Proactive maintenance is a maintenance strategy that focuses on identifying and fixing problems with equipment before they turn into serious malfunctions or breakdowns. The main goal of this approach is to address the root cause of the problem, instead of just repairing the “symptoms.” That is the main difference from reactive maintenance, which solely aims to fix broken equipment—a much more expensive approach.
There are two main strategies of proactive maintenance:
- Preventive maintenance—a standard approach that concentrates on regular checks and maintenance scheduling
- Predictive maintenance—an advanced strategy aimed at forecasting potential equipment failures.
Nowadays, many companies utilize maintenance management programs to help them with proactive maintenance activities like maintenance scheduling and tracking.