What is Preventive Maintenance?

Preventive maintenance is a proactive approach to maintaining equipment and machinery, involving scheduled
inspections, servicing, and repairs to prevent failures and extend asset life. This maintenance strategy aims to
minimize downtime, reduce repair costs, and improve overall reliability and efficiency. Implementing a well-
planned preventive maintenance program can lead to increased productivity, cost savings, and enhanced safety
in an organization.

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You wouldn’t wait until your car’s engine fails to get the oil changed. So, you already know the value of
preventive maintenance. Simply put, maintenance performed on a regular basis to reduce the likelihood of
failure is preventive maintenance.
Also called planned or preventative maintenance, PM is conducted throughout an asset’s normal operating
conditions. This helps avoid unexpected breakdowns and their pricey consequences, such as unplanned
downtime.

Preventive maintenance is not based on a machine’s condition. Instead, it is based on recommendations from
the asset manufacturer or on the average life cycle of an asset. Basing maintenance on a calendar means that
some maintenance tasks are done when they aren’t strictly needed. It also means that teams can ensure that
they have the budget, inventory, and scheduling to perform the tasks.

Preventive maintenance software, including a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS), can
simplify preventive maintenance even more through features such as auto-scheduled work orders. Streamlining
maintenance practices reduces emergency, reactive work and increases worker safety and efficiency.

Performed consistently, preventive maintenance services, also called preventative maintenance services, can
help your organization avoid expensive downtime and disruptions.

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Types of Preventive Maintenance and Preventive Maintenance Examples

 Calendar- or Time-based preventive maintenance

These types of preventive maintenance are completed at regular or scheduled intervals with help from
preventive maintenance software. While all critical equipment should have PM, regularly checking
 equipment critical to production will help decrease breakdowns.
A motor-pool may have required fleet maintenance every 4 months. This is a great example of
preventive maintenance.
 Usage-based preventive maintenance
Another type of preventive maintenance example is called usage-based, where a machine’s statistics
are used to determine corrective actions. Usage statistics can include cycle counts, runtime,
miles/kilometers traveled, or hours, among others.
For example, one kind of PM could be where an industrial maintenance technician checks machine
usage statistics. Then, depending on measurements and usage readings gathered in rounds,
maintenance may be scheduled.

Preventive Maintenance Software

Preventive maintenance software, such as eMaint’s CMMS, is a key tool to moving away from reactive
maintenance and daily disruptions. With the right program, maintenance teams can reduce costs and increase
uptime. Preventive maintenance software is important because it allows maintenance teams to set calendar-
and/or meter-based PM tasks for every asset. Within the preventive maintenance task record, users add a
detailed description that can include important information like task procedures and guidelines.

Preventive maintenance software also reduces data entry by eliminating the need to create new tasks for every
PM schedule. The preventive maintenance software simply associates a PM task with multiple PM schedules.

It also lets users maintain consistency in their processes. Preventive maintenance software enables teams to
create a sequence of procedures for every preventive maintenance task. That way, technicians have a step-by-
step guide to completing their work.
How Does Preventive Maintenance Work?

Organizations avoid cost overruns by scheduling preventive maintenance. And all parts and maintenance
resources can be planned and accounted for to streamline the process.

Preventive maintenance is a relatively straightforward strategy to establish and set in motion. Managers
schedule PMs based on calendar dates or usage, often at the manufacturer’s recommendation. Teams shut
down equipment during a specified date and time. Then, they perform the outlined tasks on that piece of
equipment.

Managers can set up PMs with breakdown and time-based triggers. CMMS software triggers alarms to alert
employees of required maintenance. Software triggers a breakdown PM when equipment cannot be used until
maintenance is performed. Scheduled maintenance is triggered whenever the calendar rolls over to a pre-
specified date with a time trigger.

For example, forklift manufacturers may suggest performing maintenance every 150 to 200 hours of use,
establishing a time-based trigger. Performing this maintenance can mean extending the life of assets,
increasing productivity, improving overall efficiency, and reducing maintenance costs.

Preventive maintenance does not require additional tools other than the manufacturer’s recommendations and a
team willing to adopt new maintenance processes. To achieve buy-in from the group, it is important to outline
the benefits of a PM program and identify how a preventive maintenance schedule will make the jobs of
technicians, mechanics, and engineers much more manageable.

Teams leveraging a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) trigger periodic preventive
maintenance inspections based on calendar intervals or usage (for air compressors and forklifts) or mileage for
company vehicles. This company has increased its planned maintenance percentage from 20% to 80%, and
their on-time completion rate for PMs is 85% and continues to improve.

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