Engineer Buliaminu Kareem

Engineer Buliaminu Kareem, a Professor of Industrial and Production Engineering at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA has advocated proper equipment maintenance culture for Nigeria to become fully industrialized and attain her rightful position in the comity of technologically advanced nation by year 2037. Speaking on the topic: Paradox of Human Physiology: Design and Maintenance from Cradle to Grave at the 90th inaugural lecture of the University, Kareem said as man needs comfort for excellent performance, machine also require conducive environment to operate efficiently. On the way out of recession and eventual technological breakthrough by the year 2037, Kareem said the country should take advantage of the presence of small scale industries and fabrication enterprises.

“Many small and medium scale capital goods shops producing the needs of the people is the only way out of recession and economic instability that many nations are finding themselves today. When local fabrication and production of machinery is encouraged to feed the technological needs of these industries, more goods will be available for local consumption thereby lowering importation. Development in innovative and smart materials production will be highly supportive to this arrangement,” Kareem said. The scholar who has researched into performance of various machine further recommended design and fabrication of machines locally using local content to achieve faster maintenance accomplishment at minimum possible cost.

He further called for local competition among stakeholders to reward best invention and innovation. According to him competition triggers continued improvement which, in the nearest further, will enable realisation of global technology status. He also called for collaborative efforts saying it will enable the patronage of entrepreneurial centred manufacturing system and make manufacturer to think deeply and freely demonstrate his/her technological prowess. “Design industries will compete with design shops, production industries will strive for survival over production over maintenance shop” he added.

Analysing machinery failure and maintenance strategy, Kareem said maintaining a good working environment requires colossal sum of money, but failure of resources due to poor working environment will be costlier in the long run than the cost of maintaining a conducive working environment because failure of machine will lead to maintenance of failure. He recommended failure analysis with the objective of identifying appropriate maintenance actions to apply. Kareem who was rated one of the best five innovators/scientific breakthrough in Africa in 2011 and also a recipient of the Best Researcher of the year 2011 at FUTA called on relevant agencies like Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) and the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN) to enforce registration of illegal engineering design and maintenance outfits for easy monitoring and quality control of products. He said realisation of low quality product will challenge production team to think and devise new methods of achieving improved quality. Quality assurance will create competition among the spare parts manufacturers and more shops will open to compete with existing ones. This will boost the economy through employment generation and sustainable engineering design and maintenance.

Kareem also said states can establish Directorate of Need-Driven Research and Development (DINRAD) while higher Institutions should have Centre for Need-Driven Research and Development (CENDRAD) under the coordination of seasoned and academic Industrial Engineers.

He also appealed for generation of sustainable energy for domestic and industrial applications. He said “electricity power availability will support survival of moribund capital goods industries. On this basis, many other small scale and medium scale industries will sprout. Employment will be created and foreign exchange will be earned”

Professor Kareem also appealed to corporate bodies and individuals to establish smart maintenance (zero-tolerance) system by building capacity for local/indigenous expertise in creating centres for critical equipment and spare parts, to serve as out-sourcing outlet for the production industries.

On equipment maintenance he said “a good management style can provide sustainable replacement. Machine purchaser can sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the manufacturer covering the service life of the machine on issues related to timely provisions of maintenance logistics in case of failure to minimise down time”.

Commending the excellent delivery of the lecture, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Joseph Fuwape described Professor Kareem as a thorough bred academic with immense contributions to knowledge both locally and internationally.