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Condition‐based maintenance is the diagnosis of component failure or a prognosis of a component's time to failure. The aim of this paper is twofold: a summary of the main assumptions regarding condition‐based maintenance found in the literature into eight postulates, and a comparison of the postulates against industrial practice. The postulates were formulated regarding the technical system, the managerial system and workforce knowledge.

The postulates were examined in a multiple case study of five large firms in the process industry.

The results indicate that some postulates were supported with empirical findings. Limited or no support was found for postulates concerning the application of prognostic activities, use of dedicated software, use of procedures, use of training, and the active management of domain‐related knowledge availability.

Practitioners can use the eight postulates as key elements in the management of condition‐based maintenance technology, and for the comparison of their current condition‐based maintenance practices with what literature generally proposes.

Other researchers have reported on condition‐based maintenance, but most publications focus on applied mathematics and new monitoring and simulation models. Only limited attention was paid to industrial practice so far. The study is one of the first in‐depth empirical studies into actual condition‐based maintenance practice.

The purpose of this paper is the development of an empirically based typology of condition based maintenance (CBM) approaches, including the relevant characteristics and requirements.

An exploratory case study was conducted in a major gas production facility. The CBM typology that resulted from this case study was subsequently tested against a large set of CBM literature.

In the literature, CBM is usually presented as a single theory or practice. The paper finds that CBM in fact includes several different approaches and that each of the approaches is only suitable in situations where the specific characteristics of the approach match the situational characteristics. Aided by these findings, a new typology for CBM was developed. The typology is based on the method for obtaining the expected value, or trend (through statistical vs analytical modeling) and the type of data used (process vs failure data). A subsequent literature survey reveals that the proposed typology is applicable for the categorization of a large number of CBM cases found in the literature.

One of the most important requirements in selecting and using a CBM approach is the availability and integration of various types of knowledge, in particular process engineering and maintenance engineering knowledge. Practitioners can use these insights to assess current CBM cases, and identify the key characteristics of current and future use of various CBM types.

This paper presents a novel and empirically based framework for the classification of the different CBM types. Such frameworks were lacking in the current literature. The paper adds to maintenance engineering literature by identifying the key dimensions of the various types along with their key requirements.

This paper seeks to study maintenance policies on a plant‐wide level. It focuses on the effectiveness of condition‐based maintenance (CBM). It highlights the role of the production context and the importance of using appropriate metrics to assess CBM.

A simulation model was developed to explore the effects of production context using traditional performance indicators (costs and availability of each piece of equipment) and a more comprehensive metric (line efficiency).

The results showed that CBM has the best performance among other PM policies in loosely coupled processes. By contrast, in tightly coupled processes, CBM has a negative effect on the production line efficiency because it increases equipments' blockage and starvation states.

The simulation model was developed to reflect the reality. Nevertheless, some assumptions have been used to develop the conceptual and computerized model, which can be explored further in future research.

The idea of this paper originates from empirical findings of fellow researchers. The findings in this paper provide a better understanding of how CBM affects key performance indicators in different production contexts and therefore help managers to appropriately execute CBM programmes.

This study focuses on CBM from a new angle. The majority of the literatures on condition‐based maintenance either discusses pure technical issues, or focusses on single equipment only. In this research, the effectiveness of CBM for two processes is studied and CBM is compared with block and age‐based replacement policies using a comprehensive performance indicator.