Predictive maintenance vs. preventive maintenance: definitions

Whatever the size of your business, implementing effective maintenance management tools is essential. The CMMS market offers a wide range of solutions that promise savings of time and money, but also require a solid initial investment. All maintenance professionals can assure you that the implementation of predictive maintenance strategies and/or preventive are worth it, and that they are of the utmost importance for managing your equipment.

How to choose the right maintenance strategy for your equipment according to your budget?

Technological trends are shaking up the industrial sector

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), big data, predictive maintenance and CMMS are already revolutionizing maintenance thanks to their powerful proactive approach. For many business owners, one of the major concerns is to ensure that equipment will function as required with the minimum amount of maintenance possible during its life cycle; they are therefore eager to equip their workshops or factories with the latest available technologies, especially in terms of automation.

Thanks to the concept of Industry 4.0, today's factory is smarter, stronger, and more flexible than ever. Monitoring the condition of equipment has been possible for several years now, thanks to various control means, sensors and other tools and methods (e.g. vibration and oil analysis). The great novelty lies in the ability to simply enter and analyze data, as well as to create predictive algorithms with the help of a new generation CMMS to anticipate and prevent possible breakdowns. This is obviously a big change for the maintenance world.

The calendar feature offered by Mobility Work allows you to plan all your preventive and predictive maintenance interventions.

So, do you need to review your already established preventive maintenance routines, and invest all your efforts and a substantial budget in the service of a new predictive strategy? Far from being incompatible, preventive and predictive maintenance strategies are complementary.

Predictive maintenance vs preventive maintenance

Differences between the two maintenance strategies

The table below lists the most important characteristics of these two maintenance management strategies.

Preventive MaintenancePredictive MaintenanceWhat is its objective? Maintain equipment based on the assumption that it will deteriorate within a certain period of time, as defined by the equipment manufacturer or life statistics; the equipment will be replaced or repaired prior to failure Monitor trends that predict circumstances; predict when the equipment may fail and prevent it through maintenance operationsBy whom is it performed? Maintenance technicians or machine operatorsControl experts, analysts, maintenance techniciansHow often? Regularly on a specific schedule to avoid the risk of breakdownTasks are performed only when they are needed, on scheduled datesRequired resourcesGMAOEquipment for predictive methods such as thermography, vibration analysis, and others; analytical tools and GMAOConsequence on the production cycleEquipment is regularly shutdownEquipment is shut down only before a predicted failure

Is predictive maintenance available to everyone?

Predictive maintenance is difficult and expensive to implement, which is why it is more popular with large companies. Experienced professionals take a long time to master the right predictive model, and update it continuously to ensure its accuracy and effectiveness. If not implemented and monitored in the right way, a predictive model can easily lead to errors that can be fatal for many industries, including aerospace, automotive, defense, energy, etc.

On the other hand, every effort made to adopt a predictive maintenance strategy is worth it, and the potential gain is significant: improved factory reliability, better machine availability, production safety by avoiding catastrophic breakdowns, delays and other obstacles.

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Why are SMEs turning to preventive maintenance?

It is clear that predictive maintenance is very expensive for many SMEs. Indeed, it requires a lot of resources (equipment, time, expertise). When it comes to preventive maintenance strategies, some businesses use external suppliers; however, this does not always seem to be the best long-term solution. Using external maintenance suppliers can in fact cause a slowdown in the production cycle, and ultimately requires an investment almost similar to that of setting up a preventive maintenance routine in a small business. Therefore, setting up an internal preventive maintenance service should be one of the priorities for small business managers.

Mobility Work is a CMMS solution that allows you to plan and manage your maintenance interventions, find the entire history of your machines, easily manage your spare parts and much more, for 30 euros per month and per user. Mobility Work requires no special training or IT configuration, and adoption is quick and easy.

Are you interested in maintenance management and want to know more in order to increase your productivity and save money? Try our CMMS application for free for 7 days, and improve your maintenance management today!