Communication Issues Within Maintenance Department Atesfahan Petrochemical Plant

Communication Issues within Maintenance Department at Esfahan Petrochemical Plant

A Case Report by:

• Akbar Kousha
• Farzin Kaviani
• Ali Emami
• Siavash Nahid

Esfahan Petrochemical Company
PO Box 81395-313, Esfahan, Iran.
Email: [e-mail]

Submitted As a Term Paper to:
Dr. F. Kaymaram and Dr.M. Khoshnevisan,
Teaching team of
Communication for Managers

EMBA Program - January 2003
Graduate School of Management and Economics
Sharif University of Technology
Tehran - Iran

TABLE OF CONTENTS
SUBJECT
Page
ABSTRACT
2
I. INTRODUCTION 3
II. THE CASE DATA 4
III. FINDINGS 9
IV. CONCLUSION 13
APPENDICES 15
REFERENCES
22
GLOSSARY
22

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to study current communication patterns and problems as well as to propose solutions to the problems related to inter-departmental communications in departmental networks delivering maintenance services to production facilities of a typical petrochemical plant. Esfahan Petrochemical Company is selected as the sample firm for this study, and communication patterns such as daily maintenance planning meetings, minutes of meeting and work orders as the main sources of information, and e-mail as the auxiliary information distribution mechanism are described. Problems such as lack of understanding of partners’ information needs, over reliance on key individuals, inadequate document management, work order investigation problems, release of projects by technical services, overhaul mismanagement over-competition, lack of defined communication methods and lack of inter-departmental process understanding, are discussed. Solutions presented include focusing on the coordination meetings for increasing inter-departmental understanding and cooperation, defining common operating procedures, on-line project monitoring, and centralized document treasury.

I. INTRODUCTION
PURPOSE
A crucial aspect of equipment maintenance activities in manufacturing

References: [1] John M Penrose, Robert W. Rasberry and Robert J. Myers, Advance Business Communication, Edition 4, South Western College Publishing, 2000. [4] Futech Engineering Co. Ltd, Proposal for Maximo CMMS implementation in EPC,Futech Engineering , Cairo, Egypt, 2000. [5] Pallidor Inc., Final Report on R&D in NPC, Pallidor Inc., 2001.