In the evolving landscape of Industry 5.0, Maintenance plays a pivotal role in ensuring the reliability, availability, and operational efficiency of physical assets. As industries integrate advanced technologies and human-centric approaches, the importance of a structured maintenance framework becomes even more pronounced. The European standard EN 17007 offers a comprehensive guideline for organizing Maintenance processes, breaking them down into distinct families and levels to streamline the execution of tasks and optimize asset performance.
Based on the Asset Management Bow-Tie and the Asset Management Lemniscate we delve into the intricacies of the Maintenance process framework, emphasizing the categorization of Maintenance activities into three primary types: Management, Realization, and Mupport processes. These categories are foundational for professionals engaged in Maintenance, providing the essential knowledge and skills required to ensure smooth and efficient operations. Additionally, the article explores the broader maintenance landscape, highlighting its critical intersections with Asset Management, risk management, and sustainable development, particularly within the context of Industry 5.0.
Read further to explore how these maintenance processes are structured and applied to real-world operations, and how the integration of Industry 5.0 technologies is reshaping the future of Maintenance Management.
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Author: Ing. Jan Stoker MSc. MEng. Follow Jan Stoker
Introduction
Its alignment with strategic planning is now critical to achieving organizational resilience, reliability, and long-term performance.
Central to this alignment is the Strategic Asset Management Process (SAMP), as described in EN 17485. The SAMP translates corporate objectives into asset management strategies, guiding the formulation of coherent plans across all levels of the organization. It sets the direction for how asset performance, risk, and value are managed throughout the lifecycle. Importantly, the SAMP provides a defined pathway for integrating maintenance into strategic planning. This ensures that maintenance requirements are not only considered but embedded from the earliest stages of asset system design through to execution and optimization. The SAMP is therefore not just a document—it is a dynamic, decision-making framework that positions maintenance as a key contributor to organizational success.
- Common Basis,
- Management,
- Methodologies, and
- Resources
The integration of Industry 5.0 technologies, such as AI, digital twins, and IoT-enabled monitoring, further transforms this model. By enabling real-time decision-making and predictive maintenance, Industry 5.0 enhances the efficiency of the Maintenance Landscape, bridging the gap between strategic planning and operational execution. This introduction sets the stage for a detailed exploration of the Maintenance Landscape Model, its role within the Asset Management Lemniscate, and how its four segments contribute to a holistic, forward-thinking approach to asset optimization and sustainability.
1. Reframing the Strategic Asset Management Process (SAMP)
A clear distinction must be made between the Strategic Asset Management Process and the resulting Strategic Asset Management Plan (SAMP). The process itself refers to the dynamic, iterative and often multidisciplinary activity through which an organization translates its strategic objectives into coherent asset-related strategies, priorities, and decision-making structures.
It is an ongoing governance and alignment mechanism that ensures strategic objectives are operationalized across all levels of the asset lifecycle. In contrast, the SAMP is the formal, documented output of that process: a structured plan that captures the rationale, objectives, and high-level directives that guide asset management activities. While the process represents how an organization thinks, aligns and decides over time, the SAMP reflects what it has formally committed to do. The distinction is essential—without a robust process, the SAMP risks becoming a static document detached from operational and strategic realities.
1.1 The Strategic Asset Management Process as a Foundational Mechanism
The Strategic Asset Management Process (SAMP) lies at the heart of any mature asset management system. As defined in ISO 55000 and further elaborated in EN 17485, it translates an organization’s strategic objectives into coordinated asset strategies. Yet, despite its pivotal role, the SAMP is frequently misunderstood or underutilized. Rather than being treated as a continuously evolving process, it is often reduced to a static document or a compliance artifact—devoid of the strategic engagement it demands.
This misinterpretation stems, in part, from the assumption that alignment between strategic vision and asset execution is self-evident. In reality, organizations that do not explicitly structure this alignment risk inefficiencies, uncoordinated investments, and suboptimal lifecycle outcomes. The SAMP is not a passive container of plans—it is an active, guiding mechanism that orchestrates how assets, including their maintenance, deliver value over time.
