If your facility has many repairs, then you could be wasting repair resources. A repair assessment policy prevents such waste.
Not all repairs restore equipment to “like new” condition. Have you ever felt uncomfortable with a “highly customized” repair, noting “This thing will run, but it’s held together with spit and baling wire”? That’s different from replacing a failed sensor and restarting the machine.
A grading system that relies on craft judgment can let you flag failing equipment for engineering review. The solution might be a component upgrade, system redesign, or total replacement.
Consider this reliability confidence scoring system:
5 ― Fully confident about reliability. Operator error, replace indicating lamp, replace small fuses solve minor cosmetic issues, perform minor adjustments
4 ― Mostly confident about reliability. Replace major components.
3 ― Not confident about reliability. Root causes not solved or repair is “get by”.
2 ― Confident in future failure. Age-related breakage, replacement parts must be fabricated, time-consuming to repair, equipment misapplied.
1 ― Replacement needed. Equipment obsolete, outdated design, inherent safety defects.