Establish the baseline. Identify the equipment, normal operating conditions and available history.
knowledge article
What Is Condition-Based Maintenance?
Time-based maintenance schedules work at defined intervals. Condition-based maintenance responds to the condition found, although the inspections used to assess that condition can still follow a calendar.
Discuss your requirementsMaintenance is work organised over time.
Overview
Predictive maintenance takes the analysis further by estimating future condition or failure using trends and models. A simple threshold that triggers a filter change is condition-based; it does not require a prediction algorithm.
These approaches can work together. A system can retain scheduled safety tasks while condition findings determine additional cleaning, adjustment or component replacement.
Build a complete response process
Select the method. Define the inspection or measurement and the competence required.
Set the criteria. Use manufacturer information and suitable technical assessment to define what requires attention.
Assign the response. Identify who reviews a finding, the escalation route and the next action.
Check the result. Record completed work and whether the condition returned to an acceptable state.
Retain the tasks that still apply
Condition evidence does not automatically cancel statutory inspections, manufacturer requirements or other established maintenance duties. Assess any proposed change to the programme against those requirements and the asset's risks.
HSE's maintenance guidance addresses safe planning and competence. Its maintenance procedures guidance, written for major-hazard plant, also illustrates the importance of selecting an appropriate maintenance regime for each item. The method needs to fit the equipment and its operating context.
What makes the approach worthwhile?
Compare the effort of inspections or monitoring with the consequences of failure and the ability to act on the findings. Expensive continuous monitoring is unnecessary where a reliable periodic inspection provides enough warning. Conversely, occasional observations are inadequate if deterioration can progress between checks.
For industrial premises, load and production patterns affect interpretation. For offices, findings can inform maintenance of building plant without treating every asset as operationally critical.
Common questions
Does condition-based maintenance require sensors?
No. Structured visual inspections and portable measurements can provide condition evidence. Select the method according to the asset, deterioration pattern and required warning period.
Can it replace all planned maintenance?
No. Retain applicable scheduled tasks and inspections. Condition evidence helps shape the programme where it provides a sound basis for doing so.
What should happen when a threshold is exceeded?
Follow the defined escalation and technical response. Depending on the finding, that means checking the reading, investigating the cause or arranging work; it should not be an unexplained automatic closure or reset.
How do we know it is helping?
Review detected defects, useful warning time, actions completed and repeated failures. A large volume of readings is not itself evidence of better maintenance decisions.