Assessment of Maintenance Management Practices in a Flour Milling Company in Kaduna State

This study assesses the maintenance management practices of a flour milling company in Kaduna State, North West Nigeria, focusing on the effectiveness of existing maintenance strategies in minimising equipment downtime and ensuring continuous production. Flour milling is a capital-intensive industry in which unplanned equipment failures can result in significant production losses and deterioration of raw material quality. The research employs a descriptive survey approach, combining structured interviews with maintenance engineers and technicians, review of maintenance work orders over a twelve-month period, and direct observation of maintenance activities on the roller mills, sifters, and purifiers. Mean Time Between Failures and Mean Time To Repair are calculated for critical equipment to benchmark current maintenance performance. Results reveal that the company relies predominantly on reactive maintenance, with corrective maintenance requests comprising approximately seventy-one percent of all work orders, indicating an absence of a mature preventive maintenance culture. The study recommends transitioning toward a Total Productive Maintenance framework, establishing a computerised maintenance management system for work order tracking, and introducing operator-led autonomous maintenance activities. Implementation priorities and estimated resource requirements are outlined to assist management in phasing the proposed improvements. This research is relevant to other food processing manufacturers in the North West zone facing similar challenges. Keywords: maintenance management, Total Productive Maintenance, flour milling, Kaduna State, equipment downtime