In view of the competition many organizations seek to survive by producing more, with fewer resources, in a shorter period of time (Pintelon and Parodi- Herz, 2008:21). Outsourcing maintenance of production assets over the years has become a popular solution of making the business efficient (Pintelon and Parodi-Herz, 2008:25). Though simple in concept, maintenance outsourcing is difficult in execution, especially in a cost-sensitive environment. There are many cases of failed maintenance outsourcing due to different reasons (Partners in Performance, 2007:1). In such cases, most companies revert to maintenance insourcing to regain control of maintenance activities.

Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.