Abstract
When Tidelands Oil Production Company took over operation of portions of the Wilmington Field, they found field maintenance being performed in a reactive, "fire-fighting" mode. Eighty percent of work was unplanned and unscheduled. Preventive maintenance occupied less than 5% of mechanical and electrical/instrument man-hours worked. Maintenance work force productivity was low.
This paper describes how this company remedied this situation through supervisory training and implementation of a manual, and later computerized, maintenance management system. Operating in a more effective "planning/scheduling" mode, unscheduled work is now well below 20% and preventive maintenance occupies as much as 40% of mechanical and electrical/instrument man-hours. These improvements were accomplished while operating with manpower well below historical levels.
