Breakdowns rarely happen at convenient times. A generator won’t start when you need backup power. A fiber cabinet overheats during peak demand. A service truck is suddenly off the road just when you’re short on technicians. For field teams like ours, these aren’t just technical glitches. They’re expensive, disruptive setbacks.
That’s why we believe in getting ahead of them.
Preventive maintenance gives us the structure to do exactly that. By putting a plan in place based on real usage patterns, time intervals, or field inspections, we can reduce downtime, improve safety, and make better use of our equipment and people. And with the right systems in place, it’s easier than ever to manage those plans across a growing operation.
If you're trying to understand how preventive maintenance fits into your field or asset management strategy, here’s what we’ve learned and how we’re putting it into practice.
What We Mean by Preventive Maintenance
Let’s start with the basics. Preventive maintenance (or preventative maintenance, depending on preference) means performing routine upkeep on equipment before it fails. That could include inspecting cables, changing filters, tightening connections, lubricating moving parts, or replacing worn components. It’s all done on a schedule or when usage hits a certain threshold.
It’s different from corrective maintenance, where we fix something after it’s broken. And it’s more accessible than predictive maintenance, which uses sensors and machine learning to forecast failures. Preventive maintenance is about taking smart, proactive steps to avoid problems in the first place.
Why It Matters
We’ve all experienced the pain of unplanned downtime. Work grinds to a halt, costs spike, and customers are left waiting. It’s not just frustrating. It’s expensive. According to public research, 82% of companies have experienced at least one unplanned downtime event in the last three years. In some industries, that downtime can cost up to $260,000 per hour (IIoT World).
Shifting to a preventive model helps us avoid those situations. The U.S. Department of Energy reports that preventive maintenance can reduce total maintenance costs by 12–18%
(DOE via PNNL.gov). JLL also found that reactive repairs are often 2 to 5 times more expensive than preventive work (JLL).
For most companies, preventive maintenance isn’t a luxury. It’s how they protect their assets, their people, and more importantly their margins.
How It Fits into the Bigger Picture
Every team handles maintenance differently. Here’s a quick view of the different approaches:
- Corrective: Wait until something breaks, then fix it
- Preventive: Stay ahead with regular servicing
- Predictive: Use data to anticipate failure
- Risk-Based: Prioritize maintenance by criticality
We’ve found that preventive maintenance offers the best balance of cost, effort, and reliability, especially when we don’t yet have the sensor data or analytics required for full predictive capabilities.
Preventive Maintenance in Asset Management
If you’re managing a growing number of distributed assets—field vehicles, infrastructure, machinery, or backup systems—preventive maintenance is essential. For us, it’s a foundational part of our asset management strategy.
By implementing preventive routines, we reduce the risk of sudden outages, avoid emergency work orders, and extend the usable life of our assets. This improves service reliability, reduces stress on our technicians, and makes our operations more predictable.
Of course, doing this well requires visibility. We rely on field service software to track asset conditions, manage schedules, assign work, and maintain maintenance histories. Without that, tasks fall through the cracks and we’re back to reacting instead of planning.
If you’re considering building a stronger asset management framework, this overview of enterprise asset management (EAM) is a good place to start.
How We Make It Work in the Field
Preventive maintenance doesn’t look the same across every environment. Here’s how we apply it:
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In utilities, we schedule quarterly inspections for transformers and use infrared scanning to detect overheating.
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In telecom, we test backup systems at towers before storm season.
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For fleet vehicles, we track mileage and usage hours to trigger oil changes and brake inspections.
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In facilities, we replace HVAC filters and check fire suppression systems on a set seasonal schedule.
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In manufacturing, our teams conduct regular lubrication and torque checks on production equipment.
Whatever the asset, the goal is the same: fix it before it breaks.
Scheduling Preventive Maintenance
We use three main strategies to determine when to service equipment:
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Calendar-Based: We follow time intervals (e.g., every 90 days)
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Usage-Based: We act based on mileage, run hours, or number of cycles
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Condition-Based: We use inspection results or sensor data as a trigger
It’s not one-size-fits-all. We often blend approaches based on asset type and operational risk.
Tools That Help Us Scale
When we first started with preventive maintenance, we tracked everything manually using spreadsheets, paper forms, and whiteboards. But as our team grew, so did the complexity. We needed a better way to stay organized and accountable.
Surprisingly, 50% of companies still rely on manual tracking methods
(Plant Engineering). If you’re in that group, it might be time to rethink your process.
Here’s what we look for in a preventive maintenance platform:
- Work order automation based on schedule or usage
- Mobile access for field teams
- Parts inventory integration
- Custom checklists and asset histories
- Dashboard views to monitor compliance and backlog
Having a system in place makes everything easier, from assigning tasks to tracking performance and preparing for audits.
Getting Started
If you’re starting fresh or reworking your current approach, here’s how we recommend getting underway:
- Identify critical assets and failure risks
- Define service intervals and task checklists
- Set up a centralized system to manage schedules
- Assign responsibilities across your team
- Track KPIs like uptime, task completion, and cost
- Improve as you go—start small, then expand
We didn’t build our program overnight, and we’re still refining it today. But every step we’ve taken has reduced stress on our field teams and helped us deliver more consistent service.
What Preventive Maintenance Means for Us
At its core, preventive maintenance is about taking control. We can’t stop equipment from aging, but we can stop small issues from becoming big ones. It’s how we avoid chaos, reduce reactive work, and keep our operations moving.
By staying ahead of problems, we reduce downtime, protect our margins, and give our teams the confidence to do their best work without surprise failures getting in the way.
