Glossary

Preventive maintenance

In short

Preventive maintenance is maintenance carried out on a planned schedule to reduce the chance of an asset failing, rather than waiting for it to break. The schedule can be based on time, such as every three months, or on usage, such as every 500 hours run. Cohiva Control generates preventive maintenance work orders automatically on a time or meter interval, and the generation is idempotent so a re-run does not create duplicates.

Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance is maintenance carried out on a planned schedule to reduce the chance of an asset failing. Rather than waiting for a pump to seize or a chiller to trip and then scrambling to fix it, you service the asset at a sensible interval so problems are caught and prevented before they cause an outage. It is the opposite of reactive maintenance, which only responds once something has already broken.

Why teams use it

The case for preventive maintenance is straightforward. Unplanned failures are expensive and disruptive: they often happen at the worst time, they can take an asset offline for longer than a planned service would, and they sometimes cascade into damage that costs far more than routine upkeep. A planned schedule trades a small, predictable amount of regular work for fewer of those costly surprises.

It is not a case of more being better. Over-servicing burns labour hours and parts on equipment that did not need attention, while under-servicing leaves you exposed. The goal is the right interval for each asset, set from the manufacturer’s guidance, the asset’s duty and your own history with it.

Time-based and usage-based schedules

Preventive maintenance schedules usually run one of two ways. Time-based schedules trigger on the calendar: monthly, quarterly, annually. They suit assets that age regardless of how much they are used. Usage-based schedules trigger on a meter, such as hours run, litres pumped or units produced. They suit assets whose wear tracks how hard they work, so a heavily used machine is serviced sooner than a lightly used one.

How Cohiva Control uses the term

In Cohiva Control, preventive maintenance schedules generate work orders automatically on a time or meter interval. The generation is idempotent, so if a schedule runs twice it does not create duplicate work orders. Preventive maintenance compliance is tracked against the schedule, so you can see which routine servicing is up to date and which is slipping. Because Cohiva Control also tracks meters for assets, the same readings that drive usage-based maintenance can feed the units of production depreciation method, so usage is recorded once and used in both places.

Part of the Cohiva platform

Cohiva Control is part of the Cohiva platform. Leisure operators often run it with Cohiva Complex, and finance teams connect it to Cohiva Crunch for the general ledger. Explore the platform at www.cohiva.app.

Frequently asked questions

How is preventive maintenance different from reactive maintenance?
Reactive maintenance fixes an asset after it fails. Preventive maintenance services it on a planned schedule beforehand, aiming to reduce unplanned breakdowns and the disruption they cause.
Should preventive maintenance be time-based or usage-based?
It depends on the asset. Time-based suits equipment that ages on a calendar; usage-based, on a meter such as hours run, suits equipment whose wear tracks how hard it works. Cohiva Control supports both.
Does more preventive maintenance always help?
Not always. Over-servicing wastes labour and parts, and under-servicing risks failure. The aim is the right interval for each asset, which is why tracking compliance against the schedule matters.