The role of education in industrial maintenance: the pathway to a sustainable future

Abstract

Sustainability is critical in the maintenance of machinery and other high capital assets. Increasing regulation emphasises social responsibility, increasing the costs during asset life, like waste disposal, efficiency, emissions, and end-of-life. Our responses to these will become the differentiators for survival. Maintenance practitioners have a wide range of needs for updating and up-skilling. Some of this is achieved with new young staff, and some by training and education of employed staff. Education in maintenance has an important contribution to sustainability. The maintenance professional has special needs for accessible training, some very specific to new technologies, for example, but some in broader education leading to a wider understanding of his contribution to the sustainability agenda.