1.2 The SAMP and the Role of Maintenance
One of the most overlooked dimensions in the development of the SAMP is the structured inclusion of maintenance. While capital planning, asset acquisition, and renewal cycles are generally embedded in asset strategy, maintenance is too often treated as a cost center or technical afterthought. This is a fundamental oversight. Maintenance directly contributes to asset availability, lifecycle cost optimization, risk reduction, and safety assurance—all of which are core value elements of asset management.
EN 17485 and EN 16646 both emphasize that maintenance must be embedded from the earliest stages of strategic planning. Not only during operation, but already in design, acquisition, and commissioning phases. Maintenance decisions influence the long-term performance and cost profile of assets. Including maintenance in the SAMP ensures that preventive, predictive, and condition-based strategies are aligned with the overarching asset and organizational objectives.
1.3 Structuring SAMP with the Lemniscate
The Asset & Maintenance Management Lemniscate offers a structured model to operationalize this integration. Through its dual axes—the horizontal and vertical line of sight—it enables strategic decisions to cascade into operational processes, while also collecting feedback from maintenance execution back to strategic levels. On the left side, the IAM Asset Management Landscape Model articulates strategic priorities. On the right, the Maintenance Landscape Model, based on 15 EN-standardized boxes including EN 17007, enables the realization of those priorities through tangible maintenance processes.
The Lemniscate shows that the SAMP must not only define high-level objectives, but also embed the structural preconditions for maintenance execution: performance criteria, risk thresholds, asset criticality, and lifecycle considerations. This strategic–operational interface is vital in Industry 5.0 contexts, where technology, data, and human-centricity must be harmonized.
1.4 Overcoming Organizational Silos
A recurring challenge in many organizations is the siloed nature of decision-making. Strategy, operations, maintenance, and engineering often operate in isolation, leading to fragmented planning and execution. The SAMP, when developed with the Lemniscate perspective, breaks down these silos. It forces dialogue between disciplines and demands that decisions about value, risk, and performance are co-created across the asset lifecycle.
This cross-functional alignment is particularly critical during strategy development cycles. As defined in EN 17485, the SAMP is subject to iterative renewal, triggered by internal evaluations or external changes (e.g. regulation, market dynamics, or technological developments). Maintenance must be involved in these moments—providing operational intelligence, historical failure data, and performance analytics that shape asset strategies.
1.5 From Static Document to Dynamic Decision-Making System
Ultimately, the SAMP must be seen as more than a document—it is a living system…. an ecosystem. Its effectiveness depends on its ability to guide decision-making in a volatile, uncertain, and complex environment. Especially in Industry 5.0, where adaptability, sustainability, and stakeholder value are essential, static planning models are no longer sufficient.
By embedding maintenance structurally within the SAMP and aligning it through the Lemniscate, organizations can transform their strategic planning into a dynamic, value-driven system. One that continuously learns, adapts, and improves—while maintaining traceability, auditability, and strategic coherence.
2. The Maintenance Landscape Model in the context of Asset Management
2.1 The Maintenance Landscape Model
The Maintenance 15-box Landscape Model is a comprehensive framework that guides maintenance processes across an organization, focusing on optimizing asset performance, reliability, and lifecycle costs. Positioned on the right-hand side of the Asset Management Lemniscate, it complements the strategic focus of the IAM 10-box Asset Management Model on the left-hand side. While the asset management model focuses on strategy, risk management, and value creation, the maintenance model operationalizes these strategies through practical maintenance activities such as inspections, fault detection, and corrective measures.
Incorporating Industry 5.0, the Maintenance Landscape evolves from traditional maintenance to a digital, real-time system that leverages IoT, AI, and predictive analytics. Maintenance is no longer reactive but instead anticipatory, with real-time insights driving proactive interventions. This technological transformation makes the Maintenance Landscape a key player in supporting sustainability and asset optimization.
2.2 The Industry 5.0 Context
The transition to Industry 5.0 represents a major shift from automation-focused Industry 4.0 to a more human-centric approach where collaboration between humans and machines drives innovation and efficiency. Maintenance within this context is transformed by technologies such as digital twins, AI-driven diagnostics, and IoT-enabled sensors. These technologies enhance the horizontal line of sight between asset management and maintenance by providing real-time data and predictive insights.
