Are You Reactive, Preventive, or Perplexed?

We are developer and integrator of Maintenance Software (CMMS). What we see in the market is that the reality is extremely variable: from 80% (some are even close to 100%) to 5% of emergency tasks. We are talking to people who think 50% is pretty good and other trying to decrease it to 0%.

But in fact, more important than the percentage, I think the cost of emergency is "the" element to analyse to be able to make right decision about what percentage an enterprise should target. We can't compare a percentage for a "24/7" milk and cheese enterprise with a "5 days/1 shift" plastic products manufacturer. The cost includes, for example, the lost in raw material but also direct cost for human resources and don't forget the effect on your customers.

I know an enterprise that is shipping his unique product 3 times per day / 7 days a week to one big customer (definitively a big part of their production). The penalty if the shipping is right on time is huge and they can't risk to lose this client; this enterprise needs the "near 0%" emergency and they need to invest in preventive and predictive maintenance.

So to answer your question, I'm 100% sure enterprise should invest in preventive maintenance to decrease reactive maintenance... but the emergency % to target is different for each industry.