Effective maintenance reduces overall company cost because production capacity is available when needed. The company makes a product with this capacity to sell at a profit. This explains the reliability–cost relationship: focus on overall cost reduction and reliability gets worse, but focus on reliability improvement and overall cost goes down. Nevertheless, examining the cost of the maintenance operation cannot be dismissed as unimportant. After maintenance effectiveness, maintenance efficiency must be considered. What if the same or better maintenance could be provided for less cost? What if the company could grow by adding new production capacity and maintain it without increasing the current maintenance cost?
Keeping the purpose of maintenance in mind, one may focus on the cost of the maintenance operation. Understanding the details of one’s maintenance system provides the information on how it may be improved. Many companies trying to become more competitive change their maintenance budget without any understanding of how their maintenance system works.

Richard D. Palmer
“Maintenance Planning and Scheduling Handbook”,
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