Service · Operational Readiness · Asset Maintenance Strategy

Stop maintaining
by the calendar.
Start by failure mode.

Optimal develops structured, criticality-aligned maintenance strategies for asset-intensive organisations — replacing generic time-based PM schedules with RCM-informed maintenance plans that reduce unnecessary maintenance cost while improving asset availability and reliability.

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Service Summary

Asset criticality classification and consequence assessment

FMECA-informed failure mode identification

RCM task selection — optimal task type and interval

PM schedule restructuring and CMMS upload

Maintenance plan implementation support

Performance measurement and annual review

Oil & Gas · Mining · Nuclear · Power

FMCG · Chemical & Process · Transport

RCM · FMECA · ISO 55001 · SAP PM · Maximo

Delivered globally · UK · Europe · MEA

The Problem We Solve

Most maintenance strategies
aren't strategies at all

The majority of maintenance schedules in asset-intensive industry were built the same way: an OEM manual, a spreadsheet and a PM frequency selected by someone who no longer works there. Over years, tasks are added and rarely removed. Frequencies drift toward conservatism. Resources are consumed maintaining assets that rarely fail, while assets with known chronic failure modes receive generic time-based attention that misses the actual failure mode entirely.

The result is high maintenance spend, unchanged reliability performance. The schedule looks active. The plant still fails. And nobody can explain why — because the strategy was never connected to the failure modes driving the unplanned downtime in the first place.

Optimal's maintenance strategy service breaks this cycle. We connect maintenance tasks to failure modes, failure modes to consequence, and consequence to resource — so every task in your schedule has an engineering justification and a measurable effect on reliability.

PM schedules not connected to failure modes Time-based tasks applied uniformly regardless of how assets actually fail. Failure mechanisms such as fatigue, corrosion, contamination and wear each require different maintenance approaches — none of which are addressed by calendar-based inspection alone.

No criticality differentiation across the asset base Critical assets on the same maintenance regime as low-consequence plant. Resources applied proportionally rather than strategically — resulting in over-maintained non-critical assets and under-served high-consequence equipment.

Maintenance tasks accumulate but are never challenged New tasks added after incidents, seldom removed after performance improvement. Maintenance backlog grows. Technician time consumed on tasks that deliver no reliability benefit. PM compliance becomes the KPI — not reliability outcome.

Reactive-to-planned ratio stuck despite investment Organisations investing in maintenance headcount and CMMS capability but not seeing the planned-to-reactive shift. The root cause is structural: the maintenance strategy itself is not designed to prevent the failures that are driving the reactive workload.

Strategy not aligned to ISO 55001 or SAMP objectives Asset management policies and strategic objectives exist at board level but are not translated into the maintenance task level. The maintenance schedule is operationally disconnected from the organisation's stated asset management outcomes.

Our Methodology

Four stages to a
strategy that holds

Optimal's maintenance strategy development follows a structured four-stage methodology — moving from asset understanding through failure analysis, task selection and schedule delivery to a maintenance plan that is technically justified, CMMS-ready and aligned to your operational and business objectives.

Asset Classification & Criticality

Define the asset boundary and perform structured criticality assessment — scoring each asset against safety, production, environmental, regulatory and financial consequence dimensions. Produces a criticality matrix that determines the maintenance rigour appropriate to each asset class and drives resource allocation decisions.

Failure Mode Analysis (FMECA)

Identify failure modes, their causes, effects and detectability for each asset in scope. FMECA sessions conducted with your engineering and operations SMEs — capturing site-specific failure history alongside OEM and industry knowledge. Output: a structured failure mode register per asset class, rated by consequence and probability.

RCM Task Selection & Interval Optimisation

For each failure mode, select the optimal maintenance task type — time-based, condition-based, run-to-failure or redesign — and determine the optimal interval based on failure progression characteristics, P-F interval analysis and consequence weighting. Every task selection is documented with engineering rationale.

Schedule Build & CMMS Delivery

Translate the RCM output into a structured maintenance schedule — CMMS-ready work orders with task descriptions, frequencies, resource requirements, safety provisions and spare parts links. Uploaded to your CMMS (SAP PM, Maximo, IFS, site-specific) with implementation support, planner training and a governance framework for ongoing review.

