What Are the Different Types & Benefits of Reactive Maintenance?

Maintenance is important for all organizations, especially if pieces of equipment are crucial for daily operations. In order to keep assets well-functioning, maintenance must be performed regularly. Maintenance is an important factor in keeping assets well-performing, and when assets are maintained, their upkeep expenses are controlled.

Maintenance plays a crucial role in minimizing asset performance issues and avoiding asset failure as well. When you have a lot of equipment, it becomes difficult to maintain assets, and this is where you require an automated maintenance management system such as CMMS (Computerized Maintenance Management System) software.

However, maintenance is divided into two categories: proactive maintenance and reactive maintenance. In this blog, we will focus on reactive maintenance. So, without wasting any time, let us begin!

What Is Reactive Maintenance?

The objective of maintenance is to analyze assets and their reports, then perform maintenance as per the requirement. You can schedule work as per the priority of the asset.

Reactive maintenance is implemented when a breakdown has occurred, which is why it is also known as breakdown maintenance. Now assets need to be repaired in order to work properly.

In some cases of reactive maintenance, it can be very expensive, and daily work suffers as well. You must be wondering why it is so expensive? Because failure occurs in the busy hours when the asset is working.

So, assets need to be brought back into running condition as quickly as possible. In these types of cases, when there is urgency, then expenses increase as well. Because assets need other resources rather than just in-house maintenance staff.

If you want to run a business efficiently, obviously you cannot rely on just reactive maintenance, but you can categorize assets into critical and non-critical assets. For non-critical assets, you can use reactive maintenance as reactive maintenance is cost-effective.

What Are the Various Types of Reactive Maintenance?

Various types of reactive maintenance are discussed below:

1. Breakdown Maintenance

Breakdown maintenance is the simplest reactive maintenance type. In this maintenance type, the asset is not working and now it needs to be repaired as per the priority of the asset. If the priority of the asset is high, then maintenance will need to be done quickly, and if not, then the maintenance team is informed when the asset is required!

2. Run to Failure Maintenance

Run to failure maintenance is the type of planned maintenance because maintenance already knows about assets, and they are kept on standby, and whenever asset breakdown occurs, it is repaired quickly.

In this practice, assets are inspected regularly to know what problems are occurring so that maintenance work is done quickly.

3. Corrective Maintenance

Corrective maintenance is a reactive maintenance type that is not effective in the long run. It provides a temporary solution to the problem. In this practice, the maintenance team just repairs the issue and does not focus on the root problem of the asset. Sometimes corrective maintenance identifies and eliminates potential issues. However, this practice differs from one organization to another.

4. Emergency Maintenance

It is a type of maintenance activity in which sudden asset failure has occurred in a critical asset. Now it needs to be repaired as soon as possible because its priority of assets is high and production work is halted.

Emergency maintenance is expensive and is applied to high-priority assets. These are the characteristics of emergency maintenance.

What Are the Benefits of Reactive Maintenance?

The benefits of reactive maintenance are discussed below:

1. Low or No Initial Cost

One of the most common reactive maintenance benefits is that you do not have to make an initial investment in terms of maintenance. When you do not invest in any type of proactive maintenance, then obviously your money is saved upfront. However, in the long run, it is not a smart choice because proactive maintenance expenses are predictable, but in reactive maintenance, expenses are not predictable.

2. No Planning

Reactive maintenance does not require planning because it has a simple strategy: when asset failure occurs, perform maintenance and bring assets into running condition. It does not require scheduling & planning is another significant reactive maintenance benefit.

3. Fewer Maintenance Members Required

When you only rely on reactive maintenance, you can outsource maintenance work. In proactive maintenance, you will require at least a few members because they will inspect assets and perform maintenance, so this will be a frequent expense and cannot be avoided. But not in reactive maintenance.

Conclusion

When assets are important, it is also important that you keep your assets maintained. Now reactive maintenance has its benefits and drawbacks. But you must know that reactive maintenance cannot be used on critical assets. However, reactive maintenance can be used on non-critical assets, and it can be cost-effective.

So, above we have mentioned all the benefits of reactive maintenance and types of reactive maintenance. You can use any type of maintenance, but for effective asset management, automated asset management software is essential.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the difference between proactive maintenance and reactive maintenance?

Proactive maintenance is done before asset failure occurs, and reactive maintenance is done after asset failure has occurred. Proactive maintenance is cost-effective in the long run, and reactive maintenance is not effective in the long term. Proactive maintenance makes assets more reliable, and when you use reactive maintenance, assets are not reliable.

What are the drawbacks of reactive maintenance?

The drawbacks of reactive maintenance are discussed below:

• Unpredictable maintenance expenses: Maintenance expenses are uncontrolled in reactive maintenance as assets are not maintained regularly. If the asset is old and has not been repaired for a long time, then you might pay a huge amount of money for maintenance.

• Prone to asset failure: One of the biggest drawbacks of reactive maintenance is that it makes assets unreliable, and asset failure can occur anytime. At that time, productivity suffers, and huge business losses can occur.

• Asset performance: Asset performance decreases if they do not get maintenance at regular periods. It also impacts the life expectancy of assets.

What are examples of reactive maintenance?

Examples of reactive maintenance:

1. Sudden equipment failure such as an office HVAC equipment unexpected breakdown.

2. The chiller is not working properly in the hotel.

3. Equipment malfunctioning in the office.