Preventive Maintenance vs. Predictive Maintenance

Equipment and assets need maintenance to perform their best. A good preventive vs predictive maintenance strategy is essential for ensuring functionality, increasing efficiency, and reducing downtime. Two main facility maintenance types—preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance—can help. However, there is confusion as to what they are and do. 

Can maintenance managers and teams use just one? Can these two types of maintenance be used together? Do organizations need to hire clairvoyants to predict the lifespans of their machinery, vehicles, or equipment failures?

The good news is you don’t need a crystal ball. We’ll unpack the differences between preventive and predictive maintenance, how they handle machine maintenance management tasks, when to use each, and the benefits they deliver.

The basics of preventive maintenance 

Preventive maintenance centers around scheduled inspections and tasks to ensure assets function at their best. Preventive maintenance (PM) is routine maintenance performed on equipment and assets in order to decrease their likelihood of failure. While the term “maintenance” may spark ideas like “breakdowns,” “repairs,” or “new parts,” PM should actually be performed on fully functioning equipment. Different types of preventive maintenance may include filter changes, equipment inspections, or vehicle oil changes. 

This type of maintenance aims to extend the life of a facility’s equipment and prevent breakdowns and unplanned downtime. Its benefits include:

• Lengthening asset lifespan 
• Decreasing mean time between equipment failure
• Increasing equipment efficiency, availability, and reliability
• Promoting a safe work environment
• Improving audit compliance
• Reducing unexpected maintenance management costs

How software helps with preventive maintenance 

Maintenance management software is well-suited for preventive maintenance. Once users input recurring inspection and time-based work orders into the system, the software manages the rest. The software creates schedules to service assets, and technicians can refer to the checklists, walkthroughs, or procedures outlined in the work order. This regular maintenance leads to extended equipment life, saving an organization’s bottom line and creating operational efficiency.

Learn more about preventive maintenance.

What is predictive maintenance?

Predictive maintenance (PdM) is a relatively new type of maintenance. While it is in the same ballpark as preventive maintenance, it differs in that it uses advanced artificial intelligence (AI) to predict where and when to complete maintenance. 

Predictive maintenance uses specialized downtime tracking software, equipment sensors, remote monitoring, and AI to constantly monitor asset performance and mechanical health. It’s a form of condition-based maintenance that alerts maintenance technicians when equipment is nearing a breakdown or failure mode. It also allows the equipment to become self-advocating, which drastically reduces planned and unplanned downtime and reactive maintenance costs. Its benefits include:

• Collecting data while machines carry out everyday functions
• Recognizing and reporting on problems before asset failure occurs
• Flagging maintenance and inspection needs before repair becomes costly or extended downtimes reduce revenue
• Increasing the lifespan of all critical assets
• Improving equipment efficiency, availability, and reliability by supplementing regular maintenance
• Determining if equipment repair is less expensive than total asset replacement
• Preventing machine failure before it occurs

Learn more about predictive maintenance.

How software solutions help with predictive maintenance

Predictive maintenance is complex, and while companies can implement a successful program internally, a software solution is a near-must. It requires tons of equipment data. In order to implement a predictive maintenance program, organizations must collect, store, and analyze it.

Predictive maintenance also requires Internet of Things (IoT) sensors to send to the maintenance software. These give facility managers the information they need to complete predictive maintenance programs.

Preventive vs. predictive maintenance 

As demonstrated above, preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance strategies are two different management types that fall under the same maintenance tree. One is not better than the other. They are complementary corrective maintenance strategies that, when paired together, can deliver incredible results and savings to an organization’s maintenance costs. 

Due to the upfront investment of predictive maintenance service, a facility should consider starting small and working its way up. Preventive maintenance has a lower buy-in and can be the way to begin an efficient proactive maintenance management journey. When effectively implemented and managed, preventive maintenance can replace the need for predictive solutions. Properly done preventive maintenance can virtually eliminate the need for costly predictive maintenance approaches. 

How FMX can help with preventive and predictive maintenance

An effective computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) is a near prerequisite for implementing preventive and predictive maintenance programs. Companies aiming to create a comprehensive maintenance program must find a vendor that enables sophisticated management. 

FMX allows organizations to successfully plan preventive maintenance for their facilities. In turn, this decreases downtime, increases productivity, cuts costs, and more for organizations.