipment breakdown of less than 5%. Using qualitative and quantitative methods the challenges of maintenance practice has been assessed. Some of the challenges include proper tool provision, lack of proper information sharing between maintenance teams, training provision based on the technical skill gaps and information acquisition of past breakdowns and cost of breakdown has been challenging. Having an experience of more than 20 years in the beverage industry in Ethiopia, the company has rich potential in maintaining equipment breakdowns and could be bigger source of expat to export skilled manpower to group member companies in other African countries and be source of foreign currency for the country and the company by organizing the maintenance practice and manage the maintenance operation.