Industry 5.0 enhances the Maintenance Landscape by enabling organizations to anticipate failures, optimize resource allocation, and reduce environmental impacts. Through real-time monitoring and data-driven decision-making, maintenance activities can be planned to minimize unplanned downtime and maximize asset performance. This transformation strengthens the relationship between strategic asset management and operational maintenance, creating a more agile and sustainable asset management framework.
The human-machine collaboration inherent in Industry 5.0 also ensures that maintenance personnel can focus on high-value activities such as decision-making and innovation while repetitive or complex monitoring tasks are handled by intelligent systems. This dual approach supports continuous improvement and sustainable asset lifecycle management.
2.3 Connecting the IAM-10 Box Asset Management Model to the Maintenanec landscape Model
The IAM 10-box Asset Management Model represents the strategic core of asset management, focusing on governance, strategy, and value realization. Key components such as risk management, decision-making, and lifecycle costing form the foundation for guiding long-term asset-related decisions. However, without an effective link to maintenance processes, strategic objectives risk being disconnected from operational realities.
2.4 The Four Segments of The Maintenance Landscape
2.4.1 Common Basis
By establishing a shared understanding of maintenance requirements, the Common Basis enables effective communication between strategic asset managers and operational maintenance teams. It also supports the development of key performance indicators (KPIs) that align maintenance outcomes with organizational goals such as reliability, cost-efficiency, and sustainability.
2.4.2 Management
Within the horizontal line of sight, maintenance management ensures that operational decisions reflect strategic asset management goals. Maintenance managers collaborate with other departments to align maintenance efforts with production schedules, safety standards, and sustainability targets. Feedback mechanisms allow for continuous improvement, ensuring that maintenance policies evolve in response to changing operational demands and technological advancements.
2.4.3 Methodologies
Standards like EN 17007 provide guidance on selecting appropriate methodologies based on asset criticality, operational context, and organizational goals. Methodologies ensure that maintenance activities are prioritized and executed with minimal disruption to operations. By continuously refining these processes through feedback from the asset management system, organizations can achieve optimal asset performance and cost savings.
2.4.4 Recources
Efficient resource management ensures that maintenance activities are executed with minimal delays and costs. Through the horizontal line of sight, resource allocation is optimized based on strategic priorities and real-time asset conditions. For example, predictive maintenance insights can guide spare part stocking strategies, reducing waste and downtime. By integrating resource management within the Maintenance Landscape, organizations can enhance both operational efficiency and sustainability.
Wrap Up
The Maintenance Landscape Model, when viewed through the Asset Management Lemniscate, provides a holistic framework that aligns strategic asset objectives with operational maintenance activities. Its integration with Industry 5.0 technologies ensures dynamic and data-driven decision-making, creating a resilient and sustainable asset management system. Through its four key segments—Common Basis, Management, Methodologies, and Resources—the Maintenance Landscape enables continuous improvement, operational excellence, and long-term value realization across the asset lifecycle.
3. The Maintenance Process Framework (Level 1)
The European standard EN 17007 offers a comprehensive framework to categorize maintenance processes into three distinct families: Management, Realization, and Support processes. These categories define the scope, structure, and sequence of actions required to maintain assets effectively. This article will explore these maintenance processes in depth and integrate the Asset Management Lemniscate and Asset Management Bow Tie models, which provide additional layers of understanding in asset lifecycle management and risk mitigation.
At the core of the maintenance framework lies a systematic approach to actions that align with the overall asset management strategy. Maintenance, as defined by EN 17007, involves not just the technical execution of repairs and servicing but also the strategic planning, support mechanisms, and continuous improvement efforts needed to sustain asset performance. The three primary process families—Management, Realization, and Support—are interdependent, and their integration within the asset management system is crucial for optimizing outcomes.
3.1 Management Processes
The management process serves as the strategic backbone of the maintenance framework. It encompasses activities that align maintenance actions with organizational goals, ensuring coherence and direction across all levels of operation. Key functions within the management process include:
- Strategy Formulation: Setting long-term goals for asset performance and aligning them with corporate objectives.
- Policy Development: Defining maintenance policies that dictate resource allocation, compliance, and operational procedures.
- Organizational Design: Structuring roles, responsibilities, and hierarchies to manage maintenance effectively.
- Continuous Improvement: Driving initiatives that focus on enhancing processes and outcomes through regular feedback and performance analysis.
