Preventive Maintenance Vs Breakdown Maintenance: Key Differences, Costs, And Strategic Application

There’s a lot of noise out there about maintenance strategy. Some argue for lean, run-to-fail models. Others push full-scale preventive routines across the board. But the truth is—neither approach is universally right or wrong.

Both breakdown maintenance and preventive maintenance have their place in a smart facilities strategy. The key is knowing when—and where—each approach makes sense. 

And in today’s complex, compliance-bound, cost-sensitive facilities landscape, knowing which one to apply (and where) isn’t a theoretical debate—it’s a strategic necessity.

This article breaks down exactly how both methods work, the pros and cons of each, and how a computerized maintenance management software (CMMS) helps you apply the right strategy at the asset level, with clarity and control.

The core difference between preventive and breakdown maintenance

The difference between breakdown maintenance and preventive maintenance is that breakdown maintenance is performed after an asset fails, whereas preventive maintenance is carried out before failure to avoid unexpected downtime.

At its core, it’s a matter of timing and control. 

Preventive maintenance is planned, built around foresight, scheduled tasks, and proactive risk management. 

Breakdown maintenance is reactive—executed only when failure occurs, and only when that failure is affordable.

One prepares for the future. The other reacts to the present. And the cost of choosing the wrong one? That’s what this blog is here to help you avoid.

Let’s look at both in detail to understand how each strategy works, where it fits best, and how the wrong choice can lead to higher costs and operational risk.

Breakdown maintenance: How does it work?

Breakdown maintenance is a reactive maintenance strategy where no action is taken until an asset fails. Only after the failure does the repair or replacement process begin.

In some contexts, breakdown maintenance is the smarter, leaner strategy. The key is knowing when failure is acceptable—and when it’s not.

Consider a lightbulb in a hotel hallway. The cost of scheduling routine replacements may outweigh the cost of simply replacing bulbs as they burn out. 

On the other hand, letting a hospital’s negative pressure system fail during occupancy? That’s not a breakdown—it’s a crisis.

✅Common examples for breakdown maintenance:

• Light bulbs and fixtures in low-traffic areas
• Desk printers in administrative offices
• Non-load-bearing door mechanisms
• Low-cost pumps or valves with short expected life

These assets can fail without jeopardizing uptime, safety, or compliance. But this model breaks down—fast—when applied to anything more critical.

Types of breakdown maintenance:

1. Planned Breakdown Maintenance

• The failure is anticipated.
• The team intentionally chooses to run the asset to failure.
• Example: Disposable tools, backup signage lights, certain batteries.

2. Unplanned Breakdown Maintenance

• Failure happens unexpectedly.
• Often results in emergency repairs, downtime, or disruption.
• Example: A belt snapping on a conveyor mid-shift with no spare in stock.

Preventive Maintenance: How does it work?

Preventive maintenance is a proactive approach that schedules maintenance tasks, such as inspections, servicing, and part replacements, before any signs of failure appear. 

Instead of waiting for things to go wrong, preventive maintenance schedules upkeep before failure occurs. This includes inspections, lubrication, part replacements, testing, and system resets—all based on time, usage, or risk.

In critical environments, there’s no room for reactive firefighting. Elsewhere, the benefits of preventive maintenance—like uptime, compliance, and asset longevity—are valuable. Here, they’re non-negotiable.

Uptime isn’t optional, and failure isn't a learning opportunity—it's a liability.

⚠️Examples of where preventive maintenance is non-negotiable:

• Hospitals: HVAC systems, backup generators, sterilization equipment
• Commercial buildings: Elevator systems, fire safety infrastructure, chillers
• Airports: Baggage handling belts, air filtration, runway lighting
• Student housing: Heating systems, fire alarms, ventilation fans

In each case, you’re not just maintaining equipment—you’re protecting experience, compliance, and reputation.

Types of preventive maintenance:

Rather than simply acting on a calendar, modern project management strategies adjust based on risk, usage, and failure patterns.

• Time-Based Maintenance: Scheduled at fixed intervals regardless of condition
• Usage-Based Maintenance: Triggered after defined use (e.g., cycles, hours, miles)
• Risk-Based Maintenance: Focused on high-risk assets based on impact and likelihood of failure
• Condition-Based Maintenance: Uses sensor data or performance thresholds to detect signs of deterioration

Each method serves one purpose: to stop the problem before it ever becomes visible.

