Statistical Process Control as a Failure Removal Improvement Tool

Continuous improvement should be a part of the strategy of every modern company that wishes to meet the requirements posed by the demanding, competitive market. The article presents a concept of applying a tool known from quality engineering, i.e. Shewhart control charts, for the improvement of the maintenance process in a small company providing services for the agricultural and construction industries. The improvement of the process included the reducing of the downtime of belt conveyors due to failures. Using control charts allowed the detection of interferences in the process and defining of their nature. Using other tools such as 5 WHY allowed the identification of the root causes of overly long downtimes and, consequently, formulation and implementation of improvements and preventive measures that were optimal for the organisation. The verification of actions taken has shown their positive impact on the process, which was reflected in the shortening of downtime and, subsequently, streamlining the failure removal process. The paper presents a possibility and validity of utilising quality engineering tools, such as Shewhart's charts, 5 WHY or Ishikawa diagram, for improving the maintenance processes.