Reactive Maintenance Vs Planned Maintenance: The Pros and Cons

When it comes to maintenance strategies, there are many different opinions on what works best, and at times it can be a little overwhelming. We’ve put together some insights in this article surrounding the different maintenance strategies your business can adopt, with the pros and cons of each, so you can make up your own mind.

Reactive Maintenance

Reactive maintenance is as simple as it sounds, you allow your facility or premises to operate, with no interference, and you simply react and fix any issues as and when they occur. This is a great method for reducing time spent on planning maintenance strategies, however, it can mean that repairs may be larger and more costly.

Pros of Reactive Maintenance

Little Planning Needed

By simply responding to issues as and when they occur with reactive maintenance it means that you don’t need to spend time and money planning for maintenance or creating a maintenance schedule.

Easy to Understand

Reactive maintenance is a simple process which is easy to understand, you simply react to issues as they arise. As long as you have a reactive maintenance provider on hand, your business will be able to call out a team to rectify a problem should one occur.

No Regular Outgoings

As regular maintenance isn’t occurring, your business won’t have regular outgoing maintenance costs. Instead, you’ll only pay when something needs repairing or replacing.

Cons of Reactive Maintenance

A Risky Strategy

Facilities may succumb to maintenance issues on a more regular basis, without scheduled inspections and maintenance, potentially impacting on revenue in the long run.

Large Break Down Costs

As reactive maintenance is reacting when an issue occurs, it usually results in a larger one-off cost to rectify the issue. There has to be a fast response time, costs of materials and repair/replacement time factored in.

Loss of Profit

Your business’s profit may suffer, as not only will unexpected costs not be budgeted for, but work may need to cease or your business close whilst repairs are undertaken, affecting both your staff’s ability to work and your customers’ satisfaction.

Time Consuming

Break downs and sudden maintenance call outs can be costly and time consuming as well as causing a massive amount of business downtime whilst vital equipment or premises are out of use or being repaired.

Planned Maintenance

Planned maintenance involves performing regular maintenance checks and repairs to minimise breakages and larger repairs being required. It can involve checking the facility for issues such as damage to the roof at certain times of the year, or perhaps inspecting air conditioning units regularly to ensure they are running effectively and are compliant within regulations.

Pros of Planned Maintenance

Keeps the Facility Running

Having a planned maintenance schedule means your facility can keep running for longer periods of time without having to suffer downtime due to large scale repairs or break downs. Any maintenance work can occur out of work hours to ensure business continuity.

Overall Costs are Lower

With planned maintenance, large breakdowns and repairs are less likely and therefore large breakdown costs are reduced.

Increased Safety

As the likelihood of large scale, dangerous and catastrophic failures and breakdowns are reduced it means improved safety for staff and customers alike.

Reduced Downtime

Usually, as large breakdowns occur it results in downtime which can impact on profits, however, planned maintenance can reduce the likelihood of these issues being faced.

Cons of Planned Maintenance

Planning Needed

More planning is necessary, as the name would suggest. A planned maintenance team can curate a specific schedule for your business which suits your needs. This planning time should be accounted for in your budgeting.

Initial Costs

Planned maintenance does incur higher initial costs in terms of set up in comparison to other maintenance strategies.

At MSL Property Care Services we offer both planned and reactive maintenance programmes to ensure your facility is always covered. Having a reactive maintenance team on hand to help with breakdowns and repairs is essential to ensure your business is back up running smoothly as soon as possible. In addition to our reactive maintenance programme we offer a fully comprehensive planned maintenance program to help you reduce your property expenditure by creating a maintenance schedule to minimise problems before they arise. We work alongside you to compile an asset register and agree the right level of maintenance for your facility.

Whilst there are a variety of pros and cons to each type of maintenance for your facility, it can be beneficial to use a blended strategy of them all. At MSL Property Care Services we offer various types of maintenance to suit your business needs; get in touch today to see how we can help you.