The objective of this article is to clarify the concept of the maintenance process in the industrial environment for future research in the field of technical sciences since no analysis has been done in the last three years. The research, taking into account the methodology of Guirao and Silamani, focused on identifying denominations, purposes and results of the industrial maintenance processes, as well as the relationships between them. A systematic review of the literature, referred to the subject, was developed through scientific documents published between 1980 and 2018. Finally, a conceptual proposal is made.