The last two decades witnessed major progress in the
development of new maintenance strategies. Progress in
the maintenance area has been motivated by the increase
in the number, size, complexity, and variety of physical
assets; growing awareness of the impact of maintenance
on the environment, safety of personnel, the profitability
of the business, and quality of the products.
Unexpected failures usually have adverse effects on
the environment and may result in major accidents. Studies
by Kletz (1994), Khan and Abbasi (1998), and
Kumar (1998) show the close relationship between
maintenance practices and the occurrence of major accidents.
Profitability is closely related to availability and
reliability of the equipment, while product quality is very
much dependent on equipment condition.