Integrating maintenance activities and Quality Assurance in a research and development (R&D) system

A well-balanced maintenance program furnishes information and instructions to personnel involved in maintaining existing equipment, provides current information on the availability and location of maintenance materials, improves utilization of labor forces and increases equipment reliability. Planned and preventive maintenance procedures where components are serviced and changed when they approach the end of their useful lives can be augmented by suitable means, which continuously check vital machine functions. Quality Assurance can be seen as a management system that brings maintenance activities undertaken by all parties under control with the aim of preventing things from going wrong and costing time, effort and money to put them right. An attempt has been made to highlight the integration of maintenance activities with Quality Assurance as a whole in a research and development (R&D) system.