Fives Maintenance: Industrial Maintenance FAQ
Fives Maintenance, part of Fives Group, provides industrial maintenance services for equipment from Fives and other manufacturers. Its expertise combines performance-based maintenance contracts, industrial performance consulting through Road Partners, and workforce training through Fives Academy Maintenance.
This FAQ brings answers covering contracts and commitments, maintenance consulting, equipment and sectors, digital and predictive maintenance, training and safety, and international support. It is designed for industrial teams assessing their maintenance needs and choosing a maintenance partner.
Road Partners maintenance consulting offering
Contracts and commitments
A contract in which we commit to measurable outcomes rather than a volume of hours. Instead of billing time spent on site, we commit to the indicators that matter for your production: equipment availability, response and repair times, energy consumption, spare parts, and sometimes scrap rate or production quality.
The indicators are defined contractually before start-up, based on an audit of your installed base and your own production constraints — there is no standard grid. They are then reviewed at regular intervals throughout the contract; these reviews are when the maintenance plan is adjusted. If the indicators are met or exceeded, bonuses may be established; however, all contracts include penalties if the objectives are not achieved.
This change in approach matters because it aligns our economic interests with yours: an hour we do not need to spend because a breakdown has been avoided is a gain for both parties, whereas a time-and-materials contract would consider it lost revenue.
In addition, the major strength of this type of contract is that it is fixed-price on an annual basis, which means there are no budget surprises.
We specialize in levels 1 to 4 — from simple operations, rounds, cleaning and inspections to complex diagnostics, major overhauls and corrective interventions requiring specific tools and expertise — and we provide access to level 5 through the Group’s equipment-manufacturing companies, which cover equipment redesign, modernization and reconstruction.
Mixed models are possible, with maintenance shared between our clients and ourselves, both in terms of equipment scope and maintenance levels.
The levels mentioned here are those defined by the NF X60-000 standard; the scope of a contract can therefore be expressed using the terminology already used by your maintenance department.
Yes, and this is a frequent situation. A takeover begins with an audit of the installed base, existing maintenance plans and intervention history — including information recorded informally rather than in the CMMS. The takeover is managed as a full project covering all aspects: purchasing, HR, maintenance methods, technical scope and logistics. It is coordinated and presented before go-live, so that the full scope can be taken over autonomously on day one.
Two main workstreams are launched:
An HR workstream covering recruitment, personnel transfer and training, led by our social engineering and training teams.
A maintenance-methods workstream on the client site to carry out audits and prepare maintenance procedures, intervention instructions, FMEAs and Pareto analyses of critical equipment.
The audit phase also makes it possible to calibrate the new contract’s performance indicators, as it establishes the actual baseline rather than the one shown on paper.
Average duration of the steps:
A 2- to 3-month start-up phase before go-live on site.
On day one, 100% of the operational team and management structure are in place, equipped with the tools and processes required to maintain the site.
A 3-month grace period applies to contractual penalties.
It is very rare to have an overlap period between two providers.
Multi-year contracts are the standard. Performance commitments require a reference period before the indicators become meaningful, and the deployment of predictive maintenance requires sufficient machine history to distinguish an actual drift from normal variation.
Shorter commitments are possible for a defined scope — an overhaul campaign, modernization project or diagnostic assignment — but they do not fall under the performance-based model.
The average duration is three years, with two optional one-year renewals, and no automatic renewal clause.
Contracts may also be concluded for periods ranging from 5 to 15 years, including revision formulas to reflect inflation in materials and wages.
No contract is signed for less than three years, as our teams are recruited on permanent employment contracts. It would therefore be impossible to recruit permanent staff for a one-year customer contract.
It should also be noted that exit clauses in the event of provider failure make it possible to terminate a three-year contract if necessary.
Both. The balance depends on the criticality of your equipment and the maintenance workload.
Resident teams handle day-to-day operations at sites where responsiveness and workload are critical. They are present on site to provide daily maintenance, 24/7 if necessary, with an optional on-call system for nights and weekends when the workload does not require a physical presence.
We also provide one-off support for smaller sites and remote support through connected monitoring, as well as access to specialists for work that requires their expertise, such as major overhauls, unusual failure modes or equipment requiring specific technical knowledge.
