When running a business, it is vital that you are aware of the maintenance strategy and approach that you want to take when maintenance action needs to be taken. There are two main types of maintenance; planned preventative maintenance (PPM) and reactive maintenance. To help you decide which type of maintenance is right for your business we will be sharing with you the benefits and drawbacks of PPM and reactive maintenance.
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Planned Preventative Maintenance
PPM refers to scheduled maintenance, where maintenance checks are performed at regular intervals, for example, every 6 months or yearly. Assets are checked whilst they are running smoothly and operating as normal. This will hopefully help to avoid any unexpected large issues with equipment and therefore be more cost-effective, as minor issues will be identified and dealt with during those regular maintenance checks.
One of the main advantages of PPM is that there should be less downtime for each piece of equipment as they are being checked frequently for faults. This benefits businesses because the equipment will only have a short amount of downtime and will not be out of operation for long periods. This also links to PPM being more cost-effective as it is more likely that minor issues will be picked up during maintenance checks, therefore will cost less than a large maintenance issue being identified without notice and at random.
However, with planned preventative maintenance there is a chance that the cost of PPM can outweigh the cost of reactive maintenance. This may be the case if the equipment is being tested and checked too often without letting the equipment run to failure, this is more common for minor assets.
Want to see how we can help you with your planned preventative maintenance or reactive maintenance? Download our Product and Features guide where we run through everything our software has to offer.
Reactive maintenance
Reactive maintenance is where equipment is repaired or replaced only when an issue occurs. Ultimately, reactive maintenance waits until assets run to failure, with the hope that nothing goes wrong or breaks down prior to this point. This strategy doesn’t involve any regular maintenance checks or services for equipment until they begin to fail or break down.
This can benefit businesses who are looking to reduce costs as it can lower their monthly budget by avoiding paying regular maintenance checks for assets that are running with no problems. Another benefit is that businesses will get the maximum use and value out of their equipment, as long as they run to failure with no issues. However, this can be problematic when equipment fails because the cost of repairing or replacing it may be higher than what routine maintenance would cost.
In addition, a drawback of reactive maintenance is any unplanned downtime of equipment. Due to the fact that businesses will not be able to predict or prepare for equipment to break down, there will be unexpected downtime where equipment will be out of use whilst it is getting repaired or replaced. This can be very costly not only financially but also can lead to delays and disappointed clients or customers.
Every business is different and has its own strategy in how to manage its maintenance, this can depend on the size of the business varying from a startup company to a corporate company. In most cases, planned preventative maintenance (PPM) is usually the best way to go as it allows you to be more prepared and stay on top of managing equipment performance. However, if waiting until an asset breaks down to repair it is the approach you would prefer to take then reactive maintenance is right for you.
Here at FaultFixers, we offer both PPM and reactive maintenance to ensure that whatever maintenance management approach your business would like to take we can offer our services and help you along the way!
If you have any questions about FaultFixers, you can book a call with our team to check out our system.
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