Asset criticality: how to classify your equipment step by step
- Criticality measures how much a piece of equipment matters according to the consequences of its failure.
- A simple method: score five criteria from 1 to 3, add them up and classify as A (critical), B or C.
- The classification decides where demanding preventive maintenance, predictive maintenance and corrective maintenance go.
The criticality of an asset is a measure of the importance of a piece of equipment according to the consequences of its failure on safety, production, customer service and cost. Classifying equipment by criticality avoids treating a machine that stops the whole plant the same as one that can be replaced in an hour.
Usual criteria
- Safety and environment: can a failure cause harm to people or spills?
- Impact on production or service: does it stop the line, the building or the client?
- Quality: does it affect product quality or compliance with a contract?
- Repair cost: is it an expensive breakdown in parts and labour?
- Replacement lead time: how long does the spare part or a replacement unit take to arrive?
A simple scoring method
- Score each criterion from 1 (low) to 3 (high) for each asset.
- Add up the points (from 5 to 15).
- Classify: A (critical) from 12 to 15, B (important) from 8 to 11, C (non-critical) from 5 to 7.
| Equipment | Safety | Production | Quality | Cost | Replacement | Total | Class |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Main compressor | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 14 | A |
| Booster pump | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | B |
| Warehouse light fitting | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | C |
The thresholds are for guidance: adjust them to your activity. What matters is applying the same criteria to all equipment.
What to do with each class
| Class | Recommended strategy |
|---|---|
| A | Demanding preventive maintenance, critical spare parts in stock and, if measurable, predictive maintenance. |
| B | Preventive maintenance by calendar or meter and regularly rotating spare parts. |
| C | Scheduled corrective maintenance or light inspection; replace rather than repair if it pays off. |
When to review the classification
At least once a year and after process changes, new clients or serious breakdowns. To go deeper into the analysis of how each piece of equipment fails, there are techniques such as FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis) and RCM (reliability-centred maintenance).
Classify your assets in one place
Mantenplan lets you record criticality on each asset’s record, plus custom fields for your own criteria.
Try MantenplanFrequently asked questions
How many assets should be critical?
Few. If everything is critical, nothing is. As a guide, a minority of the equipment concentrates most of the risk; the rest does not need special treatment.
Who should take part in the classification?
Maintenance, production or operations and, if clients are affected, the service manager. That way the criteria reflect the real impact and not just the opinion of one department.