Guide · Maintenance

Industrial maintenance: types, plan and KPIs

Industrial maintenance keeps equipment producing safely: it repairs what fails, prevents with scheduled tasks and anticipates by measuring condition. Here are the types, how to build the plan, what to measure and when to move from a spreadsheet to software.
Spreadsheets to get startedGet early access
Maintenance technician inspecting a bearing on a production line

Types

The types of industrial maintenance

Tap a step. No plant uses just one: the mix depends on how critical each asset is.

CorrectiveAfter the failurePreventiveCalendar or usagePredictiveCondition-basedRCM and TPMAs a strategy

Calendar or usage

Preventive

Fixed tasks every so often or every so many run hours: lubricating, changing filters, inspecting.

Preventive maintenance

The plan

How to build a maintenance plan in six steps

1. Inventory

What it includes

List of assets by plant, line and component

Where we explain it

Asset management

2. Criticality

What it includes

Which asset stops the plant or hurts someone if it fails

Where we explain it

Criticality spreadsheet

3. Tasks and frequency

What it includes

What is done, how often and with which spare part, starting with the critical assets

Where we explain it

Preventive plan in Excel (Spanish)

4. Work orders

What it includes

Every intervention with cause, spare part, hours and date

Where we explain it

Work orders

5. KPIs

What it includes

MTBF, MTTR, availability and the preventive / corrective ratio

Where we explain it

MTBF and MTTR

6. Review

What it includes

Every month: what failed, what fell behind and which task is unnecessary

Where we explain it

—

KPIs

MTBF, MTTR and availability with your numbers

MTBF

177.5 h

MTTR

2.5 h

Availability

98.6 %

MTBF tells you how often an asset fails; MTTR, how long it takes to come back. Availability comes from both. Move the values and see which one weighs more in your case.

MTBF and MTTR guide →

Free spreadsheets

Four spreadsheets to run maintenance today

CMMS evaluation matrix

You are about to choose maintenance software and need to compare candidates without the best presenter winning.

View and download

Maintenance work order

Work orders go out over WhatsApp or by word of mouth and at month-end nobody knows how many there were or how long each took.

View and download

Asset inventory and criticality

Your equipment is on a list, or in someone's head, and nobody can say which assets matter most.

View and download

Preventive maintenance plan

You keep maintenance in your head or a notebook and need a plan that warns you before a task is due.

View and download

All spreadsheets in downloads.

Spreadsheet or software

When to move from a spreadsheet to a CMMS

Sensors installed on a plant motor providing condition signals for maintenance

A spreadsheet works as long as one person keeps it. When several technicians log at once, work orders get lost between paper and WhatsApp, or you need the history per asset to decide, maintenance software makes sense.

What to ask of a CMMS →

In the app

Maintenance from the technician's phone

Get early access

The app is free during early access.

iGromi app: maintenance technician to-dos with the overdue failure, the work order to close and the day's preventive task

FAQ

Industrial maintenance FAQ

What is industrial maintenance?
It is the set of tasks that keeps a plant's equipment able to produce safely: repairing what fails, preventing failures with scheduled tasks and anticipating them by measuring equipment condition.
What are the types of industrial maintenance?
The main ones are corrective (after the failure), preventive (by calendar or usage), predictive (based on measured condition) and, as strategies, reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) and total productive maintenance (TPM).
Which maintenance KPIs should you track?
To start, four: MTBF (mean time between failures), MTTR (mean time to repair), equipment availability and the ratio of preventive to corrective hours. If that ratio is below 1, the plant is firefighting.
How do you build a maintenance plan?
Asset inventory, criticality of each asset, tasks and frequency starting with the critical ones, work orders to record each intervention, KPIs and a monthly review. A spreadsheet is enough to start.
When should you move from a spreadsheet to a CMMS?
When several technicians log at the same time, when work orders get lost between WhatsApp and paper, or when you need the history per asset to make decisions. Before that, a well-kept spreadsheet does the job.
Can you do predictive maintenance without new sensors?
Partly. Many machines already expose current, temperature or alarms in their PLC; reading them read-only gives condition signals without installing anything. For bearing vibration, a sensor is generally needed.

Keep reading

Maintenance guides and pages

CMMS softwareWhen maintenance software makes sense and what to ask of it.Preventive maintenanceTasks, frequencies and how to start.Predictive maintenance with IoTWhat to measure to anticipate the failure.Predictive maintenance softwareCondition signals read from the PLC and sensors.TPMTotal productive maintenance and its pillars.Downtime costWhat an hour of downtime costs on your line.

Every shift without a record is data you lose. Start free.

  1. 1Request early access, free
  2. 2Pick your trade: maintenance, production or safety
  3. 3Your team starts with the chat and its trade helper
Get early accessBook an assessment

No credit card. Your data stays yours.

PLANT · SHIFT B
Tasks
Luis · maintenance
OVERDUE
Sugar silo 1
No signal since 05:40
Sensor · supply
TODAY
M-204 vibration
4.1 mm/s, above normal
Detected by the sensor
PROPOSED
Check the capper
14 badly seated lids since 08:30
AcceptDismiss
HomeTasksChatMore