One cannot discuss maintenance planning without first considering an overall perspective of maintenance itself.

Plant capacity is the lifeblood of a company. Plant capacity must be reliable for the company to produce a product to stay in business. Yet Sandy Sutherland and Gordon (1997) of Kemcor Australia point out an astounding conflict in the business models of many companies. These models show reliable plant capacity connected with revenue streams while showing plant maintenance in the fixed cost section elsewhere in the models. The management and financial groups of these companies do not realize that reliable plant capacity is by definition an investment in maintenance. In real life, capacity must be maintained. Capacity is not reliable by itself. Poor maintenance equals poor revenue streams.

Maintenance provides a competitive edge in many companies. In 1993, good maintenance helped operating crews at a large electric power station achieve an excellent 93% equivalent availability (a utility measure of generating capacity), well above industry average. If the capacity were not available, the station could certainly not sell electricity. The significance of higher availability extends even beyond the daily increase of sales and reduction of generation interruption. If maintenance can achieve continued superior availability, then a company can defer construction of new capacity even as annual sales grow. The ability to defer capital construction as a company grows leads to lower company capital cost, a financial blessing. Today's money invested in proper maintenance ensures high capacity and guards against premature future construction. Proper maintenance makes a...