Production equipment maintenance in Ghanaian manufacturing industries

Ghana's manufacturing industry consists of four main sectors, namely woodworking, food processing, metal working and textiles and garments. Earlier research works report a large stock of manufacturing equipment used in the industry but indicate low maintenance culture among firms. This calls for an investigation to help gain insight into the status of maintenance engineering as well as maintenance-related challenges facing manufacturing companies in Ghana. This book explores the status of production equipment maintenance in selected companies from Kumasi, Accra and Tema registered with the Association of Ghana Industries. A questionnaire was designed and administered in a survey that involved visits to these companies. Data collected was analysed using the MS Excel and Stata 10 software packages. The findings reveal that most of the respondent firms are private consisting mainly of large and medium scale firms with the greater majority being large. In addition, majority of firms in Ghana are semi-automated. Contrary to the perception of low maintenance culture, companies undertake regular maintenance. The most preferred maintenance strategy is preventive shut down maintenance.

Autorentext

Joseph X. F. Ribeiro (M.GhIE) est membre de la Institution des ingénieurs du Ghana et chargé de cours au département d'ingénierie mécanique de la Université technique de Kumasi au Ghana. Il a obtenu une licence et une maîtrise en génie mécanique à l'université Kwame Nkrumah des sciences et technologies, au Ghana. Il donne des cours sur la fabrication.