Before You Choose: The Real-World Pros and Cons of Both Approaches

Before deciding which strategy to lean into, it’s essential to set aside assumptions. Neither breakdown nor preventive maintenance is universally “better.” Each has very real strengths and non-negotiable weaknesses.

Breakdown Maintenance: Pros & Cons

✅ Pros: Minimal upfront investment and simple execution make it practical for non-critical, short-term, or low-impact assets.

❌ Cons: Frequent breakdowns, costly emergency repairs, and zero visibility lead to higher long-term costs and operational risk.

Preventive Maintenance: Pros & Cons

✅ Pros: Proactively reduces downtime, extends asset life, and improves safety and compliance through scheduled, consistent care.

❌ Cons: Requires upfront planning, resource allocation, and ongoing coordination, which can be complex without the right systems.

Facilio makes it easy to apply the right strategy to the right asset, without over-maintaining or missing what matters.

Cost Implications: Preventive vs Breakdown Maintenance

In facilities management, every maintenance choice is a cost decision. It’s not just about parts and labor—it’s about risk exposure, operational disruption, and long-term asset value.

At first glance, breakdown maintenance seems cheaper. No scheduling, no inspections, no early part replacements. You pay only when something fails.

But that simplicity is misleading.

🔻 Breakdown Maintenance: Low Upfront-Cost, High Risk Later

The financial appeal of breakdown maintenance lies in its immediate cost avoidance. You're not spending unless something breaks, which can feel lean, even efficient.

But when failure hits, the real costs surface fast:

• Emergency callouts cost 1.5x to 3x more than scheduled visits
• Overtime labor to handle urgent failures
• Downtime losses, from tenant complaints to SLA penalties
• Inventory lag—waiting on spare parts for a failed asset
• Collateral damage to adjacent systems or processes (e.g., pump failure leads to water damage)

In high-risk environments, a single breakdown could also trigger regulatory penalties, reputational loss, or even legal consequences. The “cheaper” choice becomes a silent liability.

🔼 Preventive Maintenance: Predictable Investment, Long-Term ROI

Preventive maintenance requires ongoing investment. You're replacing parts before failure. You're scheduling downtime. You're paying for inspections that might find nothing wrong.

But this isn’t waste—it's insurance. Over time, PM delivers consistent cost savings by:

• Extending asset life (up to 25–30% longer for HVACs and chillers)
• Avoiding catastrophic failures with high repair/replacement costs
• Reducing energy inefficiency (e.g., dirty coils = higher utility bills)
• Leveling out maintenance spend—no major budget shocks
• Minimizing unplanned downtime, which can cost $5,000–$50,000/hour in lost productivity depending on the industry

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, organizations that implement a robust preventive maintenance program can reduce their overall maintenance costs by 12% to 18%.

The verdict? 

Preventive maintenance may feel more expensive up front—but it’s engineered for long-term financial stability. Breakdown maintenance may look lean—but its hidden costs will eventually surface.

Key differences between breakdown and preventive maintenance

​​Here’s a side-by-side comparison of preventive and breakdown maintenance across the dimensions that matter most—cost, control, risk, and reliability.

Choosing the Right Maintenance Strategy: What to Use, When, and Why

At this point, the distinction is clear. Breakdown maintenance and preventive maintenance serve fundamentally different purposes.

But understanding the difference isn’t enough. What matters is knowing when to use each strategy, and on which assets.

A powerful maintenance program doesn’t lean on one method—it layers both approaches intentionally, based on asset criticality, cost, lifecycle, and risk.

Here’s how experienced FM teams decide where to go proactive—and where to hold back.

1. Start with Asset Criticality

Not all assets carry the same weight. The higher the operational, safety, or compliance risk, the more proactive you need to be.

• High-criticality assets → Examples: chillers, fire suppression systems, main switchboards. These can’t afford downtime. Use preventive or predictive strategies to ensure availability and compliance.
• Low-criticality assets → Examples: task lighting, pedestal fans, signage. Failure here has low impact. A reactive approach is more efficient and cost-effective.

Industry insight: Mature teams apply tiering frameworks to classify assets by criticality and impact, aligning maintenance effort where it truly matters.

2. Consider Age and Operating Condition

Asset age and operating environment directly affect failure risk.

• Older equipment (especially if critical) often benefits from increased inspection and preventive cycles.
• Newer assets with IoT or OEM diagnostics can be maintained using condition-based triggers, reducing unnecessary interventions.

3. Weigh Maintenance Costs Against Failure Risk

Preventive work has visible costs—labor, parts, and scheduling systems. But unplanned failures carry hidden costs: downtime, SLA penalties, emergency premiums.

