A maintenance maturity assessment method for the manufacturing industry

Purpose The paper proposes a maturity assessment method to measure the state of maintenance practices in a company. Design/methodology/approach The method assumes that a maintenance department is evaluated in terms of its managerial, organizational and technological capabilities. By its adoption it is possible to analyse the maturity level reached by a company, in order to classify the criticalities in its maintenance processes; a company can also make a benchmark with the best companies of a reference sample. Findings The paper presents the method as a support to identify the levers to improve the maintenance management system. The method is demonstrated on a company whose maturity is assessed before making a benchmark against a sample of other manufacturing companies located in the Northern Italy. Originality/value The paper presents a scoring method for maturity assessment and a procedure to use it in order to identify the criticalities in maintenance processes and to subsequently drive the improvement of the maintenance management system. The paper should be useful both to researchers and maintenance professionals interested in using new methods for long‐term planning in maintenance.