Incorporating the Asset Management Lemniscate, the management process can be seen as the decision-making loop that continuously evaluates and redefines asset strategies based on lifecycle data. The Lemniscate model illustrates the dynamic interaction between strategic asset management and operational activities, ensuring that maintenance decisions remain relevant as assets evolve.
3.2 Realization Processes
The realization process is where strategic intentions are translated into tangible actions. It focuses on the execution of maintenance tasks, both preventive and corrective, that directly affect asset performance. These tasks ensure that assets maintain their functionality and reliability over time. Key components of realization processes include:
- Preventive Maintenance (PRV): Actions taken to avoid potential failures by anticipating wear, fatigue, or other degradation mechanisms.
- Corrective Maintenance (COR): Restorative actions aimed at repairing or restoring the functionality of assets after a failure has occurred.
- Improvement Actions (IMP): Continuous efforts to enhance the intrinsic reliability and maintainability of assets.
- Preventive and/or Corrective Actions (ACT): Implement preventive and/or corrective actions on the item.
The Asset Management Bow Tie model becomes especially relevant in realization processes as it highlights the dual roles of prevention and mitigation in managing risks. Preventive maintenance acts as the defensive line, aiming to avoid failures altogether, while corrective maintenance serves as the mitigative action to reduce the impact of failures that do occur. This bifurcation helps organizations clearly define and manage the risks associated with asset failures.
3.3 Support Processes
Support processes are essential for providing the resources, infrastructure, and information required to execute both management and realization processes. They ensure that all operational and strategic goals can be met efficiently by addressing the logistical and administrative needs of maintenance operations. These processes include:
- DOC: Deliver the operational documentation.
- IST: Provide the needed infrastructures.
- MRQ: Deliver maintenance requirements during items design and modification.
- SER: Provide external maintenance services.
- SPP: Deliver spare parts.
- TOL: Deliver the tools, support equipment, and information system.
- RES: Ensuring the availability of internal and external human resources, spare parts, tools, and equipment.
- HSE: Managing the health, safety, and environmental risks associated with maintenance tasks.
- BUD: Allocating and managing financial resources for maintenance activities, ensuring that the necessary funds are available for both routine and emergency tasks.
- DTA: Recording and analyzing maintenance histories to inform future decisions and optimize processes.
- OPT: Continuously refining maintenance workflows and activities to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
Support processes align with the Asset Management Lemniscate by providing the necessary resources and data that feed back into the strategic decision-making cycle. Additionally, the support processes contribute to risk mitigation efforts, as described in the Asset Management Bow Tie, by ensuring that resources are in place to handle potential failures efficiently and safely.
4. Integration of Maintenance with Asset management Models
4.1 The Asset Management Lemniscate
The Asset Management Lemniscate model provides a visual representation of the continuous vertical and horizontal loop, better known as the vertical and horizontal Line of Sight, between asset strategy and operational execution. Maintenance processes, especially the management and realization processes, are deeply integrated into this loop. As assets progress through their lifecycle, data gathered from maintenance actions feeds back into the strategic decision-making process, influencing future policies, resource allocations, and improvement initiatives.
The Lemniscate emphasizes the importance of a dynamic, iterative approach to asset management. Maintenance, therefore, is not a static or isolated activity but a key contributor to the ongoing evaluation and adjustment of asset strategies. This ensures that assets remain aligned with organizational goals throughout their lifecycle, from design and acquisition to operation, modernization, and eventual decommissioning.
4.2 The Asset Management Bow-Tie
The Asset Management Bow Tie model complements the Lemniscate by providing a framework for risk management in maintenance activities. It visualizes the pathways through which risks are managed, highlighting the dual roles of preventive (defensive) and corrective (mitigative) actions in maintaining asset integrity.
The realization process, with its emphasis on preventive and corrective maintenance, forms the core of this risk management framework. Preventive maintenance reduces the likelihood of failure by addressing known failure modes before they occur, while corrective maintenance minimizes the consequences of failures that do happen.
The support processes, particularly in the context of risk management, resource provisioning, and safety measures, ensure that all preventive and mitigative actions are adequately supported.
