Improving the Robustness and Resilience Properties of Maintenance

Abstract

Industries with major accident potential, e.g. the process industries, are usually characterized by high degree of technological and organizational complexity, and hence are fortified with layers of protection (barriers). The energy-barrier risk control model is dominant and tends to be applied by such industries over time, sometimes without paying attention to the vulnerability of the complex organizational setting encompassing production, maintenance, support and the environment. In the same vein, process industries may prioritize production at the expense of safety systems and the organizational network. Maintenance is known to be a key means of keeping safety systems functional, yet, in this paper we wish to explore how its values can be further uncovered to improve the robustness and resilience of the socio-technical system as a whole.

This paper intends to investigate what robustness and resilience properties exist in maintenance and how these can be improved in relation to maintenance interaction with other areas such as production and support and in turn improve the robustness and resilience of the process industries organization. The objective is to improve the robustness and resilience of the organization as a whole. This is realized on the basis of the perspectives of organizational accidents: energy-barrier model, normal accident theory (NAT), high reliability organizations (HRO) theory, man-made disaster (MMD) theory, conflicting objectives, adaptation and drift (COAD) theory and resilience engineering. Based on this, recommendations for improving the maintenance robustness and resilience were proposed.