In general all kind of equipment must be maintained if it is to fulfil its function for a useful life. This can be achieved using one of the four key maintenance strategies - on failure maintenance, fixed time maintenance, condition based maintenance and design out maintenance. Each of these strategies has a place within an optimised maintenance plan. The first three maintenance strategies are mostly applied and implemented in the various ST maintenance plans. The fourth strategy in contrast, design out maintenance (also referred to as equipment consolidation / replacement), is rather applied in an ad-hoc strategy than in an organised way. This paper shall outline the general factors that must be considered in order to implement design out maintenance. Furthermore this paper shall demonstrate a possible approach for the application of design out maintenance regarding transport and handling equipment