Risk based maintenance strategies for mechanized and automated systems

The purpose of maintenance is to reduce the business risk. Therefore, it is very important that formal reliability and risk assessment form an integral part of the maintenance planning. Taking decision concerning selection of maintenance strategy using risk based criteria is essential to develop cost effective maintenance policies for mechanized and automated systems. This paper emphasises the need of integration of risk analysis methods in all phases of conception, design manufacturing and operation to arrive at the most optimal maintenance policies/strategies for the system under consideration. The paper also discusses various steps involved in risk analysis and concludes that the risk assessment can be used in many activities related to maintenance for arriving at the best decision among the several alternatives available at hand.