Glossary · Maintenance and diagnostics
Maintenance strategy
Also known as: Maintenance policy
German: Instandhaltungsstrategie
In maintenance management, a maintenance strategy is the management method used to achieve the maintenance objectives, for example corrective, preventive, condition-based or predictive maintenance, or a combination of them for different items.
- Maintenance
In one sentence
A maintenance strategy is the chosen approach, such as corrective, preventive, condition-based or predictive, used to achieve maintenance objectives.
Example
The plant runs non-critical fans to failure, services pumps preventively and monitors the main compressor condition-based.
How it applies
- Operation: Operators choose a strategy per asset based on criticality, failure behavior, cost of downtime and safety impact. Most plants combine several strategies.
- Engineering: The machine builder can support strategies by providing condition data, diagnostic functions and lifespan information.
- Safety: Safety-related items often need fixed intervals regardless of the general strategy, for example proof tests or replacement after a mission time.
- Documentation: The documentation should make clear which tasks are mandatory for safety or warranty and which the operator may adapt to its own strategy. Condition-based options need the monitored values and limits in the manual.
Maintenance strategy vs. maintenance plan
The strategy is the policy decision. The Maintenance plan is the concrete list of tasks and intervals that implements it for a specific machine or plant.