Determination of optimum maintenance method based on maintenance cost

The present economical and financial crisis that affects all industrial organizations, have also large impact on the maintenance activity. Unfortunately, due to the pressure of costs reduction, this activity still continues at a very low level, with important effects in the future. The decision to adapt a maintenance method should be the result of a scientific analysis, taking into account a series of technical and security factors, as well as, economic ones, and certainly, all the other costs this activity includes. Key words: total productive maintenance, corrective maintenance, systematical preventive maintenance, conditional preventive maintenance, probability of failure, direct costs, cost of downtime.