Eighty percent of our contracts are resident arrangements, while 20% involve one-off interventions.
Road Partners maintenance consulting offering
Road Partners is Fives Maintenance’s industrial performance consulting offering. It helps industrial companies improve equipment performance, strengthen their maintenance organization and develop their teams’ skills. Support covers the entire transformation, from assessing the current situation and building a roadmap to implementing actions in the field. Road Partners draws on more than 25 years of Fives Maintenance experience in operating and maintaining critical industrial equipment.
Road Partners supports industrial companies seeking to reduce production downtime, improve equipment availability, control maintenance costs or strengthen organizational effectiveness. Assignments may include maturity audits, maintenance strategy development, process and methods optimization, reliability studies, asset management, spare-parts management or improvements to maintenance data quality. The objective is to identify, quantify and prioritize the initiatives that will create the most value for the industrial site. The deliverable is a comprehensive roadmap defining the actions and levers needed to improve maintenance performance at the site.
Each engagement follows a three-step approach.
Assess: analyze the current situation and build a roadmap tailored to the client’s objectives.
Transform: support teams in the field and implement practical actions.
Deploy: embed maintenance methods and optimized processes and, where appropriate, implement digital solutions such as Alchemy by Fives CortX or Eizi.
This approach bridges the gap between diagnosis and execution, with operational support tailored to each organization’s priorities and level of maturity.
Road Partners engagements target measurable improvements in availability, throughput and costs. Internal references for the offering report reductions of up to 35% in production downtime, increases of 25% in line throughput and decreases of 25% in maintenance costs, depending on the context and the actions deployed. These gains are achieved by optimizing processes, addressing bottlenecks and adapting maintenance strategies to equipment priorities. Actual results naturally depend on the initial assessment, scope and maturity of the site.
Road Partners combines consulting expertise with hands-on field experience. Recommendations are built on Fives Maintenance’s expertise in industrial contracts, maintenance methods, equipment reliability and performance management. Consultants can also draw on a centralized methods team, technical experts, digital solutions and training programs. This combination makes it possible not only to define a strategy, but also to support its implementation, strengthen team capabilities and embed new practices over the long term.
Scope and equipment
Aerospace, rail, logistics—including postal operations and order fulfillment—defense and manufacturing, supported by 700 specialists across more than 70 client sites.
These sectors may appear to have little in common, but they share the challenge our organization is designed to address: production equipment that is costly to stop, often unique or highly site-specific, installed in plants or warehouses with a wide variety of systems, and frequently subject to regulatory or safety requirements that rule out a purely generic approach to maintenance. Combining broad capabilities with specialist expertise enables us to maintain a wide range of conventional equipment as well as unique, highly technical assets.
Machine tools and robots, lifting equipment, automated lines, surface-treatment lines, parcel and mail sorters, order-fulfillment systems, industrial refrigeration and HVAC systems, coordinate-measuring machines, radiography booths, autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), robots and stacker cranes.
This list reflects the areas in which our teams have in-depth expertise rather than a strict limit on our capabilities. These assets share two characteristics: they are critical to production and rarely standardized—precisely where generic maintenance contracts reach their limits.
Yes. Approximately 75% of our activity involves equipment from other manufacturers. Our teams work on all types of equipment and, importantly, on every generation of machinery.
The Group’s engineering heritage is an advantage rather than a restriction. After more than two centuries of designing and building industrial equipment, Fives Group understands how these machines are intended to operate. This also enables complex diagnostics and level 5 rebuilds on third-party equipment. In these cases, we provide an end-to-end offering covering design, manufacturing, service and on-site maintenance. We therefore address both CAPEX and OPEX, with a significant advantage in total cost of ownership and equipment or system ROI because controlling the entire value chain makes cost optimization much more effective.
Digital and predictive maintenance
The first point to clarify is a common translation issue in France.
English distinguishes between two separate concepts:
- Condition-based maintenance (CBM)
- Predictive maintenance (PdM)
Many French industrial companies—and some solution providers—use the French term for “predictive maintenance” as an umbrella expression for what is actually condition-based maintenance. This usage became widespread through marketing around the Industrial Internet of Things.
