A growing uncertainty in the global economy is forcing many manufacturers to reassess their corporate outlook towards the environment. Today there is a growing attention to sustainability in industry accompanied by a paradigm shift towards realizing a sustainable society. It is now very common to hear about Green Production and Green Systems, but few literature exist that deal with the relatively newer subject of Green Maintenance. The term green production is often used to describe production with a sustainable perspective. Also, lean production has been proposed as a means of achieving sustainability. Lean and Green production systems require efficient production and low use of resources such as energy, materials, etc. One major facilitator of this is effective maintenance. Sometimes regarded as the necessary evil, maintenance still has a negative image in the industry. But as the paradigm on manufacturing shift towards realizing a sustainable society, we should also begin to realize the changing role of maintenance. Still, the impact of maintenance on sustainability and Green production is not very well described in research.   This Master Thesis within the School of Innovation Design and Engineering at Mälardalen University presents a literature review on green maintenance by trying to identify and assess the key factors of maintenance effects on green production, life cycle assessment and sustainability of maintenance activities. In addition, a brief introduction to the greening of remanufacturing activity, part of a green process by itself, is provided. The research is based upon extensive literature study, questionnaire survey and interviews with relevant industry as well as academic personnel. A discussion of the results of the interview followed by a conclusion on the key factors of maintenance on sustainability is provided. Future research areas have also been suggested.       Keywords: Green maintenance, Production maintenance, Sustainable maintenance,     Total Productive Maintenance

This thesis reviews and analyses the potential impact of maintenance on the fulfilment of Green Production Systems. Overall aim is to highlight how maintenance may contribute to decreasing the environmental impact of production. The thesis is based on the combination of literature studies and set of qualitative interviews conducted in selected companies. Three Swedish manufacturers were interviewed about their way of working, as well as their views on sustainability within operation management including maintenance. The results of the research explains why some organisations fail to recognize maintenance’s role to achieve sustainability, and how maintenance has been characterized in these organisations, namely by: short term pressures, reactive approach, neglecting hidden costs, lack of teamworking between production and maintenance departments, and low focus (hierarchical low status) on maintenance importance, resulting in lack of skilled labor available in organizations. In contrast, practices and strategies to succeed found to be based on the following: long term thinking, structured way of working, a proactive approach to maintenance, aiming to integrate core values into operational work, and establishing an environment which fosters continuous improvement and employee development. Same study identifies areas and "effects of poor maintenance" to be dealt with in the journey toward sustainable production, these are: economic, quality, processes wastes, emissions, resource consumption, safety and work environment related. It is therefore suggested that organizations may choose a proactive approach to maintenance that is best suited to their needs, which allows efficient production and long-term profitability, while considering safety and environmental aspects. Various concepts are available, but the organisation has to optimise on the combination of various practices. Following to the findings, a proposal is made that proactive culture should be integrated into daily work in a practical way such as Safety-Quality-Environment becomes everyone's responsibility. Sustainable perspective and sticking to best course of proactive measures are prioritized against short term pressures. To support this proposal a toolkit is developed that can be used at team/level continuous improvement programs, based on the PDCA model. Finally, the thesis emphasizes what benefits the optimum maintenance can provide on the fulfilment of competitive and resource-efficient production systems.