5. The Industry 5.0 context: Human-Centric, Sustainable and Resilient
Maintenance
Industry 5.0 is characterized by a shift toward a more integrated and forward-thinking approach to industrial operations, with a focus on three core pillars: human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience. In this context, maintenance processes must adapt to support these goals, ensuring that assets not only operate efficiently but also contribute to the long-term viability and adaptability of the organization.
5.1 Human-Centric Maintenance
The human-centric pillar of Industry 5.0 emphasizes the collaboration between humans and technology, leveraging the strengths of both to create more intelligent and adaptive systems. Maintenance, traditionally viewed as a largely technical domain, must evolve to prioritize human input and engagement alongside automation and digitalization.
- Skilled Workforce: In Industry 5.0, the role of maintenance professionals becomes more strategic, requiring advanced skills to interact with intelligent systems, such as AI-driven predictive maintenance tools. The management process must focus on developing and nurturing these skills, ensuring that the workforce can effectively manage both physical and digital assets.
- Health and Safety: A key aspect of human-centric maintenance is the prioritization of worker safety and well-being. The support processes, particularly those related to risk management (HSE), must be enhanced to mitigate hazards in increasingly complex environments. AI-driven monitoring systems and collaborative robots (cobots) will play a critical role in reducing risks while allowing workers to focus on higher-level tasks.
Industry 5.0 sees human workers not as replaceable entities but as essential contributors to the maintenance process, offering creativity, adaptability, and problem-solving abilities that complement automated systems.
5.2 Sustainable Maintenance
Sustainability is a central theme in Industry 5.0, with an increasing focus on minimizing environmental impact while maintaining operational efficiency. In the realm of maintenance, this translates to the development of processes that extend asset life, reduce resource consumption, and mitigate waste.
- Extended Asset Life: Preventive and predictive maintenance, core aspects of the realization process, contribute directly to sustainability by ensuring that assets function optimally for longer periods. By avoiding unplanned downtime and extending the life of machinery and equipment, organizations can reduce the need for new materials and energy-intensive repairs or replacements.
- Energy and Resource Efficiency: Support processes like resource management (SPP and RES) must prioritize energy efficiency and the responsible use of materials. By optimizing resource consumption, maintenance can align with the broader goals of reducing carbon footprints and supporting circular economies.
Sustainable maintenance practices are integral to the longevity of both assets and the organization, ensuring that maintenance actions support environmental objectives and promote responsible stewardship of physical resources.
5.3 Resilient Maintenance
Resilience is the third foundational element of Industry 5.0, emphasizing the ability of organizations to anticipate, absorb, and recover from disruptions. In an increasingly unpredictable global environment, resilient maintenance processes are essential for safeguarding asset performance in the face of external shocks, whether they be technological, economic, or environmental.
- Anticipation of Disruptions: Resilient maintenance involves not just reactive responses but also proactive strategies to anticipate potential disruptions. This includes the integration of predictive analytics into the management process, where data-driven insights are used to foresee failures and adjust maintenance strategies accordingly. For example, the use of IoT sensors and AI can provide early warnings of potential breakdowns, allowing organizations to address issues before they escalate.
- Rapid Recovery and Adaptability: Resilience in the realization process focuses on minimizing downtime and restoring functionality swiftly after a disruption. By employing modular systems, spare part availability, and flexible resource deployment, maintenance teams can quickly recover from unexpected failures, maintaining operational continuity.
- Building Redundancy and Flexibility: Support processes like infrastructure management (IST) and spare parts provisioning (SPP) play a critical role in resilience by ensuring that organizations have the necessary backup systems and parts in place to handle emergencies. Moreover, resilience requires the continual improvement of processes (OPT), where lessons learned from past disruptions are incorporated into future maintenance plans.
In the context of Industry 5.0, resilience extends beyond traditional risk management. It requires a robust and adaptable maintenance framework that not only handles current challenges but also evolves to meet future uncertainties. By building resilience into maintenance practices, organizations can protect their assets and ensure long-term operational stability even in volatile environments.
6. Maintenance Engineering Lifestages Amidst Industry 5.0
Introduction: Maintenance Engineering in the Era of Industry 5.0
Maintenance engineering plays a pivotal role in this context, ensuring that physical assets perform their required functions in a safe, sustainable, and cost-effective manner throughout their life cycle. Critical to this process are the principles of maintainability—the capability of an asset to be efficiently maintained—and circularity, which focuses on reducing waste by enabling reuse, refurbishment, and recycling. These principles align closely with standards such as EN 17666, ISO 550XX:2024, and frameworks like the Asset Management Lemniscate and the Maintenance Framework.
