Sustainability Indices and RAM Analysis for Maintenance Decision Making Considering Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

Maintenance is becoming an increasingly green process, aiming to simultaneously minimize the impact of assets on the economy, society, and the surrounding environment while also mitigating any adverse consequences arising from maintenance activities. To manage maintenance from a sustainable perspective, appropriate indices able to represent environmental assessment results in an aggregated and synthetic way are necessary, along with rational decision-making tools able to simulate different maintenance alternatives considering various sustainability dimensions. In response to this challenge, a methodology rooted in sustainability indices and RAM analysis is proposed to support decision making with respect to sustainable maintenance practices. By applying the proposed methodology to a proof of concept we demonstrate that the approach enables the evaluation of both the environmental and economic impacts of different maintenance activities. Furthermore, the methodology facilitates the identification of specific environmental dimensions that need improvement, in addition to discerning the distinct contributions of individual components to the environmental and economic impacts at the system level. These insights offer valuable information to support informed decision making regarding the allocation of internal resources for impact mitigation. The obtained results underscore the potential applicability of this approach to industrial systems, signifying its contribution to the goal of achieving sustainable maintenance practices.