An empirical investigation of maintenance practices for enhancing manufacturing performance in small and medium enterprises of northern India

Purpose: This paper aims to assess the contributions of maintenance practices and extract various significant factors that influence the implementation of maintenance practices in northern Indian small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) business performance. Design/methodology/approach: In the current study, 216 north Indian SMEs have been extensively surveyed to assess the contributions of different maintenance practices implementation dimensions and manufacturing performance attributes through different statistical techniques. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to statistically validate the hypotheses, while Levene’s experiment and Wilk–Shapiro tests were used to confirm ANOVA’s assumptions. Finally, the discriminating validity test extracts highly successful and moderately successful organizations. Findings: The present research aims to evaluate the contributions of different maintenance practices implementation dimensions on SMEs’ manufacturing performance attributes. The study highlights that strategic maintenance practices such as corrective maintenance (CM), general maintenance issues, preventive maintenance (PM) issues and predictive maintenance (Pd.M) initiatives have enhanced overall equipment effectiveness, overall business performance, quality, cost optimization, safety, delivery and morale in SMEs. Originality/value: The study validates the capabilities of maintenance practices toward significant improvements of various implementation dimensions such as breakdown maintenance issues, general maintenance issues, PM issues, Pd.M issues, CM issues, computer maintenance management system issues, maintenance scheduling issues and total productive maintenance issues. The study reveals significant implications for SMEs for realizing significantly improved manufacturing performance through strategic maintenance initiatives.