Risk-Based Maintenance 101: Your Complete Guide

Risk-based maintenance (RBM) is a strategy that helps businesses manage asset maintenance tasks by focusing on the equipment and systems that pose the most risks if they fail. Instead of treating all assets the same, RBM prioritizes those equipment failures that could cause the most significant safety, operational or financial problems.

There are two steps to RBM — risk assessment and maintenance planning. Risk assessment involves evaluating each piece of equipment to explore its probability of failure as well as the consequences of failure. Maintenance planning involves focusing your maintenance resources on high-risk assets, ensuring they’re maintained or repaired before anything goes wrong.

RBM helps you save time and money by avoiding unnecessary maintenance work on low-risk assets while keeping those that are critical to your business running smoothly. Let’s dive in to learn more about this effective maintenance approach.

Risk-Based Maintenance Workflow 

To evaluate asset risks through the RBM metric, your maintenance team will typically take the following steps:

Collect Equipment Data & Determine How Much It Costs to Run 

The data collected typically includes the asset’s age, acquisition price and mean time between failure (MTBF) history — i.e., the average time between breakdowns. It also includes mean time to repair (MTTR), which measures the time it takes to repair an asset after failure as well as unplanned downtime costs and maintenance frequency of the asset. 

Use an Asset Criticality Rating (ACR)

You can determine the criticality of an asset’s failure by evaluating its potential impact on specific factors — for example, operations, safety, costs and regulatory compliance. ACR helps prioritize maintenance efforts where they are most needed and assesses each of these factors on a scale from 1 to 5.

• 1 (Non-critical): The asset’s failure will have minimal impact and cause little to no disruption or cost.
• 2 (Low criticality): The asset’s failure will result in minor inconveniences or low-cost repairs.
• 3 (Moderately critical): The asset’s failure will cause some disruption and moderate maintenance costs.
• 4 (Highly critical): The asset’s failure will result in significant equipment downtime, high costs or safety risks.
• 5 (Mission-critical): An asset’s failure will cause severe consequences, such as significant safety hazards, regulatory violations or financial losses.

You can add the scores together or take the highest score in any category to calculate the ACR.

Rank the Risks of Your Equipment With RPN

Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) highlights asset failure modes and how specific failures can impact assets, systems and businesses overall. This is done by calculating a risk priority number (RPN). This scoring methodology ranks an asset’s potential problems by severity, probability and detectability. 

Use a scale of 1 to 10 to measure the severity, probability and detectability ratings of an asset’s potential issues, and multiply those numbers. The higher the RPN, the more likely the asset’s failure will occur.

Create a Maintenance Plan

After you identify key asset failures, you should develop a risk-based maintenance strategy to prevent them. It may include several types of maintenance, like corrective maintenance, preventive maintenance, condition-based maintenance or predictive maintenance. Consider factors like resources, manufacturer recommendations, asset age and lifespan, and replacement costs.

Reassess Your Maintenance Needs

Once high-risk assets are addressed, shift your team’s focus to other assets, and repeat the cycle as needed. This method can also be applied to prioritize specific failure events within the same asset group, ensuring continuous improvement and effective allocation of resources. 

Do You Need Risk-Based Maintenance? 

To determine if RBM is right for you, consider these factors: 

• Do you use machinery frequently but have limited resources and a limited maintenance budget?
• Does your company have very expensive machinery? 
• Is your machinery in a remote location that makes it difficult to access (for example, an oil rig)?
• Do you lack a preventive maintenance program? 

If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” RBM may be worth considering. While it may involve upfront investment in resources and training, the long-term benefits of increased uptime, better resource allocation and improved operations will outweigh implementation costs. 

Assets That Typically Require Risk-Based Maintenance 

RBM is valuable in a variety of industries. Asset failure for any of the following heavy machinery examples can lead to significant operational, safety or financial consequences.

Major Building Systems

Electrical, plumbing and HVAC are essential to infrastructure — these systems must be routinely maintained to keep buildings safe and functional. For instance, electrical system failures could result in power outages, while plumbing issues might cause water damage or sanitation problems.

Manufacturing Production Equipment

Unexpected breakdowns in production equipment can cause delays, slow operations and increase costs. Companies can reduce downtime and keep output consistent by focusing on the assets that are most crucial to operations.

Construction Equipment

Cranes, bulldozers and excavators are just a few examples of heavy machinery used in construction projects. RBM helps businesses maintain these assets proactively, avoiding costly disruptions and safety issues among construction workers. 

