Asset Maintenance: Types with Benefits and Drawbacks [Infographic]

It does not matter what the size of your organization is; what matters is that your organization has assets. And assets need maintenance!

Maintenance is seen as just another expense of the organization. Maintenance comes in several types, and each type has its own advantage and disadvantage.

Hence, in this blog, we will explore several asset maintenance types with their benefits and drawbacks.

1. Preventive Maintenance

There is no doubt that preventive maintenance is one of the most popular & effective types of maintenance. However, it is not always the right option because every organization has its own unique requirement. Sometimes preventive maintenance can be very costly compared to other possible solutions.

Preventive maintenance is also known as planned & proactive maintenance because it is scheduled in advance. This is the most popular and used practice for maintenance activity. Preventing potential problems is the objective of preventive maintenance activity.

Benefits of preventive maintenance:

- Maintenance expenses are less;

- Downtime is less;

- Enhanced productivity due to reduced chances of asset failure;

- Better conservation of assets.

Drawbacks of preventive maintenance:

- Labor-intensive;

- Probability of maintenance overdone;

- Prone to resource wastage.

2. Breakdown Maintenance

This is the simplest maintenance strategy, and in this strategy, assets are utilized until they fail. When a breakdown occurs, reactive maintenance is executed to fix the equipment and return it to full activity. This strategy is common when an asset doesn't significantly affect productivity, daily tasks, or operation.

Benefits of breakdown maintenance:

- Minimum or no planning is required;

- Does not affect productivity;

- Simple process.

Drawbacks of breakdown maintenance:

- Extremely costly;

- Failure is highly unpredictable;

- Safety risk to employees;

- Shortsighted approach.

3. Emergency Maintenance

As the name suggests, this activity is unplanned and unscheduled. This activity is a reactive equipment maintenance activity.

When a piece of equipment needs immediate attention in order to keep the equipment safe, operational, or productive, that is called emergency maintenance. It affects the other activities of the organization. Moreover, it's very costly maintenance.

It is used to prevent a threat to the lives or the property of a company. Emergency maintenance can be applied to keep the facility operational and safe. It is mostly used in chemical plants, tenant buildings, etc.

Benefits of emergency maintenance:

- No initial cost involved in this maintenance;

- No planning is required.

Drawbacks of emergency maintenance:

- Risk is high;

- Emergency maintenance can be very expensive;

- Interrupts daily operation;

- Impacts business productivity.

4. Predictive Maintenance

As the name suggests, it predicts the asset or equipment failure before it occurs so that maintenance can be executed prior.

Predictive maintenance uses the machine data to notify the maintenance team about the asset & equipment risk of failing.

The simplest way to execute predictive maintenance is via using asset tracking software or CMMS (computerized maintenance management system). The software can keep track of these costly assets and also keep track of their maintenance history.

Preventive maintenance has a lot of potential to save money, whether it be detecting a potential problem in advance, asset performance, or minimized man-hours from maintenance.

Benefits of predictive maintenance:

- Early detection of potential asset failure;

- Downtime is decreased;

- Complete utilization of machine parts until they are not capable of carrying operation;

- Cost minimized.

Drawbacks of predictive maintenance:

- Unpredictable costs;

- High skill level required to perform this maintenance;

- Employees must be well-trained;

- Flexibility required.

5. Condition-based Maintenance

Lots of asset failures occur due to negligence of asset maintenance, overestimating the asset life, long continuous working hours, wear & tear of the asset, etc. These are some of the main reasons for asset failure.

They can result in unexpected asset breakdown & disaster. So, these sorts of situations must be avoided. This is where condition-based maintenance comes into play.

The objective of this maintenance is to monitor assets & find the potential issue so that proactive maintenance can be scheduled when it needs, not before.

Condition-based maintenance shall be implemented when certain signs are noticed, such as decreased performance. This maintenance follows the “calculated risk” philosophy.

It can be applied to critical as well as non-critical assets. This maintenance only takes place when assets need maintenance & it does not matter when was the last maintenance done.

Benefits of condition-based maintenance:

- Increased uptime;

- Enhanced asset life;

- Very low probability of sudden asset failure;

- Low maintenance expenses.

Drawbacks of condition-based maintenance:

- High skilled workers are required;

- Limited time to perform maintenance.

6. Corrective Maintenance

This is a reactive activity in nature. It is executed when any defect or fault occurs in an asset, machine, or equipment. Corrective maintenance restores the equipment depending on the fault.

It includes various steps after failed equipment such as diagnosis, cause of failure then ordering replacement part & installing new part then testing functionality and continuation of the process.

The corrective maintenance can be divided into two parts: immediate corrective maintenance and deferred maintenance. In the Immediate corrective maintenance process, one has to take quick action right after the failure.

On the other hand, deferred corrective maintenance, in this process the maintenance activity is scheduled for later, there can be many reasons behind it. Such as, replacement parts might not be available, it may take a long time, or technicians are required on some other high priority cases.

Benefits of corrective maintenance:

- The low initial cost involved in this maintenance;

- Minimum planning required;

- Easy implementation;

- Complete resource utilization;

- Extend asset life.

Drawbacks of corrective maintenance:

- Daily operation halt;

- Unpredictable.

Wrap Up

These were some of the most common & popular asset maintenance types. Each maintenance has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Thus, it depends on your business strategy and requirement which one fits into your business.

In case if you need any assistance implementing any of the maintenance strategies, we are always there for you.