What Makes It Different

Justified at task level.
Measurable at plant level.

A maintenance strategy developed by Optimal is not a document. It is a working plan — with every task traceable to a failure mode, every failure mode traceable to a consequence assessment and every consequence assessment traceable to the criticality rating that justified the maintenance approach.

This means when your engineering team or an auditor asks why a particular task exists, or why an interval was selected, the answer is documented, structured and defensible. It also means that when the strategy is reviewed — annually or following a significant failure event — it can be updated at task level without rebuilding the entire schedule from scratch.

Every task justified by documented failure mode and consequence →

Aligned to ISO 55001 maintenance planning requirements →

CMMS-ready — uploaded and ready for planning and scheduling →

Annual review cadence built into the governance framework →

Planner training and handover included as standard →

RCM Studies service

Programme Deliverables

What you receive
at programme close

D01

Asset Criticality Register

Scored criticality assessment across all assets in scope — safety, production, environmental, regulatory and financial consequence dimensions. Documented methodology and scoring rationale. Usable as a standalone input to your wider asset management system.

D02

FMECA Register

Structured failure mode and effects analysis per asset class — failure modes, causes, effects, detection method, current controls, consequence rating and probability assessment. Maintained as a living document with version control and review dates.

D03

RCM Task Library

Complete RCM task selection output — task type, interval, resource type, tools, safety requirements and failure mode linkage for every maintenance task selected. Documented rationale for each task selection decision.

D04

CMMS-Ready Maintenance Schedule

Structured maintenance plan formatted for your CMMS platform — work order descriptions, task steps, frequencies, resource hours, spare parts references and safety isolation requirements. Uploaded and verified in your live system as part of handover.

D05

Task & Work Instructions

Detailed maintenance task procedures — step-by-step work instructions for critical maintenance tasks, including acceptance criteria, safety provisions, tool and parts requirements, and quality verification steps. Written to the skill level of your maintenance technicians.

D06

Governance & Review Framework

Annual review process, KPI framework and trigger conditions for strategy update — failure event escalation, reliability metric thresholds and change management process. Ensures the strategy evolves with the plant rather than becoming a static document.

Industries Served

Applied across the
most demanding sectors.

Maintenance strategy is not sector-generic. The failure modes of a gas turbine compressor are fundamentally different from those of a ball mill, a pharmaceutical filling line or a nuclear decommissioning facility. Optimal brings sector-specific failure mode knowledge to every engagement — applying a consistent methodology with deep operational understanding of each environment.

Oil & Gas — rotating machinery, pressure systems, safety-critical elements

Mining — crushing, milling, conveyance, mobile and fixed plant

Nuclear — decommissioning facilities, radiological systems, safety-classified plant

Power Generation & Utilities — turbines, pumps, water treatment and ERF

FMCG & Manufacturing — high-speed packaging, process plant, filling and forming

Chemical & Process — process plant under GMP, PIC/S and ATEX requirements

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Evidence of Delivery

Maintenance strategy
outcomes in practice

All case studies

Case studies below are anonymised. Client consent is required before specific project details are attributed publicly. Contact us to arrange reference calls.

Mining & Metals · Multi-site · Southern Africa

Global Mining Group — Maintenance Strategy Programme

Open-pit mining operation with 6 commodity processing facilities running identical time-based PM schedules regardless of asset type or criticality. High reactive maintenance ratio on critical processing plant — crushing and milling equipment driving significant availability losses. No connection between maintenance strategy and the failure modes generating unplanned downtime.

15%

Availability improvement on primary processing plant following RCM-based strategy implementation. Criticality-led task selection moved key equipment from calendar-based to condition-based maintenance regimes

Commodity facilities across which the common maintenance strategy framework was deployed — consistent methodology, site-specific FMECA, localised CMMS delivery per site

Oil & Gas · Offshore · North Sea & West Africa

Offshore Operator — Gas Turbine & Rotating Plant Strategy

FPSO operator with gas turbine availability performance below target — repeated unplanned trips on primary power generation units. Maintenance strategy inherited from original design basis and not updated to reflect operational failure history. No FMECA documentation. PM schedule driving over-maintenance of non-critical ancillary systems while critical power generation assets lacked condition-based tasks.

