Sustainable Maintenance: a Periodic Preventive Maintenance Model with Sustainable Spare Parts Management

Industrial companies are among the largest responsible of materials and energy flows in an environment where natural resources are running out and impacts of human activities are still rising. Consequently, in the last few years, research is focusing on the new paradigm of sustainable manufacturing, which aims to develop sustainable production processes, innovative technologies, and new tools for evaluating economic, environmental, and social impacts of industrial assets. In this context, maintenance process, necessary to ensure availability, reliability, and safety of industrial assets, could become one of the main pillars for sustainable manufacturing. The purpose of the paper is to provide a periodic preventive maintenance model that establishes the optimal maintenance period for each system component, which minimizes conventional, environmental, and social costs generated by maintenance interventions. The model, moreover, integrates the concept of Circular Economy, choosing the most suitable spare parts to use in maintenance activities from a sustainable perspective. The model is applied on a part of a pasta production plant obtaining a maintenance plan, which evidences economic, environmental, and social benefits and confirms the necessity to introduce sustainability considerations into conventional maintenance procedures.