Autonomous Maintenance

Pre-start inspections

Digital forms & checklists

Maintenance & work orders

Types of maintenance guide

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance (PM) is a proactive maintenance strategy in which assets are serviced at predetermined time or usage intervals to reduce the likelihood of failure. Tasks may include inspections, lubrication, filter changes, calibrations, and component replacements. PM schedules are typically based on manufacturer recommendations, regulatory requirements, or historical failure data.

Pre-Start Inspection

A pre-start inspection is a systematic check performed on plant, equipment, or vehicles before each use or shift to identify defects, damage, or unsafe conditions. It typically follows a standardised checklist covering safety-critical items such as brakes, steering, lights, tyres, guards, fluid levels, and warning devices. Pre-start inspections are a legal requirement under workplace health and safety regulations in Australia and are similarly required in other jurisdictions, including OSHA equipment inspection requirements in the United States and PUWER requirements in the United Kingdom.

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

An SOP is a documented, step-by-step set of instructions that standardises how a routine task or process should be performed. In asset management and maintenance, SOPs ensure consistency, reduce errors, and support compliance with safety and regulatory requirements. They cover everything from equipment start-up procedures and inspection protocols to maintenance workflows and emergency response steps.

Maintenance Backlog

The maintenance backlog is the accumulated queue of approved but not yet completed maintenance work orders at any point in time. It includes all work that has been identified, validated, and approved for execution but has not yet been scheduled or completed due to resource constraints, parts availability, equipment access, or prioritisation decisions. A healthy backlog is a normal and necessary part of maintenance planning because it provides a buffer of ready-to-schedule work that allows planners to optimise crew utilisation. However, an excessively large or growing backlog signals that the organisation is generating maintenance demand faster than it can execute, which leads to increased equipment risk, deferred safety tasks, and declining asset reliability. Backlog work orders should be prioritised by criticality, with safety-related and compliance-driven tasks at the top, followed by tasks that protect critical production assets, and then lower-priority items that can be deferred without significant operational or financial risk.

Shutdown Maintenance

Shutdown maintenance, also called turnaround maintenance, is a planned period during which equipment, a production line, or an entire facility is taken out of service to perform major maintenance, overhauls, inspections, and modifications that cannot be carried out while the asset is operating. Shutdowns are common in process industries such as oil and gas, mining, power generation, and manufacturing where continuous operation makes it impossible to access certain components during normal running. Planning for a shutdown typically begins months in advance and includes scope definition, resource allocation, material procurement, contractor coordination, safety planning, and a detailed task schedule designed to minimise the duration of lost production. The scope of a shutdown can range from a single production line being offline for a day to an entire refinery or processing plant being shut down for several weeks, with hundreds of contractors working simultaneously on thousands of individual tasks that must be carefully sequenced and coordinated.