By integrating maintainability and circularity across all life cycle stages, maintenance engineers ensure that assets contribute to the circular economy and achieve long-term value creation. Additionally, the evolution toward Maintenance 5.0—which prioritizes collaboration between humans and intelligent systems—further strengthens the role of maintenance engineering in achieving Industry 5.0 objectives.
6.1 Concept Stage: Embedding Maintainability and Circularity in Design
The concept stage represents the initiation of an asset’s lifecycle, where the foundational vision for the asset is developed. In this stage, maintenance engineering focuses on incorporating maintainability and circularity into the design philosophy, ensuring that early decisions enable efficient maintenance and sustainable resource use.
6.1.1 Maintainability in the Concept Stage
This ensures that assets are designed to minimize maintenance effort and downtime, supporting the long-term operational goals outlined in the Maintenance Framework.
Maintenance Fundamentals SAM, First Edition
6.1.2 Circularity in the Concept Stage
Circularity principles are embedded at the conceptual level by emphasizing material selection, modularity, and design-for-disassembly approaches. Maintenance engineers evaluate the potential for reuse, refurbishment, and recycling of components, ensuring that designs align with circular economy objectives. By integrating these principles early, organizations can reduce environmental impact and lifecycle costs. The Maintenance 5.0 philosophy further supports this integration by fostering collaboration between engineers, designers, and sustainability experts.
6.2 Development Stage: Designing for Optimal Maintainability and Circularity
In the development stage, the initial concept is refined into detailed designs and actionable maintenance plans. This stage is iterative, involving collaboration between multiple disciplines to ensure that maintainability and circularity objectives are realized.
6.2.1 Preliminary Design
Using the Asset Management Lemniscate, engineers evaluate design alternatives, balancing technical feasibility with environmental and economic considerations.
Digital tools such as AI-driven analytics and simulation models play a critical role in identifying potential risks and optimizing design solutions.These tools enable engineers to predict the long-term maintenance implications of design choices, ensuring alignment with sustainability and operational objectives.
6.2.2 Detailed Design
6.3 Realization Stage: Implementing Maintenance and Circularity Strategies
The realization stage focuses on translating design concepts into operational systems, ensuring that maintainability and circularity principles are embedded in the physical construction and commissioning processes.
6.3.1 Build Phase
In the build phase, maintenance engineers ensure that the construction process adheres to maintainability objectives. This involves verifying that components are installed with sufficient accessibility for maintenance tasks and that the as-built system aligns with design specifications. The Maintenance Framework emphasizes the importance of traceability and compliance during this stage, ensuring that as-built conditions reflect planned maintenance strategies.
6.3.2 Commissioning
During commissioning, maintenance engineers validate maintenance procedures and ensure that systems are ready for operation. Circularity is integrated by identifying opportunities to reduce waste and repurpose materials used during construction. Advanced tools such as augmented reality (AR) support training and validation processes, enabling personnel to familiarize themselves with maintenance tasks. The Asset Management Lemniscate helps engineers evaluate commissioning outcomes, ensuring that systems are optimized for operational efficiency and sustainability.
6.4 Utilization Stage: Sustainably Achieving Operational Excellence
The utilization stage encompasses the operational lifespan of the asset, where maintenance plans are executed, and performance is continuously optimized. This stage is critical for realizing the maintainability and circularity objectives established earlier.
6.4.1 Maintenance Execution
The Maintenance Framework provides a structured approach for revising schedules, improving task efficiency, and addressing emerging challenges.
6.4.2 Circularity in Operation
Circularity during utilization is achieved by extending asset life, reducing waste, and optimizing resource use. Maintenance engineers identify components suitable for refurbishment or remanufacturing, ensuring minimal environmental impact. Collaboration with operators and the use of AI-driven insights support sustainable decision-making, aligning operations with organizational goals and regulatory requirements outlined in ISO 550XX:2024.
