Run to Failure Maintenance (RTF)

Run To Failure or Breakdown Maintenance (RTF) is the most basic of any Maintenance Strategy, as it says you wait until an asset fails and then fix or replace it. It is a perfectly acceptable strategy if the consequences of failure are immaterial and any costs associated with such a failure are negligible.

Some prime examples are:

• replacing a light bulb or battery at home
• low cost/non-critical (non-repairable) motor in a facility with an automatic backup

Often an RTF policy for some assets is a recommendation from a Maintenance Strategy Review having evaluated the asset’s criticality etc and the cost to benefit ratio of any other maintenance philosophy being applied.

Maintenance based upon RTF is certainly not a financially sound strategy without any cost benefit reviews being undertaken to support it’s use.