A Guide to Predictive and Preventative Maintenance
In any industrial setting, whether it’s manufacturing, processing, mining, or food production, maintenance is a vital part of the process.
Proper maintenance helps fend off one of the biggest problems your business faces: downtime. When parts fail, important machinery breaks down. The right maintenance strategy helps mitigate against downtime, aiming to avoid catastrophic failures that can lead to a line stop or production losses.
Getting it wrong can be very costly. A survey of 450 businesses in the US and Europe found 82% of companies have suffered at least two unplanned outages over the last three years1. This unscheduled downtime can cost businesses hundreds of thousands of dollars for every hour they’re not operating.
Some of these costs can include:
- Lost productivity caused by downtime
- Cost of replacing equipment
- Labor costs to get back up and running
Getting it right is all about trying to mitigate against those periods of unplanned downtime. Maintenance and repair, when done well, prevents these failures before they happen, so you can control downtime and carry out repairs at a time that works best for you. Below, we take a look at the two most effective approaches to maintenance: predictive and preventative. Find out more about the key differences between, and benefits, of the two compared to reactive maintenance.
Difference Between Predictive and Preventative Maintenance
Predictive and preventative maintenance are about eliminating breakdowns before they happen. Both favor early intervention, rather than reacting to something after the fact.
Each approach can be beneficial to your operations. But they do differ. Understanding the difference between preventative and predictive maintenance can help you implement the most effective maintenance plan.