6. Conclusion

Industrial equipment is disrupted by malfunctions that affect production costs, plant availability and safety, product and service quality, and personal safety... Maintenance can be thought of as a kind of regulator, taking action to limit the effects of these disruptions and thus achieve the required performance. It compares the company's objectives with the results obtained from experience. The functioning of this regulator is based on methods and techniques that depend on the system under consideration, and include a cultural component. These methods enable the construction of strategies which assist maintenance managers in their action decisions.

Various objectives have guided their development. Safety and security were at the heart of MSG, military RCM, RB-ISI, RB-IST and OMF-Structures. RCM and SRCM studies were mainly motivated by cost control. Availability...