A Risk-Based Maintenance (RBM) approach determines the most economical use of maintenance resources with the end goal of minimizing any risk of failure. Assets that have a greater risk and consequence of failure are maintained and monitored more frequently while assets that carry a lower risk are subjected to less stringent maintenance monitoring.
The first step of RBM is to identify your high-risk assets and plot them into a simple risk matrix:
The second step involves developing a maintenance strategy, focusing on the orange area in the risk matrix as those assets make up the highest risk of lost productivity and safety if they fail.
Risk-Based Maintenance is important because:
- It identifies problems before they happen, which will minimize downtime because maintenance can be planned
- When maintenance is planned, you can avoid ‘reactive maintenance’ which has many overhead costs, more equipment downtime, higher costs for parts and shipping, and more time lost responding and diagnosing the equipment.
- Safety improves because equipment brakes down less
- Risk-Based Maintenance extends the useful lifecycle of assets
- Contributes positively to the reputation of companies because the negative impact of an equipment failure is far-reaching down the supply chain
Unplanned downtime is a silent killer. Market benchmarks indicate that unplanned maintenance typically costs three to five times more than when it is planned.
Adopting a Risk-Based Maintenance approach provides a systematic approach to determine the most appropriate asset maintenance plan which when implemented will minimize the risk of asset failure. Avoiding asset failure will have a positive effect on the ROI of your assets, safety, avoiding unplanned downtime, reputation, and your bottom line.
FAQs
Risk-based maintenance is a strategy that prioritizes maintenance according to the likelihood and potential consequences of asset failure.
Equipment with a high probability of failure or a serious safety, financial, environmental, or operational impact receives greater attention. Lower-risk assets can follow less intensive maintenance schedules.
The risk-based maintenance methodology evaluates asset criticality, failure probability, failure consequences, and current condition before setting maintenance priorities.
Teams collect inspection and maintenance data, assign risk levels, rank assets, and determine the appropriate maintenance action for each asset. Field Eagle’s asset management software helps keep inspection findings, condition history, and corrective actions connected to the relevant equipment.
Develop a risk-based maintenance strategy by identifying critical assets, defining failure scenarios, assessing risk, and creating maintenance plans based on each asset’s priority.
The strategy should also establish inspection intervals, escalation rules, responsible personnel, and criteria for reviewing risk levels when operating conditions or equipment condition changes.
Examples include inspecting corrosion-prone pressure equipment more frequently, prioritizing repairs on safety-critical machinery, and increasing monitoring for assets with recurring defects.
A low-risk, noncritical asset may remain on a basic scheduled maintenance plan. A high-risk asset may require more frequent inspections, condition monitoring, or immediate corrective action. Risk-based inspection software can help teams apply these priorities consistently.
The main advantages are better maintenance prioritization, reduced downtime, improved safety, and more efficient use of maintenance resources.
The disadvantages include the need for reliable asset data, consistent risk-assessment criteria, qualified personnel, and regular reviews. Incomplete inspection histories or inaccurate risk ratings can cause teams to assign the wrong maintenance priority.
Risk-based maintenance prioritizes work according to failure probability and consequences, while reliability-centered maintenance determines the most appropriate maintenance approach for preserving an asset’s required function.
The methods can work together. Reliability-centered maintenance identifies suitable maintenance tasks, while risk assessment helps determine which assets and tasks require the greatest urgency and resources.
Risk-based maintenance reduces risk by directing inspection and maintenance resources toward assets most likely to cause serious consequences if they fail.
Condition records, recurring findings, failure history, and corrective actions help teams identify developing problems and act before they become major failures. This supports more targeted preventative maintenance planning.
