Reliability, maintenance and its management: The current state of play

Reliability, maintenance and its management is now of strategic importance for most organisations around the world. Problems which surround the current maintenance literature include the identification of maintenance management models and use of these models in real world applications. It has been argued that the gap between theory and practice is wider in the maintenance field than any other research discipline. In this study 37 different maintenance management models are identified and from these models three were found to clearly dominate the literature; Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM), and Reliability-Centred Maintenance (RCM). A comprehensive review of these three models was undertaken to establish links to empirical 'real world' applications, determining model popularity and details of study methods, sector, industries, author and country. Further investigation of three leading journals in maintenance found that 401 published articles on these popular models produced 48 articles with links to practice, giving an empirical evidence rate of 12% when compared to the overall number of papers published. While this paper, importantly, examines links between maintenance theory and practice, a clear picture emerges on the lack of empirical research undertaken by academics in the area of maintenance and its management.