Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance (PM) is maintenance planned in advance to keep equipment working, instead of repairing it after it fails. Tasks are triggered by time (weekly, monthly, quarterly) or by usage (for example every few hundred running hours). Manufacturer recommendations, regulations and the site’s own failure history usually set the intervals.

Example

In a residential tower, part of the PM schedule might look like this:

• Monthly: clean or replace AHU filters
• Monthly: test emergency lighting
• Quarterly: inspect and clean chiller condenser coils
• Quarterly: check booster pump pressure and seals
• Yearly: service the standby generator

Each item becomes a work order on its due date, is assigned to a technician, and is completed and recorded. The right intervals depend on the equipment and local rules.

How it differs from neighbouring terms

• Corrective maintenance happens after a fault is found. Preventive maintenance happens before.
• Predictive maintenance schedules work from condition data rather than a fixed calendar.
• Planned maintenance is a broader label for any scheduled work; many teams use it as a synonym for PM.

A good PM programme aims to cut emergency call-outs and lengthen the time between failures. It does not remove corrective work entirely, and MTTR still measures how fast you recover when something does break. A CMMS is the classic tool for planning PM.

Where TaskLoop fits

TaskLoop handles the work-order side of PM: tasks are assigned with a deadline and instructions, completed on the staff mobile app with optional photo proof, and escalated to a supervisor when overdue. Preventive-maintenance schedules, inspection rounds and checklists generate those tasks automatically, daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually. See preventive maintenance.