Trends and critical points in maintenance management for MSMEs: a bibliometric review

Abstract

This study presents a bibliometric review related to maintenance management in SMEs, based on 174 scientific articles published in Scopus and Web of Science, between the years 1992 and 2025, related to the search criteria maintenance management, predictive maintenance, preventive maintenance, maintenance engineering, maintenance strategy, SMEs, the study applies a hybrid methodology through the use of tools such as R Studio – bibliometrix and VosViewer,  with the aim of processing bibliographic data from scientific publications to obtain trends such as the average number of citations per document (10.63), number of citations per document (3.28), authors (469), references (4908) which allows us to relate the keywords, identify trends and patterns. The results show that from 2018 onwards there has been an increase in production due to technological, economic and social changes related to improved productivity, competitiveness and sustainable maintenance. India and the United States lead with the highest number of publications, while institutions such as AMS Technology Center, Kalasalingam University, and Punjabi University stand out. Maintenance management in small and medium-sized enterprises ensures operational continuity, improves product quality and image, and should therefore be considered a strategic investment, provided that adequate planning and scheduling are taken into account depending on the type of company, Human talent management, control, and monitoring face challenges due to budgetary constraints, as it is often viewed as an expense rather than an investment,  and as a reactive approach that prioritizes fixing problems instead of preventing them. This study identifies research conducted in different contexts and regions.