What Is Asset Criticality Analysis?
Also known as: criticality ranking, equipment criticality, asset criticality assessment
Definition
Asset criticality analysis ranks equipment by the consequence of its failure, scoring factors such as safety, production loss, quality, environmental impact and repair cost, so maintenance effort, monitoring and spares are focused on the assets that matter most.
Asset Criticality Analysis Explained
The method assigns each asset a score against a set of consequence criteria and often a likelihood factor. A common result is an A, B, C ranking: A assets are those whose failure harms safety or stops a bottleneck, C assets are low consequence and can be run to failure. Scores are agreed by operations, maintenance and engineering together, not by maintenance alone.
A usable scheme is simple. For example, scoring from 1 to 5 on safety, production, quality and cost, then combining them to a rank. Over-detailed schemes tend to be abandoned. Redundancy matters: a pump with an installed standby is less critical than a single pump feeding the same process.
The rank is stored on the asset record in the CMMS or EAM, as a criticality field or class. It then drives decisions: PM frequency, which assets get condition monitoring, which spares are stocked, work order priority defaults and which equipment goes through RCM first. In SAP the ABC indicator on equipment or functional location is one commonly used place for it.
Criticality changes with the plant. A machine that becomes the sole source for a customer program becomes more critical. The ranking should be reviewed when production flow, redundancy or customer commitments change.
Why It Matters
- Concentrates limited maintenance labor and budget on assets with the highest consequences.
- Justifies spares and monitoring investments with a documented rationale.
- Supports work order prioritization, so urgent jobs on critical assets are not queued behind minor requests.
- Provides the starting list for RCM and predictive maintenance programs.
In Practice
A machine shop ranks 220 assets on safety, throughput and quality impact. Thirty-one come out as A, including the only five-axis mill that makes a customer's controlled part. These get shorter PM intervals, vibration monitoring and a stocked spindle spare. Eighty assets rank C, mostly bench equipment with redundancy, and move to run-to-failure with no scheduled PM.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is asset criticality different from ABC inventory analysis?
ABC inventory analysis ranks items by annual usage value. Asset criticality ranks equipment by the consequence of failure. They use similar letters but measure different things.
Who should set the criticality scores?
A group of operations, maintenance and engineering staff, since each sees different consequences. Maintenance alone tends to rank everything highly.
Where is criticality stored?
As a field or classification on the asset record in the CMMS or EAM, so reports, work order priorities and PM rules can read it.
Related Terms
Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM)
Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is a structured analysis that determines, for each asset function and failure mode, the most effective maintenance strategy, such as preventive, condition-based, redesign or run-to-failure, based on consequence and failure behavior.
EAM (Enterprise Asset Management)
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) is software and practice for managing physical assets across their whole lifecycle, from acquisition and commissioning through maintenance, cost tracking and disposal, usually across multiple plants or sites.
FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis)
FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) is a structured risk assessment that identifies how a product or process can fail, the effects and causes of each failure, and existing controls, then prioritizes actions to prevent the highest-risk failures.
Preventive Maintenance (PM)
Preventive maintenance (PM) is planned servicing of equipment at set time or usage intervals, such as lubrication, inspection or part replacement, performed before a failure occurs to reduce unplanned downtime and extend asset life.
ABC Analysis
ABC analysis is an inventory classification method that ranks items by annual consumption value and groups them into A, B, and C classes, so planning attention, counting frequency, and control effort are concentrated where the money is.
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