Introductory Chapter: An Overview to Maintenance Management

The industry requires maintenance to ensure the correct operations of the engines, components, structures, etc. [1] Any failure, that is, termination of the ability of an item to perform a required function, generates downtimes, costs, risks for the human labors, etc. The high competitiveness in the current industry does not lead these failures to the firms [2]. The advances in information and communication systems, together with the technologies, lead to the industry to incorporate new sensors, condition monitoring systems, etc. [3] They also require advance analytics in order to format, save, and analyze these signals and information, from qualitatively and quantitative point of views [4]. In order to reduce the failures occurrence probability, a correct maintenance task is required. British Standard, BS EN-13306:2017 [5] defines maintenance as “managerial actions during the life cycle of an item intended to retain it in, or restore it to, a state in which it can perform the required function. Technical maintenance actions include observation and analyses of the item state (e.g., inspection, monitoring, testing, diagnosis, prognosis, etc.) and active maintenance actions (e.g., repair, refurbishment).” The correct maintenance support to a maintenance organization to carry out the correct tasks is called maintenance supportability. There are a large number of maintenance types, where the principal could be: