Role Summary & Work Environment
- The role requires a strong factory-floor presence, practical troubleshooting ability, and complete ownership of equipment reliability. The officer must coordinate closely with Production and QA, respond to urgent breakdowns, and support agreed shift or on-call arrangements. Maintenance activities must be meticulously planned around production requirements while preserving essential servicing schedules and safety checks.
Major Tasks and Key Result Areas
Maintenance Planning and Equipment Readiness
- Develop and implement preventive maintenance schedules for processing lines, dryers, cold rooms, ETP, boiler, and associate electrical, mechanical, water, and steam systems.
- Complete daily inspections to identify defects early and prioritize corrective work.
- Coordinate maintenance shutdowns with Production to ensure equipment readiness and minimize operations disruption.
- Keep equipment registers, service histories, and maintenance records accurate and current.
Breakdown Response and Equipment Reliability
- Diagnose equipment faults promptly and complete repairs within the officer's competence and authorization.
- Escalate breakdowns affecting production, food safety, or personnel safety immediately, giving clear updates on production impact and expected restoration time.
- Arrang for specialist support where specialized technical knowledge is required.
- Investigate root causes of significant or recurring failures and implement effective corrective actions.
- Test equipment and formally hand it back to Production after maintenance, obtaining QA clearance where required.
Processing Lines, Dryers and Cold Room Maintenance
- Maintain processing equipment, conveyors, motors, gearboxes, bearings, drives, and controls to support consistent production output.
- Service dryer heating, airflow, fans, and temperature controls to deliver reliable drying performance.
- Inspect and service cold room refrigeration systems, insulation, doors, seals, drainage, alarms, and temperature controls.
- Address deviations promptly in coordination with Production and QA to protect product quality and storage conditions.
Boiler, ETP and Utilities Management
- Supervise the Boiler Operator and monitor boiler operations, servicing, water treatment, steam distribution, condensate return, and safety devices.
- Maintain ETP pumps, blowers, dosing systems, and associate equipment to support effective treatment; escalate and resolve operating deviations with responsible personnel.
- Maintain water supply, treatment, recycling, and other vital factory utilities.
- Schedule required regulatory or compliance inspections and specialist servicing, close out findings, and retain clear records.
Maintenance Safety, Hygiene and Food Safety Controls
- Apply strict safe isolation, lockout or tagout (LOTO), and relevant permit-to-work procedures during all maintenance tasks.
- Keep machinery guards, interlocks, and emergency stops fully functional; isolate and escalate unsafe equipment immediately.
- Carry out maintenance activities in line with QA-approved hygiene and food safety procedures, including tool or component accountability, using food-grade lubricants, contamination prevention, and post-maintenance cleaning.
- Return equipment to service only after required safety and hygiene check-offs are complete.
Spare Parts, Contractors and Team Coordination
- Identify critical spare parts, maintained minimum stock levels, and raised procurement requests early to prevent avoidable downtime.
- Keep maintenance tools and workshop stores well-organized, safe, and controlled.
- Provide clear priorities and technical guidance to the Boiler Operator and assign maintenance personnel.
- Coordinate, supervise, and assess contractors and equipment suppliers for quality of work.
- Train operators in basic equipment care, routine checks, and early fault reporting mechanisms.
- Support new equipment installation and commissioning projects as required.
Maintenance Performance, Cost Control and Continuous Improvement
- Monitor and report on key performance indices including equipment uptime, breakdown frequency, downtime hours, repair turnaround, preventive maintenance completion, and maintenance costs.
- Investigate energy, fuel, and water losses, including steam leaks and inefficient equipment operation.
- Implement practical improvements to increase reliability, extend equipment life, and reduce overall operating costs.
- Communicate outstanding defects, critical risks, and overdue maintenance to management alongside clear action plans.
Key Performance Measures (KPIs)
- Equipment availability and overall uptime
- Unplanned downtime and repair turnaround time
- Preventive maintenance completion rate versus schedule
- Incidence of repeat breakdowns or recurring failures
- Critical spare parts availability and stock-out minimization
- Maintenance expenditure control against budget
- Timely closure of safety-related defects and QA compliance findings
Job Specification & Qualifications
- Diploma or higher qualification in Mechanical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechatronics, Plant Maintenance, or a related engineering discipline.
- At least three (3) years of relevant industrial maintenance experience, preferably within food processing or a similar structured manufacturing environment.
- Demonstrated experience maintaining production machinery and utilities, with working knowledge of dryers, refrigeration systems, boilers, pumps, motors, and effluent treatment plants (ETP)
- Proven ability to develop preventive maintenance schedules, diagnose technical faults, interpret manuals and engineering drawings, maintain accurate technical records, and manage critical spare parts stocks.
- Strong understanding of safe equipment isolation, lockout/tagout procedures, maintenance-related contamination risks, and hygienic working practices within a food factory environment.
- Ability to supervise the boiler operator and assigned technicians, effectively manage external contractors, and communicate technical equipment risks clearly to Production teams and senior management.
- Proactive, organized, dependable, and calm under operational pressure, with strong follow-through and a practical approach to resolving recurring equipment challenges