ICINDE Invited Talk

Total Quality Maintenance; an Overall View to Describe the Relationships Man-Machine-Maintenance-Economy

Abstract

In the globalisation spirit, one of the major objectives of companies is how to reduce the production losses 
cost-effectively for continuously enhancement of competitiveness and profitability. However, this area has been 
neglected by scientists and not given the attention justified considering its obvious link to company profitability. 
To fill this gap, better understanding of the relations and interactions between man, machine/production process, 
maintenance and economy is vital. Also, it is important for identifying and eliminating root causes of the losses. 
In this paper, we develop a model to describe these interactions using the most relevant factors, such as maintenance 
organisation, personnel commitment, machine condition and characteristics, and the impact of maintenance performance on 
production time. The use of the model and its potential benefits are tested using an application example. This example 
illustrates how the above mentioned factors affect the production time and is thereafter derived to financial results. 
The result is accordingly a model that can help all producing companies categorise the causes behind losses and identify 
where losses arise and where to focus their work of continuous cost-effective improvements.



About Basim

Professor of Terotechnology at Vaxjo University, Sweden. He obtained his Ph.D. from Lund University in Sweden. He has over a 
period of 7 years following his first degree been involved in the maintenance of vehicles in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. 
Subsequently (the last 15 years) he has been involved in education, research and consultancy in applying vibration spectral 
analysis for problem solving in Sweden and Europe. Also, he has been contributed in developing and applying tools and 
methods for selecting the most cost-effective maintenance policy. He also developed a new technique for detecting damage in 
rolling element bearings at an early stage. This technique has been implemented in three measuring instruments, which have 
been marketed by a Swedish company. Professor Dr. Al-Najjar major research area is condition-based maintenance and its 
technical and financial impact on company's competitiveness and profitability. One of the major achievements done by 
Al-Najjar is the development of the maintenance concept Total Quality maintenance (TQMain) and its applications in more 
than seven case studies. He is author of more than 60 papers published in international journals and conferences. He is 
also author of two textbooks, which are used for courses at Vaxjo University. These textbooks are Condition monitoring and 
condition-based maintenance and Measurement and failure analysis. He is also a member of two international networks (INID 
and I*PROMS) and national network Maintenance Forum.