A well structured Service Level Agreement (SLA) for assets is essential for setting clear expectations between service providers and owners. A defined SLA helps minimise asset downtime, improve performance standards, and manage maintenance costs. Not all assets are business critical and could potentially have an impact on operations.

When entering into an agreement with a service provider, its paramount to first define the criticality of this asset. Some asset can take an N+1 approach whereby having some spares is sufficient whereas, some assets are essential for uninterrupted operations, and their failure could result in significant downtime, financial loss, or safety risks. For example, a Biosafety cabinet used for production would have a better structured SLA than a Bio Welder with easily available spares in rotation.

Before presenting the service requirements to the third party vendor, a criticality definition of the asset should be defined( High-Criticality Asset, Medium-Criticality Asset or Low-Criticality Asset) . The response time and resolution time come to play hand in hand with the criticality level of the asset.

A third party vendor can propose a Gold standard level service agreement but what might be needed for the asset can be a silver or bronze level. Tailoring the SLA on criticality leads to better risk management, overall improved operational efficiency and uptime guaranty.