Abstract

This paper empirically examines the relationship between the failure patterns observed in industry and the potential benefits to the introduction of a condition-based maintenance (CBM) strategy. Industry appears to often misunderstand this relationship although for an informed decision the correct recording and analyses of failure data is important. Publicly available relevant data of wear are, at best, limited. A large number of academic and industrial papers are available which compare the efficiency of various maintenance strategies within a range of different industries. However, the conclusions clearly state that: 1) they are large differences between various industrial sectors; 2) the relationship between data analyses and maintenance strategy development is, at best, limited. Wherever such data collection mechanisms are not in place, maintenance decisions rely mostly on intuition and expert views. This paper suggests the importance of further supporting such investments by appropriately addressing the need to collect relevant data as a basis upon which to make development and efficient and effective maintenance strategy.