Green Maintenance : A literature survey on the role of maintenance for sustainable manufacturing.

• Main Author: Ararsa, Bete Birhanu
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för innovation, design och teknik 2012
• Subjects: Green Maintenance; Production Maintenance; Sustainable Maintenance; Total Productive Maintenance
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-15653

A growing uncertainty in the global economy is forcing many manufacturers to reassess their corporate outlook towards the environment. Today there is a growing attention to sustainability in industry accompanied by a paradigm shift towards realizing a sustainable society. It is now very common to hear about Green Production and Green Systems, but few literature exist that deal with the relatively newer subject of Green Maintenance. The term green production is often used to describe production with a sustainable perspective. Also, lean production has been proposed as a means of achieving sustainability. Lean and Green production systems require efficient production and low use of resources such as energy, materials, etc. One major facilitator of this is effective maintenance. Sometimes regarded as the necessary evil, maintenance still has a negative image in the industry. But as the paradigm on manufacturing shift towards realizing a sustainable society, we should also begin to realize the changing role of maintenance. Still, the impact of maintenance on sustainability and Green production is not very well described in research.   This Master Thesis within the School of Innovation Design and Engineering at Mälardalen University presents a literature review on green maintenance by trying to identify and assess the key factors of maintenance effects on green production, life cycle assessment and sustainability of maintenance activities. In addition, a brief introduction to the greening of remanufacturing activity, part of a green process by itself, is provided. The research is based upon extensive literature study, questionnaire survey and interviews with relevant industry as well as academic personnel. A discussion of the results of the interview followed by a conclusion on the key factors of maintenance on sustainability is provided. Future research areas have also been suggested.       Keywords: Green maintenance, Production maintenance, Sustainable maintenance,     Total Productive Maintenance