Every maintenance team does some reactive work. The question is how much. When most of the week goes on breakdowns, planned work slips, more equipment fails, and the cycle repeats.
This guide explains the three main approaches, compares them in a table and sets out how to move the balance towards planned work. Scheduled inspections are the usual first step, and maintenance rounds software is one way to run them.
What is reactive maintenance?
Reactive maintenance is repairing or replacing equipment only after it breaks. It is also called breakdown or run-to-failure maintenance.
The US Department of Energy's maintenance best practices guide calls it the “run it till it breaks” mode. It lists low cost and fewer staff as advantages. The disadvantages are unplanned downtime, higher labour cost when overtime is needed, repair or replacement cost, and possible damage to other equipment.
Reactive work is not always an emergency. A dripping tap reported by a tenant is reactive, but it can wait for the next working day.
What is planned maintenance?
Planned maintenance is work booked in advance on a schedule. Its main form is preventive maintenance, done at set intervals of time or usage to stop equipment wearing out early.
The same guide defines preventive maintenance as actions on a time- or machine-run-based schedule that detect, prevent or reduce wear, to sustain or extend the equipment's useful life. Examples are filter changes, lubrication and scheduled services.
The guide is also clear about the limits. Preventive maintenance is labour intensive, some of the work turns out to be unnecessary, and serious failures can still happen.
What is condition-based maintenance?
Condition-based maintenance, also called predictive maintenance, does the work when measurements show the equipment is starting to wear. It is based on the actual condition of the equipment, not a preset date.
Measurements can be as simple as readings taken on a weekly round, such as pressures, temperatures or hours run. More advanced programmes use vibration analysis, thermal imaging or oil analysis. These need instruments and trained people, which is the main drawback.
Where do corrective and emergency maintenance fit?
Corrective maintenance is any work that puts a fault right. It can be reactive or planned, depending on how the fault was found and how soon it must be fixed.
- Emergency work is reactive work that cannot wait, such as a burst pipe or a gate stuck open at night.
- Unplanned corrective work is reactive work that can wait a day or two, such as a dripping tap.
- Planned corrective work fixes a fault that a round or a reading found before it failed. The repair is booked, the parts are ordered and the downtime is agreed.
The last group is the goal. Faults are still found and fixed, but on your timetable instead of the equipment's.
What does each approach look like for one asset?
Take a booster pump that supplies water to an office block. This example is illustrative and the site is fictional.
- Reactive: nobody looks at the pump until tenants report no water. A technician is called out after hours, and the seal and bearing both need replacing.
- Planned: the pump is serviced on the manufacturer's schedule. The seal is replaced at a set interval, whether it is worn or not.
- Condition-based: the weekly round records pressure and listens for noise. When the pressure starts to drop, a repair is booked for a quiet morning.
How do planned, reactive and condition-based maintenance compare?
They differ mainly in what triggers the work and what it costs to run them.
| Feature | Reactive | Planned (preventive) | Condition-based (predictive) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What triggers the work | A breakdown or a complaint | A date, or hours or kilometres run | A reading past an agreed limit |
| Facility example | Replacing a pump after it seizes | Servicing a generator every set number of run hours | Booking a pump service when its bearing temperature keeps rising |
| Main advantage | Low upfront cost and fewer staff | Fewer failures and longer equipment life | Work only when the equipment needs it |
| Main drawback | Unplanned downtime, overtime and possible damage to other equipment | Labour intensive, and some work is done before it is needed | Needs instruments, training and someone to read the trends |
| Best for | Cheap, non-critical or duplicated items | Items that wear, consumables and items with a known failure pattern | Critical equipment and items that fail at random |
Advantages and drawbacks are summarised from the US Department of Energy guide. Facility examples are illustrative.
Which maintenance approach fits which equipment?
Match the approach to how critical the equipment is and how it fails. Not every asset deserves the same effort.
The US Department of Energy guide, adapting NASA guidance, groups equipment as shown below. The examples column is ours and only illustrative.
| Approach | Suits | Facility examples (illustrative) |
|---|---|---|
| Reactive | Small parts, non-critical equipment, equipment unlikely to fail, redundant systems | Storeroom light fittings, a second extractor fan with a spare, door handles |
| Planned (preventive) | Equipment subject to wear, consumables, known failure patterns, items with manufacturer service schedules | Air-conditioning filters, gate motors, generator services, pump seals |
| Condition-based | Critical equipment, equipment with random failure patterns, equipment not subject to wear | Main water pumps, standby generators on critical sites, large motors and drives |
Is reactive maintenance ever the right choice?
