Industrial asset maintenance and sustainability performance: Economical, environmental, and societal implications

Sustainability performance appears to be one of the most influential concepts for managing modern businesses. Over the last few years it has drawn significant attention from many socio-political and socio-economical sources as the serious challenges encountered by both western and eastern societies were subjected to discussions and debates. This concept by far questions and challenges the fundamentals of commercial activities and its complex interactions with the environment external to an organization. Sustainable development is defined as 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' (UNWECD, 1987). To achieve sustainability, a commercial organization has to design and then adopt specific policies and procedures to guide and regulate its internal practices. These specifications and guidelines should help support or guide internal decisions and activities at various levels of an organization. One important aspect the organization needs to consider is the performance of the portfolio of assets, which in fact has a significant impact in this context. It implies that various processes at the production/manufacturing/process/ infrastructure asset level have key roles and their performance levels are critical for sustainability compliance performance of an organization. According to classical economic theories, asset maintenance is seen as a cost center. However, as managers have begun to realize the importance of intangibles and to re-examine industrial operations in terms of value added, asset maintenance is now seen not simply as a cost but rather as a process with significant potential to add value. This newer view is bolstered by emerging concern for sustainability compliance. More recent publications that have brought this issue into open discussion include Liyanage (2003, 2007), Liyanage and Kumar (2003), Jawahir and Wanigaratne (2004), and Ratnayake and Liyanage (2007). This chapter gives an overview of emerging sustainability issues and shows how the asset maintenance process plays an important role in sustainability compliance. It also elaborates on issues of quality and discusses best practices for guiding decisions.