A Concept for Safety and Dependability information exploitation in maintenance planning and product development

Maintenance services are becoming increasingly important in the current business environment. Emphasis on the availability and maintainability over the entire life cycle of modern, complex technical systems calls for relevant product-specific information. This information begins to grow already when the product development starts and accumulates throughout the operational phase of the product. Continuous availability of information on the safety and dependability characteristics and the system condition is required for the fluent operation of the system, e.g. for maintenance planning or decision-making purposes. In acute situations, such as in disturbances, the information must be readily accessible, e.g. instructions on how to ensure that a system is in a safe state for the intended repair action. In this paper a concept for the safety and dependability background information system has been proposed. It includes the identification of basic structural elements of the background information system, and procedural steps for creation and exploitation of the information contained in the system. Also problematic aspects and implications of the concept have been discussed.