• Preventive = Predictable spend, fewer escalations, smoother audits
• Reactive = Lower planning load, but higher variability and long-term cost exposure

Best practice: Top performers balance around 80% planned, 20% reactive, adjusted based on asset risk profiles and available capacity.

4. Match Strategy to Operational Tolerance

Some environments can absorb downtime without major fallout. Others can’t. If your building can function while a fan coil is down, reactive may be acceptable. But if a single failure halts operations or risks compliance—preventive is non-negotiable.

5. Align Strategy with Team and Tooling

Don’t roll out strategies your team or systems can’t support.

• Preventive maintenance is the most accessible starting point—especially when paired with a modern CMMS.
• Predictive and condition-based approaches require data, diagnostics, and the ability to act on insights quickly.

Inside the Maintenance Playbook of Facility Management Industry Leaders

• Tier assets by risk of failure, not purchase cost
• Assign maintenance strategy based on operational impact, not intuition
• Build repeatable rules into CMMS—avoid technician-by-technician guesswork
• Review and adjust strategies seasonally or annually
• Focus effort where it delivers ROI—not across the board

Modern maintenance enablement: Why strategy falls apart without the right system

It’s one thing to decide which assets deserve preventive maintenance and which ones can be left to fail. It’s another thing entirely to track that decision across hundreds—or thousands—of assets, across dozens of locations, managed by a lean FM team.

The reality is simple: no modern facility can execute a blended maintenance strategy at scale without the support of purpose-built technology.

Manual tools like spreadsheets and offline logs can’t scale with modern facility operations. They don’t give you real-time visibility. They don’t enforce schedules. They don’t adapt as assets age or as field conditions shift.

Worse, they leave decisions to memory, instinct, or scattered documentation—none of which are scalable or auditable.

This is where a modern CMMS becomes essential. It’s not just a place to log work orders. A facility management CMMS connects strategy with day-to-day action. It helps you:

• Assign the right maintenance to the right asset
• Track compliance, costs, and completion in real time
• Adjust plans as assets, risk, or conditions evolve

This is exactly what Facilio offers: a connected CMMS solution that helps facilities teams execute smarter, at scale.

Facilio was purpose-built to help facilities teams manage breakdown and preventive maintenance dynamically, across asset types, locations, and risk categories.

Where legacy systems are rigid and reactive, Facilio’s CMMS is flexible, connected, and outcome-driven.

With Facilio, you can:

• Assign tailored strategies by asset—run-to-failure for light fixtures, risk-based PM for HVACs, and usage-based tasks for elevators
• Automate work order triggers based on real-time data, not just fixed schedules
• Track breakdown patterns and identify where failures are creeping into preventive zones
• Give technicians mobile-first workflows, complete with digital SOPs, photo evidence, and escalations
• Gain portfolio-wide visibility over asset performance, service history, and compliance readiness

A blended maintenance strategy only works if it's visible, repeatable, and responsive. Facilio makes that possible—not just for a few assets, but across your entire built environment.

From Insight to Action: Evolve Your Maintenance Strategy with Confidence

Understanding the difference between preventive and breakdown maintenance is just the starting point. The real advantage lies in your ability to act on that understanding consistently, intelligently, and at scale.

That means more than just having a plan. It means having the tools to adapt as assets age, as risks shift, and as operations grow more complex.

Facilio makes that possible. It brings your strategy to life, letting you layer in preventive, track reactive events, and evolve your maintenance model with total visibility and control.

If you’re ready to stay ahead of failures, reduce cost surprises, and scale smarter, Facilio is built for exactly that.

FAQs

1. What is the difference between preventive and preventative maintenance?

There’s no difference—“preventive” and “preventative” mean the same thing. Both refer to maintenance strategies designed to prevent equipment failure. “Preventive” is the more commonly used term in technical and industry standards.

2. What is PM and CM in maintenance?

PM stands for Preventive Maintenance—routine, scheduled work to avoid breakdowns.CM stands for Corrective Maintenance—work done to fix a known issue, usually after a failure or inspection reveals a problem. PM reduces the need for CM by proactively addressing equipment health.

3. What is the difference between breakdown maintenance and shutdown maintenance?

Breakdown maintenance occurs after unexpected equipment failure—it’s reactive and unplanned.Shutdown maintenance is planned during a scheduled downtime or shutdown, often to perform major overhauls, inspections, or upgrades. It's typically safer and more strategic than fixing issues in a live environment.