This paper presents a systems view of refurbishment and maintenance in order to evaluate causes of suboptimal refurbishment timing. Triangulation methodology consisting of case studies from South African and Malawian firms and sample surveys were used to establish causal links within maintenance systems and subsystems. 66.7% of surveyed and 100% of case studied firms showed that delayed or deferred refurbishment and/or maintenance was a result of constrained capacity which led to components operating at higher loads, lack of maintenance time and increased failure rate. Furthermore, there was no clear refurbishment model in the industries and technical skills base did not receive adequate attention. A model for optimising refurbishment and facilitating economical trade offs between cost, time and performance is presented. It comprises integration of maintenance tools, strategies and techniques.