6.5 Disposal/Transition Stage: Facilitating Circular Economy Practices
The disposal or transition stage focuses on decommissioning assets responsibly, ensuring alignment with circular economy principles. Maintenance engineers play a key role in facilitating reuse, recycling, and refurbishment processes.
6.5.1 End-of-Life Assessments
Maintenance engineers assess the remaining life of components and identify those suitable for reuse, refurbishment, or recycling. Using the Asset Management Lemniscate, they evaluate disposal strategies, balancing economic and environmental considerations. AI-powered tools support decision-making by analyzing asset conditions and identifying optimal end-of-life solutions.
6.5.2 Circularity in Transition
Circularity is achieved by prioritizing the reuse of materials and components, ensuring minimal waste. Maintenance engineers document lessons learned and transfer knowledge to future projects, reinforcing the principles of Maintenance 5.0. Compliance with standards such as EN-IEC 60760-2 ensures that disposal practices align with organizational and environmental goals, contributing to the circular economy and reducing overall lifecycle costs.
7. The SSAMM Maintenance Assessor Tool
7.1 Introduction: Measuring Maintenance Process Maturity
Effective maintenance is a strategic necessity rather than a simple operational function. Organizations that fail to structure and optimize their maintenance processes risk higher operational costs, increased asset downtime, and inefficient resource utilization. Despite this, many organizations struggle with understanding the maturity level of their maintenance processes and how to improve them systematically.
The SSAMM Maintenance Assessor Tool: Maintenance Process was developed as a maturity scan to help organizations assess, structure, and improve their maintenance execution. Rooted in EN 17007: Maintenance Process and Associated Indicators, this tool provides a comprehensive framework for evaluating the 16 core maintenance processes, divided into three major process families: Management, Realization, and Support.
The SSAMM Assessor Tool is an essential part of the SSAMM Maintenance Landscape Model, aligning maintenance maturity with strategic asset management objectives through the Asset & Maintenance Management Lemniscate. It helps organizations bridge the gap between long-term asset investment planning and real-time maintenance execution, ensuring that maintenance is aligned with business objectives, sustainability strategies, and Industry 5.0 innovations.
This tool is described in the first edition of SAM (Sustainable Asset Management) and provides a structured way to visualize maintenance maturity using a radar diagram. The goal is to identify gaps, benchmark performance, and optimize processes, ensuring that maintenance becomes a key enabler of asset value, reliability, and sustainability.
7.2 The Structure of the SSAMM Maintenance Assessor Tool
The SSAMM Assessor Tool is built on 16 essential maintenance processes, which are divided into three major groups:
- Management Processes – Focused on strategic governance, planning, and continuous improvement.
- Realization Processes – Covering the execution of maintenance activities, including preventive and corrective maintenance.
- Support Processes – Ensuring that maintenance teams have the resources, data, and infrastructure needed for effective execution.
Each of the 16 maintenance processes is measured individually and plotted in a radar diagram, providing a visual representation of an organization’s maintenance maturity. The SSAMM Assessor Tool allows companies to:
- Benchmark their maintenance processes against industry standards.
- Identify strengths, weaknesses, and gaps in their current approach.
- Develop targeted improvement strategies to enhance process efficiency.
- Align maintenance strategies with broader asset management goals.
The tool aligns with key international maintenance standards, ensuring that organizations follow best practices for structured maintenance management. Some of the most relevant standards include:
- EN 17948 (Maintenance Management and Functions) – Defines how organizations should structure maintenance governance and strategic planning.
- EN 16991 (Risk-Based Maintenance) – Ensures that maintenance strategies are developed based on risk analysis and failure impact assessments.
- EN 15628 (Maintenance Personnel Competence) – Highlights the importance of skilled professionals in maintaining assets efficiently.
- EN 17666 (Digital Maintenance) – Introduces digital tools, AI-driven diagnostics, predictive maintenance, and IoT applications for modern maintenance management.
By integrating these standards into the SSAMM Maintenance Assessor Tool, organizations can align their maintenance processes with international best practices, ensuring both efficiency and compliance.
7.3 The Role of the SSAMM Maintenance Assessor Tool in Industry 5.0
With the emergence of Industry 5.0, maintenance is shifting from a reactive function to a predictive, AI-driven, and autonomous process. Organizations must ensure that their maintenance processes are structured and mature enough to integrate with digital transformation strategies. The SSAMM Maintenance Assessor Tool provides clear insights into whether an organization’s maintenance approach is ready for the challenges and opportunities of Industry 5.0.
