ABSTRACT
Maintenance involves the organisation and performance of tasks which have the ultimate aim of preserving the original design of the system. It is a multi-faceted area covering several distinct types of activity. Two types of maintenance activity are scheduled and breakdown maintenance. Scheduled maintenance involves defined intervals for maintenance activity which are adhered to in order to satisfy regulatory requirements and ensure system safety and availability. Breakdown maintenance can be defined as involving the restoration of a failed system to a functional state. While scheduled and breakdown maintenance activity refer to task performance at the sharp end of the system, i.e. at the maintenance task interface, the management of maintenance should also be considered when analysing maintenance-safety relationships. Maintenance management involves decisions as to the structuring and prioritisation of maintenance tasks. These are separated in temporal and physical proximity from the maintenance task interface, i.e. where maintenance operations occur.
