What Is Preventive Maintenance? Definition, Examples & Benefits

What does Preventive Maintenance mean?

Why Preventive Maintenance Matters

Unplanned downtime is expensive and disruptive. Research shows that 82% of companies have experienced at least one unplanned downtime event in the last three years. In asset-heavy industries, downtime can cost up to $260,000 per hour.

• The U.S. Department of Energy reports preventive maintenance can cut total maintenance costs by 12–18% (DOE via PNNL.gov).

• JLL found that reactive repairs are 2–5 times more expensive than scheduled upkeep.

• Extending equipment lifespan delays costly capital expenditures.

• Reducing safety risks protects both workers and customers.

For most organizations, focusing on prevention is not optional—it’s a fundamental maintenance strategy to safeguard assets, people, and profit margins.

Unlike reactive maintenance, which often leads to costly surprises, a well-designed PM program keeps critical assets reliable through regular maintenance and structured inspections.

Preventive Maintenance in Different Industries

Every industry has programs that will take different forms depending on industry requirements and asset criticality. Routine maintenance and regular inspections form the backbone of effective PM programs across sectors.

Utilities

• Quarterly transformer inspections with infrared scanning to detect overheating

• Seasonal testing of circuit breakers before storm seasons

• Maintenance schedules to reduce unexpected equipment failures in substations

Telecommunications & Fiber

• Backup system tests at towers before hurricane season

• Regular servicing of fiber cabinets to prevent overheating

• Maintenance programs for underground and aerial assets to keep service reliable

Fleet & Transportation

• Oil changes and brake inspections triggered by mileage or usage hours

• Tire rotations based on condition monitoring rather than breakdowns

• Maintenance logs tracked through mobile work orders

Facilities Management

• Seasonal HVAC filter replacements

• Fire suppression system inspections on a fixed calendar schedule

• Lighting and generator testing to reduce downtime in emergencies

Oil & Gas / Energy

• Preventive maintenance tasks on pumps, compressors, and valves to reduce costly failures

• Pipeline monitoring to detect leaks early

• Work orders that automate recurring inspections to keep compliance intact

Manufacturing

• Routine lubrication and torque checks on production equipment

• Cleaning and calibration of sensors to maintain equipment performance

• Replacing worn parts before they lead to unexpected breakdowns

Each of these examples shows how preventive maintenance programs reduce downtime, improve safety, and keep operations predictable.  Regular maintenance allows companies in every industry to extend asset lifespan and avoid the chain reaction of failures that result from neglected PM programs.

Preventative Scheduling

Preventive maintenance strategies typically follow three approaches:

1. Calendar-Based: Service every 90 days, quarterly, or annually

2. Usage-Based: Triggered by mileage, run hours, or production cycles

3. Condition-Based: Based on inspection results, vibration analysis, or sensor data

Usage-based maintenance ensures that service is tied directly to how often critical assets are used rather than arbitrary time intervals—reducing waste and improving uptime.

AI-Driven Scheduling: Modern FSM platforms use artificial intelligence to recommend the optimal time for maintenance by blending usage patterns, asset histories, and technician availability. This helps reduce downtime and ensures critical equipment is serviced before unexpected breakdowns occur. 

Tools That Make Preventive Maintenance Work

When organizations rely on spreadsheets, paper forms, or whiteboards, preventive maintenance programs often fail to scale. Surprisingly, 50% of companies still track preventive maintenance manually (Plant Engineering).

To manage effectively, companies use field service management (FSM) software or CMMS platforms that provide:

• Automated work orders triggered by schedule or usage

• Mobile access so field teams can maintain equipment in real time

• Integration with inventory to ensure parts are available

• Asset histories for compliance and audits

• Dashboards to monitor performance and backlog

When PM programs are centralized in digital systems, organizations can ensure consistency in routine maintenance and regular inspections, avoiding gaps that occur when teams rely on manual tracking.

Getting Started With a Preventive Program

Here are steps we recommend to implement or improve maintenance strategies:

1. Identify critical equipment and highest-risk assets

2. Define service intervals and create task checklists

3. Implement a centralized system to manage schedules and work orders

4. Assign clear responsibilities to field teams

5. Track KPIs like uptime, maintenance costs, and work order completion rates

6. Start small—then expand your preventive maintenance program over time

This approach ensures that PM programs evolve from simple calendar-based plans into comprehensive systems that blend regular maintenance, usage-based triggers, and condition monitoring.

The most effective preventive maintenance programs evolve. They begin with a few high-priority assets and gradually expand into a broader strategy that integrates condition monitoring and predictive analytics.

Maximizing control

Preventive maintenance is about control. We can’t stop equipment from aging, but we can stop small issues from turning into costly, unexpected breakdowns.

For most businesses it helps to 

• Reduces downtime

• Extends equipment lifespan

• Protects margins

• Keeps our teams focused on proactive work, not emergencies

By implementing maintenance strategy as part of a broader asset management framework, we shift from reactive maintenance toward a culture of reliability. Routine maintenance keeps teams efficient and ensures that critical assets deliver consistent performance.

Final Takeaway

If you’re evaluating field service or asset management solutions, preventive maintenance should be the foundation of your maintenance strategy. It balances cost and reliability, reduces risk, and ensures your operations keep moving without disruption.

When PM programs are managed effectively, teams shift from reactive maintenance to proactive control, ensuring regular maintenance tasks keep critical assets running smoothly.

With the right CMMS or field service management software in place, preventive maintenance stops being a burden—and becomes the engine that drives efficiency, safety, and long-term growth.