Trends in turnaround maintenance planning: literature review

Purpose: Turnaround maintenance (TAM) is a planned stoppage of production for conducting a comprehensive maintenance of equipment or plant with the purpose of improving plant availability and performance. The purpose of this paper is to investigate trends in the operation and management of TAM, as reported in the literature, and identify gaps, in the context of a system approach that views a plant as part of a network of a supply chain. Design/methodology/approach: This literature review is based on over 80 subject-relevant papers and uses content analysis. The literature subjects are classified into several managerial areas that include organization, planning, scope and risk analysis, execution, performance measurement and learning. The gap in the literature is identified in light of the proposed system view for TAM. Findings: The system view of TAM opens new opportunities for new research areas for improving the operation and management of TAM. These areas include optimizing TAM scheduling and developing methods for managing risks along the entire business supply chain. In addition, new approaches for collaboration, sharing knowledge, best practices and expertise within the supply chain become necessary for effective TAM planning and control. Originality/value: This paper reviews the literature and provides a new classification of TAM. It adopts the system view for TAM that has brought new insights in the operation and management of TAM. New trends for research in the area of TAM are identified.