1. Maintenance challenges

• Maintenance

The operation of a plant, even under normal conditions, leads to the ageing of equipment, and sometimes even to incidents or accidents. To ensure proper operation, it is essential to maintain the plant in good condition.

Maintenance has a cost, and it's important to find the optimum level that will keep the plant up to standard at the lowest possible cost, without endangering human safety. As illustrated in figure 1 , if we don't maintain the installation, we'll have too many incidents, and their cost will increase. Conversely, if too much preventive maintenance is carried out, total costs will rise.

Optimum maintenance is therefore a harmonious blend of systematic preventive and...