Abstract. Components in engineering systems are degenerated due to different conditions. In order to avoid serious loss, the components need to be replaced before failure occurs to provide the intended and safe operation of the systems. Therefore, the maintenance decision-making method based on remaining useful life considering different optimal targets was presented in this paper, and the purpose of this method was to find an optimal choice of maintenance actions to be performed on a selected group of machines for engineering systems. Then, the optimal maintenance interval based on the minimum expected cost rule was discussed, and the arithmetic reduction of intensity model was introduced to describe the influence of remaining useful life. Finally, a full life experiment of gearbox was given to demonstrate the preferred decision-making with the influence of the remaining useful life.