Predictive vs Preventive Maintenance: When to Make the Switch
Time-based maintenance is predictable but wasteful. Condition-based maintenance is efficient but requires infrastructure. Here's how to evaluate the right approach for your assets.
The Maintenance Strategy Spectrum
Industrial maintenance strategies exist on a spectrum from purely reactive to fully predictive. Most manufacturers operate somewhere in the middle—primarily preventive, with pockets of reactive maintenance where schedules slip.
When Preventive Maintenance is the Right Answer
Preventive maintenance remains appropriate when the failure mode is age-related and well understood, the cost of condition monitoring exceeds the value of prediction, the asset is low-criticality with easy replacement, or spare parts inventory management is well established.
When to Switch to Predictive
The business case for predictive maintenance strengthens when the asset is high-criticality, failures are condition-dependent rather than age-dependent, lead time for parts or resources exceeds 48 hours, or maintenance teardowns are expensive.
The Infrastructure Investment
Predictive maintenance requires continuous sensor data (vibration, temperature, current, acoustic), edge computing or reliable connectivity, machine learning models trained on your specific assets, and integration with your CMMS for automated work order generation.
Peunier's predictive maintenance platform covers 14 to 20 high-priority assets in a 10-week engagement, with payback periods under 6 months on high-criticality equipment.