Maintainability and Availability

Maintainability is an inherent characteristic of the design of an engineered object. It relates to the ease, economy, and safety of maintenance. Most engineered objects require maintenance throughout their life cycle. Therefore, they should be designed so that their maintenance can be carried out safely, without large investment in time, resources (labor, materials, tools, facilities, etc.), and with minimal impact on the environment. This chapter deals with maintainability and availability, and begins with the definition of maintainability, and with a discussion on the difference between maintenance and maintainability, and the relation with reliability amongst other basic concepts. Next, it presents important maintainability attributes, and discusses the availability definition measures, and how availability relates to maintainability and reliability. Then, the chapter explains maintainability planning and its requirements. Well known maintainability standards are listed, and finally, the chapter describes the relationship of maintainability to other disciplines.