Maintenance management can be regarded as “all activities of management that determine the maintenance objectives, strategies and responsibilities and implementation of them by means of maintenance planning, organisation and control, and the improvement of maintenance activities and processes”.

Strategic maintenance management and disciplined execution of maintenance tasks is critical to provide value during the operations phase of the asset life cycle.

Maintenance is crucial in ensuring that electricity networks, water reticulation systems, sewerage treatment plants and communication systems are functioning properly, especially in rural areas of South Africa. Government objectives for social upliftment of all communities in South Africa will not be achieved if public physical assets are dysfunctional.

A crucial aspect of maintenance planning is to select cost-effective maintenance tactics, e.g. use-based, condition-based, failure- based or fault-finding. Optimum maintenance intervention (often replacement) intervals should also be determined from failure history if available or from data provided by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

Campbell and Reyes-Picknell provide a model for the overall maintenance management function. This model for maintenance excellence defines three levels of maturity and ten elements that can be used to measure an organisation’s journey to excellence in maintenance management.

Maintenance management excellence is achieved through competent people and effective teams, good strategy deployment and some essential functions as shown for the second level. Continuous Improvement (CI), Reliability-centred Maintenance (RCM) and Evidence-based Asset Management (EBAM) are applied by mature maintenance organisations.

• Maintenance 4.0: Digitalisation of Maintenance data
• Explore how company’s/industry’s manage digitalisation of maintenance data to ensure effective management
• Adoption of digitalized maintenance data influence the present computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS)
• Adoption of digitalised maintenance data influence the present maintenance strategies
• Maintenance Human Factors and High-Performance Maintenance Teams
• Maintenance Performance Measurements Frameworks
• To what extent have different industries like processing, mining, energy, transport, communications, oil and gas, assembly plants, etc., advanced or progressed to support the 4th industrial revolution, i.e. Industry 4.0?
• Which methods and tools are used in industry by maintenance managers and planners to select intervention intervals for used-based maintenance, periodic condition-based maintenance, and fault-finding maintenance to minimise the total cost of maintenance or total cost of ownership?

Study Leaders