92–98%

Gas turbine availability target achieved following strategy revision — FMECA completed on primary rotating plant, condition monitoring tasks implemented, calendar-based overhauls replaced with hours-based and condition-triggered interventions

SAP PM

Full maintenance plan uploaded and commissioned in SAP PM — work orders structured, intervals configured, spare parts linked. Planner training delivered and governance review schedule established at programme close

FMCG · Packaging & Manufacturing · Europe

Packaging Manufacturer — Production Line Strategy

High-speed converting and packaging lines operating on generic OEM PM schedules with no criticality differentiation. Recurring unplanned stoppages on sealing and cutting equipment causing OEE losses. Maintenance budget increasing year on year with no improvement in availability metrics. PM compliance high; unplanned events unchanged.

OEE+

Measurable OEE improvement on primary converting lines within 6 months of revised maintenance strategy implementation — chronic failure assets identified via FMECA and targeted with condition-based and precision maintenance tasks

Reduced

Maintenance task count reduced by rationalising non-value-adding PM tasks — technician time redirected to condition-based tasks on critical equipment. Planned maintenance cost reduced while reliability improved

Power Generation · Energy Recovery · UK

Energy Recovery Facility Operator — ISO 55001 Aligned Strategy

Multi-site energy recovery facility operator requiring maintenance strategy development as part of an ISO 55001 certification programme. Sites operating with disparate maintenance approaches — no common strategy framework, no shared criticality assessment methodology and maintenance plans not traceable to stated asset management objectives in the draft SAMP.

ERF sites across which a common maintenance strategy framework and criticality methodology was deployed — site-specific FMECA retained, strategy structure and governance framework standardised across the portfolio

ISO 55001

Maintenance strategy fully aligned to ISO 55001 Clause 8.1 requirements — objectives traceable from SAMP through to task level. Strategy documentation structured for audit and certification purposes

Related Services

Services that work
alongside this one

Full services

GARPI™ — Global Asset Reliability & Performance Index

Is your maintenance strategy
performing or just existing?

GARPI™ Dimension 3 — Maintenance Strategy & Execution — benchmarks your maintenance strategy maturity against global peers across ISO 55001-aligned criteria: failure mode coverage, task justification, criticality alignment, PM compliance, reactive-to-planned ratio and annual review governance. A free, structured view of where your strategy sits — and what to address first.

Take the Free Survey Discuss your results

Dim 1

Asset Performance Outcomes

Dim 2

Reliability Governance

Dim 3 — Focus

Maintenance Strategy & Execution

Dim 4

Data & Digital Capability

Dim 5

Lifecycle Value & Financial Alignment

Dim 6

Workforce Capability & Knowledge

Dim 7

Spares & Materials Management

Dim 8

Strategic Outlook

Next Steps

Ready to build a strategy
that actually works?

Whether you need a full RCM-based maintenance strategy across your entire asset base, a targeted review of a specific system or asset class, or a rapid strategy gap assessment ahead of an ISO 55001 audit — Optimal can scope and deliver it. We have done this across oil & gas, mining, nuclear, power, FMCG and transport environments globally.

Start with a discovery conversation. We will give you an honest view of what a structured maintenance strategy programme looks like in your specific operational context, the timescales involved and what you can expect to see change.

Book a Discovery Call Take GARPI™ Survey

Global Enquiries

enquiries@optimal.world
optimal.world/contact-us

Credentials

ISO 9001:2015 certified · IAM Member 1035342
ISO 55001 advisory · GFMAM aligned methodology

Practice Area

Operational Readiness — part of the Asset Reliability

Stop maintainingby the calendar.Start by failure mode.

Most maintenance strategiesaren't strategies at all

Four stages to astrategy that holds

Justified at task level.Measurable at plant level.

What you receiveat programme close

Applied across themost demanding sectors.

Maintenance strategyoutcomes in practice

Services that workalongside this one

Is your maintenance strategyperforming or just existing?

Ready to build a strategythat actually works?