
What is Preventive Maintenance (PM)?
Preventive maintenance takes place before an asset or piece of equipment breaks down. It is the opposite of reactive maintenance, which takes place only after a piece of equipment breaks down. PM tasks can be carried out out predetermined intervals, such as a time period or meter count. A preventive maintenance strategy aids in minimizing unplanned downtime and repair costs.
The overall goal is to extend the life and reliability of assets, but it is far too complex to maintain manually for most organizations. A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) or enterprise asset management (EAM software) solution allows organizations to effectively carry out PM strategies.
CMMS/EAM software enables users to store and quickly access important asset information. Examples include equipment status, history, manufacturer-recommended guidelines, spare parts, processes and more. Using the software, maintenance departments can schedule and assign PM tasks in advance, taking into account slow times for the business.
Create a maintenance schedule for each piece of equipment
Enter important information for each asset such as date purchased, warranties, codes, meter readings, repairs, equipment downtime and more
Quickly make decisions related to equipment replacement with complete history for each asset at your fingertips
Manage spare parts and inventory at multiple sites, which leads to decreased downtime and increased employee productivity
Utilize comprehensive information to identify trends and opportunities for improvement
Reports, graphs and dashboards can be used to track all costs associated with maintenance with many query options as a summary or detail level

Read More
Read a few of our blog posts geared toward the importance of preventive maintenance.