1. A strategic tool

1.1 Food for thought

The maintenance function actively participates in the company's change and continuous improvement process, particularly in the following areas.

• Investments: in the race for competitiveness imposed by the globalization of economies, it has become essential to modernize production facilities. Any quantitative or qualitative error in this area has economic consequences that can jeopardize a company's long-term viability. This is why life-cycle costing (LCC) is becoming one of the most important criteria when choosing an investment.

This overall cost takes into account all the cost components generated by the invested asset, and in particular its maintenance cost. One...