Yes, for cheap, non-critical items where a failure is inconvenient but not unsafe. Planning work on them can cost more than the occasional repair.
The line is safety. Section 8 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 requires employers to provide and maintain, as far as reasonably practicable, plant and machinery that are safe and without risk to health. That is hard to show for safety equipment left to run until it fails. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Fire equipment, emergency lighting, escape routes, lifts and electrical installations should be on a planned schedule. Check the applicable regulations and the manufacturer's instructions for each.
How do you move from reactive to planned maintenance?
Start small, with the equipment whose failure hurts most, and use your own breakdown history to decide what comes next.
- Make a master equipment list. Every asset, its location and who services it.
- Rank each item by criticality. Safety first, then items that stop the site or a tenant operating, then everything else.
- Group items logically. By area, building or asset group, so one round or one service visit covers a group.
- Set tasks and intervals. Use manufacturer manuals, the equipment's history, the causes of past failures and good engineering judgement.
- Check your staffing. Decide what your own team can do, such as visual rounds and readings, and what needs a specialist contractor.
- Log every breakdown as a work order. Without a record of failures, you cannot tell whether the plan is working.
- Review quarterly. Add planned tasks for items that keep failing, and drop tasks that never find anything.
Steps one to five follow the starting steps in the US Department of Energy guide. Reactive work may stay high at first, because new planned checks tend to find faults that were already there.
How do you know the balance is improving?
Track a few simple numbers each month and watch the trend. The US Department of Energy guide suggests metrics such as these:
- Work orders opened and closed. Shows the workload and whether the team keeps up.
- Backlog of corrective work. A growing backlog suggests planned work is not catching faults early enough.
- Planned work completed. Planned tasks completed divided by planned tasks scheduled.
- Share of emergency work. Hours on emergency jobs as a share of all maintenance hours.
For setting priorities and response times on the reactive jobs that remain, see work order priority levels. For the system that tracks them, see our work order management system guide.
How does Worxit support planned and reactive maintenance?
Worxit covers both sides with two modules. Maintenance Rounds handles the planned checks, and Work Orders handles the jobs those checks and breakdowns create.
- Maintenance Rounds: rounds scheduled by site and shift, picture, text and video evidence on mobile, real-time flags for missed, failed or incomplete rounds, voice notifications, and counts and graphs per shift, building or asset group.
- Work Orders: high, medium or low priority with due dates and linked form templates, time tracking from acceptance, parts used, timestamped photos, approval before closing, and completion rates and time-to-completion reports in Excel or PDF.
See the Maintenance Rounds module and the Work Orders module. Licences are R600 per month for the dashboard, including one admin user, R75 per month for each additional dashboard user and R350 per month for each phone, tablet or radio running the app, all ex VAT.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between planned and reactive maintenance?
Reactive maintenance repairs equipment after it fails. Planned maintenance, also called preventive maintenance, services equipment on a schedule based on time or usage, before it fails. Reactive work is unscheduled and often urgent. Planned work is booked in advance, so parts, people and access can be arranged first.
Is preventive maintenance the same as planned maintenance?
In everyday use, mostly yes. Preventive maintenance is work done on a time- or usage-based schedule to stop equipment wearing out early. Some teams use planned maintenance more widely, to mean any work that is scheduled in advance, including condition-based tasks and planned repairs.
What is condition-based maintenance?
Condition-based maintenance, also called predictive maintenance, acts when a measurement shows that equipment is starting to wear, rather than on a fixed date. Readings such as temperature, vibration, pressure or oil condition are tracked, and work is booked when they move past an agreed limit.
Is reactive maintenance ever the right choice?
Yes, for cheap, non-critical items that are unlikely to fail or that have a backup, where the failure does not create a safety risk. Running a light bulb in a storeroom to failure is reasonable. Running a fire pump or an emergency generator to failure is not.
How do I start moving from reactive to planned maintenance?
Start with a list of your equipment and rank it by how critical each item is. Put the most critical items on a planned schedule first, using the manufacturer's instructions. Record every breakdown as a work order, then use that history to decide what to add next.
Sources
- Operations & Maintenance Best Practices, Release 3.0 (US Department of Energy, Federal Energy Management Program, 2010). Chapter 5 on types of maintenance programmes and chapter 3 on O&M metrics.
- Occupational Health and Safety Act 85 of 1993 (Government Gazette 14918, via gov.za). Section 8 on employer duties for plant and machinery.