Planned vs Reactive Maintenance: differences and how to shift the balance
In short
Planned maintenance is work scheduled in advance to keep equipment in good condition, such as routine servicing and inspections. Reactive maintenance is work done after something breaks or a fault is reported. Most buildings need both. The goal is to plan enough work that breakdowns become rare, while letting some low-risk assets run until they fail.
What is planned maintenance?
Planned maintenance is any maintenance work that is decided and scheduled before it happens. The most common type is planned preventive maintenance (PPM): routine servicing on a fixed schedule, such as changing filters every quarter or testing a generator every month.
Planned maintenance also includes:
- Inspections and condition checks
- Statutory and safety testing
- Predictive maintenance, where work is triggered by data showing early signs of a problem
- Planned repairs and replacements, booked ahead once a problem is known
The key point is timing. With planned work, the team chooses when it happens, so it can be done at a convenient time with the right people, parts and access in place.
What is reactive maintenance?
Reactive maintenance is work done in response to a failure or a report. A tenant says the air conditioning has stopped, a pump trips, a lift gets stuck. Someone has to go and fix it.
Reactive work is sometimes called breakdown maintenance or corrective maintenance, although corrective work can also be planned once a fault is found.
Some reactive work is always unavoidable. Equipment fails in ways no schedule can fully prevent, and occupants will always raise new requests. The problem starts when most of a team’s time goes on reactive jobs.
Planned vs Reactive maintenance at a glance
| Planned maintenance | Reactive maintenance | |
|---|---|---|
| When it happens | Scheduled in advance | After a failure or report |
| Who decides the timing | The maintenance team | The failure |
| Disruption to occupants | Usually low, can be done at quiet times | Often high, happens when it happens |
| Cost per job | Usually lower and predictable | Often higher, with call-outs and rush parts |
| Workload | Steady and easy to plan | Uneven, with sudden peaks |
| Best for | Critical assets and safety systems | Low-value assets with a backup or low impact |
Why too much reactive work is a problem
When most maintenance is reactive, teams feel it quickly:
- Technicians spend the day moving from one urgent job to the next
- Planned tasks get pushed back, which leads to more breakdowns
- Costs are harder to control because emergency work is rarely cheap
- Occupants notice more downtime and complain more
- Asset life can suffer, because small problems are left until they become big ones
This can turn into a cycle. The team is too busy with breakdowns to do planned work, and skipping planned work causes more breakdowns.
When reactive maintenance makes sense
Reactive maintenance is not always a failure of planning. For some assets, it is the sensible choice. This is often called run to failure.
Run to failure can work when:
- The asset is cheap and quick to replace
- Its failure causes little or no disruption
- There is a backup or spare ready to use
- Planned servicing would cost more than simply replacing it
Examples might include a single light fitting, a small exhaust fan in a store room, or a desk-level appliance. The important thing is that this is a deliberate choice for each asset type, not the default for everything.
How to shift from reactive to planned maintenance
Moving the balance takes time. These steps help most teams make progress.
1. Measure where you are now
Track how many work orders, or how many labour hours, are planned and how many are reactive each month. This planned vs reactive ratio gives you a starting point. Without it, it is hard to tell whether things are improving.
2. Find the assets that fail most
Look at your reactive work orders and group them by asset. Usually a small number of assets cause a large share of breakdowns. These are where planned maintenance will make the biggest difference.
3. Build or fix the PPM schedule for those assets
Add or improve planned tasks for the problem assets first. Check that each has the right task list and a sensible interval. Our guide on how to build a PPM schedule walks through this step by step.
4. Protect time for planned work
If technicians are pulled onto every urgent job, planned tasks will keep slipping. Set aside time for planned work each week, and treat it as seriously as reactive calls, except for real emergencies.
5. Use data to catch problems earlier
Condition monitoring and sensor data can show when equipment starts to behave unusually, before it fails. Tools such as fault detection and diagnostics and predictive maintenance turn this data into early warnings, so a future breakdown becomes a planned repair.
6. Review and repeat
Check the planned vs reactive ratio every month. As breakdowns fall on the worst assets, move on to the next group. Progress is usually gradual, but it builds on itself.
How software supports the shift
A spreadsheet can track a small PPM schedule, but it struggles to show the full picture. CAFM and CMMS software records every planned and reactive job against each asset, which makes it much easier to see where breakdowns come from and whether planned work is reducing them.
Most systems also create planned work orders automatically when tasks are due, and log reactive requests through a helpdesk. Having both in one place is what makes the planned vs reactive ratio easy to measure. If you are new to these tools, what is CAFM software explains the basics.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between planned and reactive maintenance?
Planned maintenance is scheduled in advance to prevent problems. Reactive maintenance happens after a failure or a reported fault. Planned work is usually easier to manage and less disruptive, while reactive work cannot be avoided completely.
What is a good planned vs reactive maintenance ratio?
There is no single right number for every building. It depends on the age of the assets, the type of building and how critical the equipment is. The most useful approach is to measure your own ratio and aim to improve it over time, especially for critical assets.
Is preventive maintenance the same as planned maintenance?
Preventive maintenance is one type of planned maintenance. Planned maintenance is the wider term and also includes inspections, predictive maintenance and repairs booked in advance.
Can you eliminate reactive maintenance?
No. Some failures will always happen, and occupants will always raise new requests. The aim is to reduce unplanned breakdowns on important assets, not to remove reactive work entirely.
What is run to failure?
Run to failure is a deliberate choice to skip planned maintenance on an asset and replace or repair it only when it fails. It suits low-cost, low-impact assets where planned servicing would cost more than the failure.
For more maintenance terms in plain English, see our FM glossary.