Maintenance-Centered Sustainability Analysis of Brick and Block Clamp

This paper presents the analysis of the maintenance process effect on the sustainability of a brick and block clamp. Maintenance and refurbishment are essential practices conducted to enhance the sustainability by returning a product to full serviceability and ensuring the safety and usability to prolong the product’s life. Reusing a product through maintenance/refurbishment (M/R) reduces the energy involved in procuring new products, thus, minimizing the energy used during the product life cycle and enhancing sustainability. The maintenance-centered sustainability analysis (MCSA) using an energy balance sheet showed various energies involved in the M/R processes and in each clamp part. The estimated total input and recycle/disposal energy of the clamp with M/R was 9.9% and 8.1%, respectively, compared to clamp without M/R. The results show the benefits of M/R from the quantitative perspective of sustainability. MCSA, combined with other strategies, could be used for enhancing sustainability while reducing life-cost of a product.