Condition-based maintenance
Principle: one or more physical parameters—such as vibration, temperature, oil analysis or electrical current—are monitored continuously or periodically, and an intervention is triggered when a threshold is exceeded.
Logic: “If parameter X exceeds value Y, intervene.” It reacts to a measured condition rather than forecasting over a period of time.
Reference standard: ISO 17359
Example: a vibration sensor issues an alert when amplitude exceeds 4.5 mm/s, prompting an intervention to be scheduled.
Predictive maintenance
Principle: historical data and statistical or machine-learning models are used to estimate a component’s remaining useful life (RUL) and predict when failure is likely to occur, before the threshold is reached.
Logic: “Based on the data trend, this bearing is likely to fail in 23 days.”
It adds a time-based, predictive dimension, often using machine learning, trend analysis and degradation models. This makes it possible to optimize the intervention date precisely—neither too early nor too late.
Reference standard: ISO 13381-1
Predictive maintenance remains an ambitious goal. Achieving it requires three solid foundations:
- High-quality data
- Reliable connectivity
- Effective monitoring of data and equipment
Only after these three fundamentals are firmly established in an industrial environment can predictive-maintenance models be developed. Such models require substantial learning periods before they become effective. Fives Maintenance and Fives CortX have been working on these three foundations since 2018. Their combined industry expertise and tools, including Dizisoft and Alchemy, are intended to enable a predictive-maintenance offering by 2028–2029.
Yes. These solutions are integrated into Fives Maintenance contracts, but they are also marketed independently by Fives CortX. They address use cases beyond maintenance, including production and product quality.
Industrial data collected from your equipment remains your property. Access rights, retention periods and authorized uses are defined contractually before any connection is made. Our cybersecurity-by-design approach and our contracts clearly define data ownership and segregation between sites.
Our ISO 27001 certification covers the information security management system within which this data is processed.
Teams, training and safety
Yes, through Fives Academy Maintenance, our Qualiopi-certified training school. More than 7,700 hours of training have been delivered, either at your site or in our fully equipped training workshop.
Programs are organized around four pathways: technical trades, maintenance methods, safety and management. Training is frequently combined with a maintenance contract rather than purchased separately, enabling your teams to take on progressively more of the maintenance levels we initially cover for you.
The school addresses the shortage of industrial maintenance skills. For most clients, recruiting the required profiles is more difficult than funding the positions.
Training is delivered by operational technicians and experts who work on contracts and dedicate part of their time to teaching. This ensures a highly practical, field-oriented level of training.
MASE, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001, ISO 17025, Qualiopi, Cemafroid category 1 and EcoVadis Silver.
Together, these certifications cover on-site safety, quality management, environmental management, information security, calibration and measurement, training, refrigerant handling and corporate social responsibility performance—the requirements most industrial procurement teams review before shortlisting a maintenance provider.
Yes. This represents 30% of our activity. Our teams include personnel with the security clearances required to work in defense environments.
The required clearance level is assessed case by case with your security manager, as it depends on the site and equipment concerned.
Fives Maintenance International
Yes—directly in Mexico and Belgium, with additional support available through Fives Group entities in the United States, the Gulf region, India, South Africa and Asia.
A direct presence means that our own maintenance teams operate to the same standards and certifications as in France. Group entities extend this coverage for clients whose sites are located outside these countries.
Yes, through a single contract coordinated from France with local delivery teams. This gives you one accountable point of contact and a common set of performance indicators across all sites.
The practical limitation is coverage. Where we have neither a direct presence nor a nearby Group entity, response times cannot match those of a resident team. We make this clear during the proposal phase rather than after signature.
Explore Fives Maintenance services
Explore industrial maintenance services from Fives Maintenance, industrial performance consulting through Road Partners, and technical, maintenance methods, safety and management training through Fives Academy Maintenance.
- Explore Fives Maintenance
- Discover Road Partners maintenance consulting
- Explore Fives Academy Maintenance
- Our international maintenance network
Discuss your maintenance needs
Looking for support with an existing maintenance contract, an equipment reliability challenge or your teams’ skills development? Contact Fives Maintenance to discuss your site, equipment and operational priorities.