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Maintenance has evolved over centuries and has played significant role for growth of organizations. Maintenance history is differentiated by three generations, the development of maintenance considered from being “necessary evil” to “profit contributor”. Many literatures have discussed maintenance for optimization and increasing profitability but little on the factors which influence on the future of maintenance. Maintenance should be considered as a “competitive factor” in the future. Many trends have evolved in production and every trend had a major contribution towards production development. The successful implementation of the trends is considered to be a major challenge. Little literatures have talked on the emerging trends and challenges in production.

The thesis reviews the historical development of maintenance over generations and presents the key factors which play a major role during the fourth generation, and also identifies the emerging trends and challenges to be faced by production. The literature review, interviews and surveys were used in this thesis.

Academic researchers and industrial experts from both maintenance and production department answered the interview and survey questions for this research. The key factors for the proposal of fourth generation of maintenance and the emerging trends and challenges to be faced by production are presented.

The result from the research questions and the empirical findings are summarized in a framework that will enable readers to know the historical development of maintenance, the key factors to be considered for the fourth generation of maintenance and the emerging trends and challenges to be faced by production in future. In addition, the thesis also discusses the impact of information technology on the future of maintenance and the effect of sustainability in the future of production.