What Is Planned Preventative Maintenance?

Planned preventative maintenance (PPM) plays an integral role in prolonging and maintaining a building’s assets, resources, equipment, and infrastructure, and so it is a topic that all facilities managers (FM) and building owners need to understand fully.

As SFG20 has been the industry standard for building maintenance since 1990, we know what we’re talking about when it comes to PPM. So whether you’re a facilities manager or building owner needing advice, you’ve come to the right place.

In this guide, we’ll help you understand what planned preventative maintenance is, how it differs from reactive maintenance, why you need it, as well as the pros and cons you need to consider.

What is PPM or Planned Preventative Maintenance?

Planned preventative maintenance (PPM) is a series of planned inspections, servicing or calibration procedures designed to maintain efficiency, ensure safety and to help prolong the lifespan of an asset.

Assets include anything in a building that must be maintained to keep it fit for purpose, including the building fabric, for example walls, floors, ceilings, roof and windows and items housed within and around the building, for example HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) as well as electrical and fire systems.

The formal definition from the ISO 55000 standard is “an item, thing, or entity that has potential or actual value to an organisation.” In other words, if it wasn't there or failed, it would impact an organisation's ability to deliver its outputs, either directly or indirectly.

Critical Assets (also known as life critical systems) are assets that will have a detrimental impact if they fail to operate, such as back-up generators, fire alarm systems or sprinkler systems.

PPM in maintenance focuses on carrying out regular inspection and testing in compliance with the current regulations. The thought process behind it is that proactive prevention is better than a cure; acting sooner rather than later before anything goes wrong.

You may have heard of reactive maintenance, which is essentially the opposite of PPM and involves fixing issues as and when they happen.

There is a place for both approaches; however, without planned preventative maintenance you can leave yourself and your building vulnerable to critical system failures and compliance issues.

Why Do I Need Planned Preventative Maintenance?

There are several reasons why PPM is such an essential part of building maintenance, some of which are based on cost effectiveness, but there’s also legal compliance to take into consideration.

Here are some examples of why you need PPM:

Control

Controlling the environment as well as ensuring that it’s fit for purpose and operating as designed means there is less chance of an unplanned demand on resource (people, and money).

This ensures that costs of operations remain steady and less subjected to spikes in demand not able to be met by cashflow or exceeding cash reserves.

Compliance

Health and safety is a serious subject. Ignoring non-compliance within a building could pose a serious risk to people. It’s not only immoral, but illegal too.

Failing to adhere to current regulations, whether that’s fire, electrical and gas safety or controlling the risk of accidents, can result in penalties and fines.

While focused on life safety, it also aims to support the protection of property – the loss of which would cause a significant issue to the operation of the organisation and may put the viability of a business in jeopardy.

Improved Safety and Productivity in the Workplace

Of course, saving money is a great benefit of PPM, but ultimately, the safety of the people in the building is the most important thing of all. There’s also staff productivity to consider. For example, an HVAC system that doesn’t work properly can create an uncomfortable environment that affects a worker’s productivity levels.

Equipment longevity

Every asset will have an indicative economic life expectancy, which can be found within the CIBSE Guide M.

These are based on cross-industry collaboration between BESA (SFG20), RICS (NRM 3) and CIBSE, and are already aligned to SFG20 maintenance codes.

Carrying out a comprehensive maintenance routine helps prevent equipment downtime from faults or failures and help assets reach at least their Reference Service Life (RSL).

Regular inspection and testing helps to ensure that equipment is operating correctly and efficiently, capturing issues that may arise. Any repairs needed can then be arranged accordingly.

Carbon Emission Reduction

Well-maintained assets not only last longer, but they also use less energy too because they can operate more efficiently. This helps Maintenance teams reduce operational and embodied carbon emissions.

Budgeting

Every business will have a yearly budget, and while there’s no way to predict every expenditure that will come your way, knowing what tasks need to be undertaken and when they are due, means you can pre-plan maintenance budgets accordingly.

Planned Preventative Maintenance Examples

PPM ensures assets are serviced before failures occur, reducing downtime and extending lifespan.

For example, a property manager using CAFM or IWMS software can schedule regular HVAC inspections, track filter replacements and monitor boiler performance automatically.

Elevators can be checked monthly and fire safety systems tested quarterly, with all tasks logged digitally.

What are the Pros and Cons of PPM Maintenance?

Below is a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of PPM:

Pros of PPM Maintenance

• Long-term maintenance costs are evened out and reduced
• Prevent escalating maintenance costs by identifying issues early
• Helps prevent downtime and delays
• Keeps equipment running efficiently
• Increases safety
• Reduces overall energy consumption
•  

PPM Maintenance Cons

• Short-term time investment to set up
• Short term cost increase
• Staff training
  
  

What are the different types of Planned Preventative Maintenance?

So, now that you know what PPM is and why you should put it into practice, let's take a look at the different types so you can implement them effectively.

Predictive maintenance

Predictive Maintenance is a strategy based on data analysis combined with real-time data to help predict any potential problems – repairs can be carried out before a complete failure occurs, saving both time and money.

This can be a useful method for specialised equipment. Say you have a production line that fails to work if it overheats – by monitoring the temperature levels you’ll know if it needs maintenance before it stops working completely.

By knowing beforehand, you can schedule the maintenance accordingly.

Condition-based maintenance

With Condition-based Maintenance (CBM), sensors and other monitoring equipment are used to analyse and assess the condition of assets in real time. This is similar to Predictive Maintenance but without the historic data on asset reliability and longevity.

PPM Examples of what this would be useful for include:

• HVAC systems – thermographic surveys (thermal imaging) can look for issues like leaks and blocked ducts.
• Pipes – pressure levels can be monitored to avoid leaks.
• Computers – you can avoid overheating issues via temperature monitoring.
  
  

Risk-based maintenance

Risk-based Maintenance (RBM) works by prioritising maintenance resources for the assets that carry the most risk if they fail.

High-risk assets vary with site-specific requirements and the level of impact on a business.

Collecting data and using predictive tools can help to determine and categorise which assets are high risk – that way you can focus more on these areas to prevent issues that could have widespread consequences on a business.

Prescriptive maintenance

Prescriptive Maintenance is an advanced, data-driven strategy achieved through machine learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced analytics which collect data to predict possible equipment failures and then suggest specific maintenance actions to solve issues.

It’s a useful method for maintaining complex equipment used in sectors such as manufacturing, transportation, aerospace, energy, oil and gas and healthcare.

It can seem daunting, but creating a schedule for all these types of maintenance doesn’t need to be difficult.

Understand Your Compliance Responsibilities

So, you’ve now learnt the fundamentals of PPM and why it’s essential for any facilities manager or building owner. What’s more, you now know that carrying out PPMs in line with current regulations will create a safer environment and increase the longevity of assets.

With SFG20 being the industry standard for building maintenance specification, it’s our duty to ensure that those in the industry are not only well-informed but are also given the right tools to receive the best support possible.

If you would like to learn more, whether that’s understanding your compliance responsibilities or building maintenance strategies, our Ultimate Guide To Compliance in Facilities Management can help you.