Predictive, Preventive, and Reactive Maintenance methods compared

These three forms of maintenance management are compared below. They are listed in order of effectiveness (highest to lowest).

Predictive Maintenance (aka Condition Monitoring): most-effective maintenance paradigm

Advantages	Disadvantages
Continuous monitoring detects the onset of component problems in advance. Maintenance performed only when needed and may be planned in ahead of time. Result: cost savings of another approximately 18% when compared to preventive maintenance. Reduced costs for machine and process downtime. Reduced costs for manpower and replacement parts.	High initial costs for standard-monitoring systems and /or contracted services to perform them: e.g., as thermography and vibration analysis.

Preventive Maintenance: somewhat-effective maintenance paradigm

Advantages	Disadvantages
Reduced machine downtime (failure rate) due to scheduled maintenance intervals. This can result in cost savings of approximately 12% when compared to reactive maintenance.	Time-scheduled based maintenance leads to high labor costs and expensive part replacements since components with remaining lifetime might also be replaced. Unplanned downtime can't be excluded.

Reactive Maintenance: least-effective maintenance paradigm

Advantages	Disadvantages
"Run it until it fails": this antiquated concept concept reduces maintenance costs on equipment ... until the equipment fails.	Unplanned downtime due to equipment failure leads to high costs.