La tercerización del mantenimiento de equipos de manufactura: una propuesta metodológica

Summary "To survive the heady changes of our day, we must be willing to reconsider the models on which deciduous underlying our organizations" (The Flexible Enterprise, Alvin Toffler.1995). Product of globalization is creating ever-changing trends in markets, companies need flexibility to adapt effectively to customer needs while maintaining competitive prices. One of the many practices of the organizations to respond to the challenges and opportunities of globalization is the outsourcing of their activities. Our work focuses on the outsourcing of equipment maintenance services. Equipment maintenance is a critical process, capable of continuous improvement that impacts the results of the manufacturing industry, and why it is attractive to delegate maintenance activities to specialized hands, for the company to focus their skills and energies in more processes that add value. While in Colombia there are some prejudices when considering that a third party may have indirect interference on their processes, they probably in part due to the lack of a methodology that helps to define what activities they should outsource maintenance . Often the decision to outsource is not the result of a thorough analysis at times is usually taken intuitively, perhaps trying to follow the practices of the sector. The purpose of this paper is to develop a methodology to help in making decision to outsource or not to maintain, and where feasible, how to make a reliable and successful implementation.