TABLE OF CONTENTS The need for maintenance of equipment implies some abnormality and often some change or increase in hazard. The conduct of the maintenance work may also introduce its own hazards to the equipment. In addition, the maintenance activities may be a hazard for the personnel involved in them. Careful control of maintenance work must be exercised in order to eliminate hazards to the equipment and to the personnel.
The consequences of failure to exercise this control can be serious. The Piper Alpha disaster was caused by failures in isolation procedures, the permit system and the handover system associated with maintenance work.
Some work constitutes change rather than maintenance. In previous chapters emphasis has been placed on the need to maintain the integrity of the equipment. This integrity may be degraded by equipment modifications unless they are closely controlled. The Flixborough disaster was judged to have been caused by a change which reduced equipment integrity.
Thus, both equipment maintenance and equipment modification require systems of control with a fairly high degree of formality. Equipment maintenance needs to be administered through some kind of permit system, while equipment modification requires a system to manage changes.
Maintenance activities are regulated by numerous codes, standards and guidelines. Some of which are: Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Transportation (DOT), Department of Energy (DOE), Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH), National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), American Society of Mechanical Engineers...
