Types of maintenance: here is a detailed list

There are numerous types of maintenance available and each serves to achieve different objectives. When managing a company’s asset maintenance, you need to evaluate all needs and determine the types of maintenance that you need to combine to achieve the most efficient strategy.

In this article, you will learn more about the features and objectives of different types of maintenance to help you understand which one best suits the maintenance activities you manage. You will find that there are many types of maintenance. To manage them in the best way I recommend tha you use a facility management software. With this tool, it will be much easier to assess which maintenance interventions need to be implemented and easily track their progress.

What is maintenance and why are there different types of maintenance?

Maintenance is an important part of business management. It allows, if well programmed, to always have the tools available in the right condition so as to maximize the chances of achieving the set objectives. Optimal maintenance management is essential to avoid costly repairs and increase productivity.

Each company has different needs and, based on its own characteristics and assets, chooses different maintenance strategies. It is for this reason that there is no single type of maintenance.

In particular, we know two macro maintenance categories:

• routine maintenance: includes simple and routine actions such as inspections;
• emergency maintenance: includes more invasive and significant interventions, such as the replacement of components or additional technological integration.

Main types of maintenance

Types of routine maintenance

Routine maintenance can be considered “basic” maintenance, which allows facility managers to keep the environments and equipment in good conditions, avoiding unpleasant accidents.

This is a series of verification operations and possible repairs necessary to keep the assets efficient.

It includes all preventive and corrective actions aimed at restoring the functioning of an asset without increasing its performance.

Routine maintenance interventions are intended to:

• maintaining the integrity of an asset;
• contain its natural degradation;
• restore its efficiency following a failure.

Among the types of routine maintenance we have:

• preventive maintenance;
• corrective maintenance.

Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance is a type of maintenance that is performed to prevent the occurrence of breakage faults. It is a proactive approach to maintenance, which allows you to slow down the degradation process of an asset or a plant, optimizing production capacity in terms of costs and timings.

It is usually performed on a regular basis, such as weekly or monthly and can be performed on equipment, machinery or facilities.

The benefits of preventive maintenance include:

• the reduction of the probability of failures;
• the reduction of repair costs;
• the extension of the life of the equipment;
• the improvement of safety levels.

Preventive maintenance can be divided into two main types:

1. scheduled;
2. unscheduled.

According to the scheduled preventive maintenance, as suggested by the name, maintenance is performed at regular intervals, regardless of the condition of the equipment or machinery.

Interventions can be scheduled, based on maintenance plans on a time basis or can originate from inspections that highlight any problems to be addressed.

Technician who inspects a machine

Unscheduled preventive maintenance is divided into:

• predictive maintenance: it is the most technologically advanced technique, because it allows you to monitor the state of the assets in real time. This is possible thanks to the use of tools able to detect faults and anomalies in advance, allowing you to run to promptly fix them to avoid interruptions of operations that would cause considerable damage to the company. In recent years, the installation of IoT sensors has spread quickly. These devices monitor and transfer a large amount of data which, after being processed, are able to generate maintenance forecasts of crucial importance;
• checked maintenance: it is a technique based on centralised analysis and
  sampling that carries out specific interventions on the basis of pre-established criteria;
• maintenance according to specific conditions: it is performed only when certain conditions are met. For example, when a piece of equipment reaches a certain number of operating hours or when a calibration check is necessary. In fact, these interventions are always subject to the achievement of pre-established parameters beyond which the likelihood of the occurrence of a fault from a statistical point of view is higher.

Corrective maintenance (breakdown)

Corrective maintenance due to failures requires intervention on a machine or an asset following damage, with the aim of restoring its functionality.

It happens to be the most expensive type of maintenance, because in general it is cheaper to fix an issue before it occurs. Moreover, the recovery times of a long breakage cause numerous production losses.

Intervention on failure

Types of extraordinary maintenance

Emergency maintenance includes all the most invasive and relevant types of maintenance interventions, which are not recurrent and are designed to improve the operation of an asset, increase its life cycle or in any case its value. Extraordinary maintenance includes:

• invasive interventions on machinery and systems;
• interventions on the structure;
• interventions on the technological infrastructure;
• interventions on appurtenances.

The main type of emergency maintenance is the proactive.

Proactive maintenance

Proactive maintenance does not derive from malfunctions, but responds to the need of improvements. In fact, it has the objective of increasing the value of the system and maintaining the performance of the equipment by making technical improvements to an entire plant or to individual units.

In this way, you can maximize value and profitability of an asset, regardless of the passing of time.

How to handle any type of maintenance efficiently

As we have seen, there are many types of maintenance available and it is often difficult to choose the best strategy for a company.

Regardless of the maintenance intervention to be managed, a tool that allows you to plan, track and monitor interventions in a simple and intuitive way is certainly essential.

Among the main features of a facility management software we should find the ability to:

• centralise all maintenance information and data in a single storage system;
• make maintenance information easily accessible to all those involved in the interventions;
• be configurable and customizable according to the specific maintenance needs of the company.

I recommend that you immediately try the demo version of a facility management software and find out how this tool can make your Facility Manager business efficient and productive!

To learn more, read also:

• Preventive vs Predictive Maintenance: Differences, Advantages, and Disadvantages
• Run to Failure Maintenance: Definition, Strategy and How to implement it