Preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance  focus on increasing asset reliability and reduce the possibility of failures. They are in two forms: one is to schedule the maintenance, and the other helps to schedule work in advance, rather than when they are performed. Preventive maintenance refers to regular, routine maintenance to help keep equipment up and running, preventing any unplanned downtime and expensive costs from unanticipated equipment failure. Preventive maintenance involves a systematic analysis of equipment where potential malfunctions are detected and corrected to prevent equipment failure. In practice, a preventive maintenance schedule may include things such as cleaning, lubrication, oil changes, adjustments, repairs, inspecting and replacing parts, and partial or complete overhauls that are regularly scheduled.

For a better explanation of preventive maintenance, we can use an example of an annual physical check-up. As we know that physical check-ups prevent illness/disease and can increase your lifetime and life quality, preventive maintenance can prevent equipment failures and extend the functional life of your assets. Similarly, we can consider it as maintenance tasks performed by technicians when everything is still running smoothly to prevent future breakdowns or emergency maintenance issues. Moreover, if you can keep your production lines up and running, you will be more profitable as well.

Predictive maintenance is used for identifying potential failures of assets that may occur while checking the assets when they are running. It uses data analysis tools for controlling the performance and condition of equipment during normal operation to reduce the probability of failures. It is a technique in which the service period of crucial parts is predicted on an inspection basis so that the parts can be useful within the limit of their service period. There are different advantages associated with predictive maintenance. The correct implementation of predictive maintenance and its usage capability can help to achieve different benefits. It requires particular basic conditions.

If we consider it according to human health, we can say that predictive maintenance is the same as the screenings or precautions that are recommended for an individual who is at greater risk for a specific disease due to hereditary or lifestyle considerations. Similarly, if technicians discover that a particular part of equipment suddenly shows irregular behavior from the normal parameters, then they trigger a predictive maintenance protocol to conveniently schedule a repair or prevent future breakdowns.

The main difference between preventive and predictive maintenance is that preventive maintenance is scheduled regularly, whereas predictive maintenance is scheduled based on asset conditions, i.e., is scheduled only when needed. Thus, predictive maintenance reduces labor and material costs, whereas preventive maintenance costs less to implement. But implementing a predictive maintenance program requires a vast amount of money, training, and resources upfront. These costs are often acceptable to organizations that have already successfully implemented a preventive maintenance program.

Preventive maintenance faces the challenge of balancing the cost with returns. Experienced maintenance managers need to make smart decisions about the requirement of preventive maintenance tasks and how much they should be done.

Preventive maintenance and predictive maintenance are two sides of the same coin, but they are not really the same thing. Just as eating right, physical activity, and wellness all play a role in the physical health of a human being, both preventive and predictive maintenance have an important place in the strategic facility maintenance program. Both of these are effective strategies for asset maintenance, but it is necessary to understand the differences between the two and how they work together and this article clearly explains the difference between the two.