Evaluation Of Effectiveness Of THERA W MILL At East African Portland Cement Factory

Abstract

East African Portland Cement Company has been operating at sub-optimal efficiency and effectiveness of the raw mill plant due to high rate of unplanned equipment failure and frequent stoppages. The existing maintenance system in the Company is based on integration of all functions and processes with no cross-functional teams, which results into high maintenance cost, low plant reliability, low production and low satisfaction of workers. The main objective of this research is to determine how to improve overall equipment effectiveness of the raw mill plant through implementation of an effective maintenance concept. The specific objectives are to analyze and determine the overall equipment effectiveness of the raw mill plant, to establish the causes of its low availability and to identify and customize an effective maintenance concept for the raw mill. This research adopted descriptive and quantitative case study approach. The data collected was analyzed and presented in tables, pie charts, line graphs and bar graphs. Consequently in this research analysis of various maintenance concepts were investigated. From this research, it can be deduced that raw mill plant requires a harmonized maintenance concept regarding inspection, preventive maintenance, repair and overhaul of the main components as well as environmental auditing during operation to ensure that it is fully operational and efficient. Total productive maintenance concept therefore has been identified as key for meeting maintenance objectives of the raw mill. A customized framework of total productive maintenance deployment at East African Portland Cement Company has been developed with six step transformation approach used in embedding high performance culture. In this thesis the overall equipment effectiveness of the raw mill was evaluated and found to be below the world class target of 85.41%