The maquiladora industry and equipment maintenance: an industry-based perspective

Abstract

This article empirically investigated the role and implications of equipment maintenance in the maquiladora industry at the industry level in El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico. The maquiladora industry describes a foreign or domestic-owned factory in Mexico at which imported parts are assembled into products by lower-paid workers for export. The survey instrument contained four major research questions. The response rate was 86% constituting 131 usable questionnaires. Additionally, several in-depth field interviews with experts of maquiladoras were conducted in order to gain insight into the results of the survey. Extensive statistical analyses including descriptive statistics, hypotheses testing and analysis of variance were performed. The analyses were all industry based. The overall results indicate that the principles of Total Preventive Maintenance were not implemented. Maquiladoras, by and large, focused on the symptoms rather than root cause of maintenance problems. The maquiladoras invariably emphasised the equipment itself and its immediate breakdowns regardless of what had caused these problems and how the maintenance problems could be effectively avoided. Finally, conclusions and assessment of the results were provided.

Keywords:

• equipment maintenance
• maquiladoras
• survey instrument
• field interviews
• functional collaboration
• maintenance losses
• six major equipment losses
• ISO certifications