3. Economic stakes

In the economic context of our industrialized societies (competition, globalization...), we can't talk about maintenance without mentioning the economic stakes of this function which, for too long, has been considered part of "overheads" and consequently a necessary evil. Today, a company needs to analyze and characterize all the factors that contribute to its competitiveness. In many companies today, maintenance is perhaps one of the last sources of competitiveness. One of the difficulties of this economic approach to maintenance lies in the following points:

• the need for a long-term, forward-looking vision, to control this economic aspect throughout the equipment's useful life. The economic consequences (e.g. cost of downtime) of a maintenance action at time t may not be felt until much later in subsequent years;

• ...