The horizontal line of sight, within the Asset & Maintenance Management Lemniscate, ensures that maintenance is connected to finance, supply chain, and operational planning, preventing a siloed approach. Meanwhile, the vertical line of sight ensures that strategic goals drive real-time maintenance execution, making maintenance a proactive, intelligence-driven function.
By applying predictive analytics, AI-driven diagnostics, and real-time asset monitoring, organizations using the SSAMM Assessor Tool can:
- Transition from reactive to proactive maintenance by using data-driven decision-making.
- Implement condition-based and predictive maintenance strategies.
- Ensure cost-effective maintenance planning through risk-based methodologies.
- Improve asset longevity and reliability through continuous process improvement.
This structured assessment ensures that organizations are not only measuring their maintenance maturity but also taking the right steps to optimize and modernize their maintenance execution.
7.4 Linking the SSAMM Assessor Tool to the Asset & Maintenance Management Lemniscate
The SSAMM Assessor Tool is not an isolated instrument—it is deeply embedded within the SSAMM Maintenance Landscape Model, ensuring that maintenance maturity is directly linked to strategic asset management. The Asset & Maintenance Management Lemniscate provides a framework that integrates asset investment decisions with maintenance execution, creating a continuous feedback loop between long-term planning and operational maintenance activities.
The SSAMM Assessor Tool strengthens this connection in several ways:
- Horizontal Integration – Maintenance is aligned with business functions such as operations, finance, and sustainability to ensure a holistic asset management approach.
- Vertical Integration – Maintenance strategies are developed in alignment with organizational objectives, ensuring that decisions made at the strategic level translate into structured execution at the operational level.
By using the SSAMM Assessor Tool, organizations can:
- Identify weak points in their maintenance processes and align them with strategic objectives.
- Ensure compliance with international standards and best practices.
- Support long-term sustainability by integrating digital tools and data-driven strategies.
- Optimize resource allocation and workforce planning.
The tool ensures that maintenance is not just an operational function but a strategic enabler of asset value, risk reduction, and sustainability.
7.5 Putting it together: Advancing Maintenance Maturity with the SSAMM Assessor Tool
The SSAMM Maintenance Assessor Tool provides a structured, objective, and data-driven approach to measuring maintenance maturity. By assessing 16 core maintenance processes, the tool enables organizations to benchmark their performance, identify gaps, and implement structured improvements.
In the era of Industry 5.0, maintenance must evolve into a predictive, proactive, and digitally integrated function. The SSAMM Assessor Tool facilitates this transition by:
- Measuring maintenance maturity in a structured way.
- Providing clear, data-driven insights for improvement.
- Aligning maintenance execution with asset management strategies.
- Supporting organizations in adopting Industry 5.0 technologies.
For organizations aiming to optimize maintenance, reduce costs, and improve asset reliability, the SSAMM Assessor Tool is a crucial instrument for achieving structured, sustainable, and future-proof maintenance management. By integrating this tool into their maintenance strategies, organizations can transform maintenance from a cost-driven necessity into a key enabler of long-term asset performance and value creation.
8. Wrap Up
As Industry 5.0 redefines industrial operations with its focus on human-centricity, sustainability, and resilience, maintenance engineering must evolve into a strategic enabler of these principles. This transformation integrates maintainability, circularity, and advanced technologies across all life cycle stages, ensuring organizations can adapt to a complex, interconnected world while maintaining operational efficiency.
Frameworks like EN 17007, the Asset Management Lemniscate, and the Asset Management Bow Tie provide structured guidance for aligning maintenance strategies with Industry 5.0 objectives. These frameworks emphasize the continuous interaction between asset management strategy, operational execution, and sustainability objectives, transforming maintenance into a dynamic, risk-managed, and value-driven function.
By adopting the holistic approach of Maintenance 5.0, which blends human ingenuity with technological innovation, organizations can extend asset life, minimize environmental impact, and build resilience against future challenges. Maintenance thus becomes more than a technical discipline—it is a cornerstone for driving long-term adaptability, sustainability, and growth in the Industry 5.0 landscape.
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