Maintenance · 4 min read
A practical starting point for risk-based maintenance
How asset criticality can become a usable basis for maintenance decisions instead of another isolated assessment.
Dr. John Medina · Published 17 July 2026
AI-generated illustrationDefine consequence consistently
Criticality becomes useful when GMP, safety, production, quality and recovery consequences are evaluated with transparent criteria. The purpose is prioritisation, not a decorative ranking.
Connect risk to work
The assessment should influence task selection, frequencies, spare-parts decisions, escalation paths and technical documentation. Otherwise it remains separate from daily maintenance.
Prepare the system
Asset structures and naming conventions need enough consistency for the maintenance strategy to live in a CMMS or SAP PM environment and remain understandable beyond individual experts.
This article provides a general technical perspective and does not replace project-specific engineering or regulatory assessment.