Fleet Vehicles

Maintenance issues in fleet vehicles can make logistics more difficult, affect customer satisfaction and increase operating costs. RBM helps companies prioritize maintenance for vehicles critical to operations.

Risk-Based Maintenance vs. Condition-Based Maintenance 

Risk-based maintenance and condition-based maintenance (CBM) are both preventive maintenance strategies, but each has a distinct focus. RBM prioritizes equipment maintenance based on the likelihood and impact of failures in terms of consequences, such as safety hazards, financial losses or disruptions. By concentrating efforts on these areas, RBM ensures that maintenance time, labor and budget are used efficiently to prevent failures that will have the most impact. 

CBM relies on the real-time condition monitoring of assets to determine their maintenance needs and prevent failures by addressing issues before they can have a significant impact. While RBM emphasizes risk management and prioritization across all assets, CBM focuses on continuously monitoring a specific asset. It removes the need for reactive maintenance while minimizing cost and downtime.

Example of Risk-Based Maintenance 

Let’s look at how offshore oil platforms function for an example of how RBM is used. An oil platform relies on a network of pumps to move oil, water and gas through various stages of processing. These pumps operate in harsh environmental conditions and are subject to high pressures, corrosive elements and continuous vibrations. Therefore, they require regular maintenance or monitoring. 

However, not all pumps are equally critical to the overall operation — while they are necessary, some are far more essential than others. Pumps directly impacting oil flow or safety systems, like fire suppression or emergency shutdown systems, are more critical to operations than equipment used in less important processes, such as cooling water circulation.

Teams look at assets that pose the biggest risks if they fail. A failure in a critical pump could cause environmental damage, major safety incidents and lengthy asset downtime, while failure in a less important pump may lead to only minor downtime or require temporary fixes.

So, when should a team perform RBM? If a critical pump is showing signs of wear (i.e., vibrations, seal degradation or performance fluctuations), the probability of its failure increases. Maintenance is then scheduled based on the likelihood of failure, with priority given to critical pumps. 

If failure of a non-critical pump (such as a cooling pump) occurs, the consequences might only be minor, such as a slight increase in operating temperature, which can be managed without immediate intervention. However, the failure of a firewater pump, while the likelihood might be lower, could result in catastrophic safety or environmental consequences. 

Maintenance efforts are focused on assets where the risk of failure justifies the investment in repairs or replacement. If the maintenance of non-critical pumps would cost more than the potential downtime or repair cost, it might be deferred or planned for a later stage. 

Benefits of Risk-Based Maintenance

Performing RBM has several benefits, including:

• Maximizes resource allocation: By focusing maintenance efforts on your most critical assets, they’ll provide the greatest value to your business operations.
• Minimizes downtime and losses: Address minor risks before they become major problems to keep operations running smoothly. 
• Improves safety: By proactively identifying and addressing high-risk issues, RBM prevents failures that could lead to accidents or hazardous conditions. 
• Optimizes maintenance schedules: RBM allows teams to prioritize tasks so that resources are focused on the most critical assets while reducing unnecessary maintenance.
• Decreases costs: Unnecessary maintenance and proactive maintenance of critical assets through RBM will allow companies to save money. 

Risk-Based Maintenance Best Practices

RBM is only as good as those performing it. So, remember these key best practices as you get started:

• Focus on your riskiest assets: We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again. Begin by focusing on assets with the highest risks to operations, safety or finances. Use strategies like FMEA or risk mitigation assessments to guide the process.
• Determine clear maintenance procedures: Develop detailed standard operating procedures on how to maintain each critical asset. Determine how often tasks should be performed based on the asset’s risk level, history, condition and manufacturer recommendations.
• Create a preventive maintenance calendar: Implement a preventive maintenance schedule that prioritizes high-risk tasks over those that aren’t as critical to your operation.
• Implement a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS): Use a CMMS software to help centralize both asset management and work order management to simplify tracking asset performance as well as your team’s progress.
• Monitor and analyze performance: Determine key performance indicators (KPIs) to regularly track. Maintenance metrics like asset downtime and failure rates can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of your strategy and make improvements over time.

Using Coast for Risk-Based Maintenance 

Coast’s CMMS software makes it easy to put RBM strategies into action. It allows you to create a proactive maintenance schedule that ensures your team tackles high-priority tasks first. It keeps everyone involved on the same page, reducing delays and miscommunication.

With Coast’s app, your RBM efforts are efficient, effective and built for long-term success. It’s an easy way to take control of your team’s maintenance tasks and protect your company’s most critical assets. Sign up today to start your risk management strategy.