Learning quality management for ships’ upkeep and repair environment

Abstract

Ships Quality Management (QM) in a naval disciplined repair environment is under significant demands. The purpose of this paper is to emphasise the requirement for the establishment of quality management. Quality management is essential to support operations,work preparation and formulation,material replenishment,repairs and trial processes to enhance productivity and availability. Quality Assurance (QA) and Quality Control (QC) encompassing Reliability Centred Maintenance (RCM),Condition Based Maintenance (CBM) and Failure Modes,Effectiveness and Criticality Analysis (FMECA) are required to monitor Preventive and Corrective Maintenance with the aim of heading towards ISO. The QA and QC processes should be in line with a complete survey,Pre Upkeep Machinery Assessments (PUMA),Dynamic Machinery Trials (DMT) to predict and formulate the intended refurbishment followed by post upkeep standard trials. The whole process can be boosted when health and safety are integrated. The research instrument was based on the dedicated constructs to predict the ‘mindsets/opinions’ of employees in their perceptions of future improvement. The variables-hypotheses were inferentially analyzed (correlated and regressed). They were found to be positively related and significantly contributed to the ships’ upkeep support performance. The implication of this study is to understand the strength of the research framework and to make proposals for the enhancement of quality management in line with the variables.