Effective Maintenance Strategy of Cane Crushing Mills for Improvement of Sugar Production in Kenya

Abstract

This paper proposes an effective maintenance strategy of Cane Crushing Mills for improvement of sugar production in Kenya. This study was conducted at Nzoia Sugar Company Limited where cane crushing mills have been operating at sub optimal performance due to frequent stoppages and numerous unplanned breakdowns. The existing maintenance system being used at the company cannot minimize these unplanned failures resulting into low productivity of the cane crushing mill. The aim of this study was to come up with an effective maintenance strategy which should improve the performance of the cane crushing mills as well as sugar production in Kenya. In this research the impact of maintenance practices was investigated to evaluate the maintenance practices of the cane crushing mills. Root Cause Analysis (RCA) was used to assess the impact of maintenance practices on mill performance and questionnaires were analyzed to evaluate the maintenance practices. An improved maintenance strategy was recommended using an evaluation matrix which compared strengths and weaknesses of various best practice maintenance strategies. It was recommended that the cane crushing mill required a tailor-made Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) framework since the failure rate of the equipment was affected by the maintenance strategy. The study contributed to theory and practice through development of a methodology to prioritize critical failures which is a basis of formulating performance metrics in maintenance decision making.