The in’s and out’s of predictive maintenance

What it really means and how to do it right

Predictive maintenance is everywhere in today’s maintenance conversations but most organizations still get it wrong. They confuse it with scheduled inspections or dashboards full of historic data. The result? Expensive downtime, premature repairs, and wasted CAPEX. You can easily end up over-maintaining your assets!

True predictive maintenance is condition-based. It’s about knowing the real-time health of your critical assets and acting at the right moment. Not too early and not too late.

Why schedule-based maintenance isn’t enough

Most maintenance strategies are still built around fixed intervals: every 6 months, every year, or whenever the calendar says it’s time.

But assets don’t fail on a schedule.

• Fatigue and cracks develop under unique conditions.

• One crane might run flawlessly for years. Another might show damage after just three.

• A calendar can’t predict that.

  
  

“60% of maintenance work is either unnecessary or incorrectly timed.” Reliable Plant

What predictive maintenance is — and what it isn’t

It isn’t:

• Doing more inspections to “be safe”

• Feeding periodic inspection results into dashboards and calling it predictive

• Waiting for an issue to appear and then reacting

That’s still reactive.

Predictive maintenance is:

• Condition-based monitoring in real time

• It tracks how an asset is being loaded, how it’s aging and how fatigue and cracks are progressing

• Using that live data to decide when to act

How to get predictive maintenance right

Here’s how to move from reactive to truly predictive:

1. Start with your most critical assets

   Focus on the ones where downtime hits hardest financially or operationally.

2. Know what to look for

   For steel structures, that means fatigue progression and subsurface cracks, not just surface-level defects.

3. Use continuous monitoring

   Install sensors that track stress and crack growth as it happens. Don’t wait for the next scheduled inspection.

4. Plan repairs based on condition, not the calendar

   Act when it’s necessary. Delay when it’s safe. That’s how you extend asset life and avoid unnecessary CAPEX.

Why it matters

When predictive maintenance is done right, it’s not just a buzzword. It’s a business advantage:

• Reduce unplanned downtime

• Extend asset life safely

• Optimize repair and maintenance planning

• Make confident, data-driven decisions

• Delay major CAPEX without risking safety

Final thought

Next time someone says they’re doing predictive maintenance, ask:

Are you reacting on a schedule?Or are you really predicting based on condition?

Smart maintenance isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing the right thing, at the right time.

Ready to move from reactive to truly predictive maintenance?

Talk to our team about how continuous structural health monitoring can help you minimize downtime, improve repair planning, extend asset life, and delay CAPEX with confidence.