Published: May 05, 2025  Updated: May 05, 2025

What Is Risk-Based Maintenance (RBM) and Why It Matters

Let's answer the question of what is risk-based maintenance (RBM). Imagine your car. You wouldn't wait for the engine to sputter and cough before taking it in for an oil change, right? You'd practice preventive maintenance (PM) to keep your vehicle running smoothly.

What about the world of industrial equipment, sprawling facilities, or intricate infrastructure networks? That's where RBM steps in. In this article, we'll discuss the following:

• What Is Risk-Based Maintenance (RBM)?
• Why Risk-Based Maintenance Is Essential for Maintenance Departments.
• Exploring Alternatives to Risk-Based Maintenance for Asset Reliability.
• Why You Should Consider Risk-Based Maintenance (RBM).
• Steps to Implement a Risk-Based Maintenance Strategy How to Implement a Risk-Based Maintenance Strategy.
• Common Challenges of Implementing RBM and How to Overcome Them.
• How a CMMS Supports Risk-Based Maintenance Success.

What Is Risk-Based Maintenance (RBM)?

Think of RBM as the grown-up version of preventive maintenance. It prioritizes tasks based on the potential consequences of an asset failing. Instead of blindly following a fixed schedule for everything, RBM focuses on critical equipment. Breakdowns of these assets would cause major headaches (think safety hazards, production stoppages, or environmental damage). While not impossible to eliminate, you aim to reduce the incidents of unplanned downtime.

Why Risk-Based Maintenance Is Essential for Maintenance Departments

Unplanned equipment failures can accumulate costs by more than a pretty penny. Repairs. Lost production. Unhappy customers. Potential safety issues. RBM helps mitigate these risks.

• Optimizing Resources. Budgets and manpower can limit activities. RBM ensures your maintenance team focuses on the important tasks.
• Maximizing Uptime. Proactively address potential problems before they snowball into major breakdowns.
• Enhancing Safety. Early detection of equipment issues can prevent accidents and injuries.
• Improved Decision-Making. RBM provides data on your assets' health. With this knowledge, you continue to refine your maintenance strategy.

Discover how streamlined maintenance processes can elevate production. Learn more.

Exploring Alternatives to Risk-Based Maintenance for Asset Reliability

While you certainly should consider RBM as a way to operate, be aware of other options. You can achieve the above benefits through other means.

• Preventive Maintenance. A traditional method that has a lot of merit behind it. This follows a predetermined schedule for maintenance tasks. While easy to implement, you might see inefficiency regarding low-risk assets.
• Condition-Based Maintenance (CBM). For this, you rely on real-time monitoring of equipment health to schedule maintenance only when necessary. It offers a more flexible approach than preventive maintenance. However, you might have to invest in monitoring tools and train technicians.
• Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM). This comprehensive approach involves a detailed analysis of an asset's function, failure modes, and consequences. From there, you determine the most effective maintenance strategy. While thorough, RCM might need extra time to implement.

This article does not seek to dismiss these options in favor of RBM. All have benefits and liabilities. The maintenance department should analyze operations, the industry, and the company to choose what works best.

Keep reading for the benefits of a CMMS, and understand that this software can help any of the above options.

Why You Should Consider Risk-Based Maintenance (RBM)

While possibly a bonus set of benefits, discuss the following when deciding whether you should adopt RBM.

• Cost-Effectiveness. By focusing on critical assets, RBM reduces unnecessary maintenance tasks, saving you time and money.
• Improved Efficiency. Maintenance teams can prioritize their workload. They have a better prioritization of tasks.
• Enhanced Risk Management. PM plus! RBM helps identify and address potential problems before they escalate into major issues.

Steps to Implement a Risk-Based Maintenance Strategy How to Implement a Risk-Based Maintenance Strategy

Ready to embrace RBM? Let's look at a step-by-step guide.

1. Asset Inventory. Create a comprehensive list of all your equipment and infrastructure, including details like age, function, and replacement costs.
2. Risk Assessment. Analyze each asset to determine its criticality (how important it is to your operation). Then list the potential consequences of failure (lost production, safety hazards).
3. Failure Modes & Effects Analysis (FMEA). Identify likely failure modes for each asset and how they might impact operations.
4. Maintenance Plan Development. Develop a customized maintenance plan for each asset. This plan might include preventive maintenance tasks, CBM techniques, or a combination of both.
Again, don't dismiss the other options from above. You might want to adapt parts of them for your RBM plan.
5. Data Collection—Continuous Improvement. Just because you've implemented this, don't ignore the analysis of results. Track maintenance activities and equipment health data. This will help refine your risk assessments and maintenance plans over time. Continue to look for areas of improvement.

Ready to revolutionize your maintenance department? Schedule a live demo today.

Common Challenges of Implementing RBM and How to Overcome Them

No silver bullet exists, and RBM has its own hurdles.

• Data Gathering. Accurate and comprehensive data on asset performance and failure history may require investment in data collection systems.
• Expertise. Implementing RBM requires personnel with a strong understanding of risk assessment methodologies and maintenance strategies.
• Change Management. If you've been operating under other methodologies, change may pose difficulties. An extreme example of this comes in the reactive mindset. With this, you send maintenance out only when equipment breaks down. Shifting to RBM may require you to move slowly so everyone transitions more easily.

Remember the important keys of training and communication. Everyone needs to understand how RBM will benefit your company.

How a CMMS Supports Risk-Based Maintenance Success

One of the most important "tools" you'll use. A CMMS offers so much assistance when implementing and optimizing RBM. A CMMS acts as a central hub to organize all your maintenance data.

• Asset information (inventory, specifications, manuals).
• Maintenance history (work orders, repairs, replacements).
• Inspection data (findings, recommendations).
• Spare parts inventory.

How else can CMMS software help?

• Asset Reports. You gain so much more oversight over asset management. You have reports on numerous equipment performance metrics. Track depreciation values.
• Improved Risk Assessment. Use CMMS data to analyze asset failure trends and prioritize maintenance tasks based on actual risk.
• Planning & Scheduling. Create and schedule preventive maintenance tasks based on the RBM plan within the CMMS. Set your priority measurements for each activity.
• Inventory Management. Track spare parts inventory within the CMMS. Avoid the risks of over- or understocking.
• Work Order Management. Use the CMMS to generate work orders for maintenance tasks, assign them to technicians, and track progress for improved efficiency.
• Worker Productivity. Generate reports on attainment and on-time completion.

Your Business Can Thrive with Risk-Based Maintenance

What is risk-based maintenance? Don't look at it as just fixing things. Set your goal to prevent problems in the first place. Focus on critical assets. Adopt parts of other methods to shape your maintenance operations.

Part of that includes the proper use of a CMMS. Take advantage of the organization this software offers.

Call 800-922-4336 to discuss the powerful, easy-to-use, and priced-right system from Mapcon Technologies. Find your maintenance and RBM solutions with a forty-plus-year company dedicated to your success.