Engineering360: "Preventive vs. predictive maintenance: Which is right for you?"

I dunno. Seems to me the only real difference is based on the accuracy of the predictor. A calendar-based prevention plan is someone's guess at predicting. Hopefully it's in-house by someone who knows his stuff, and not a third party who assumes you use it like "everybody else" does. Granted, sensors take a lot of guess-work out of the equation. But, what's the real difference between the two? In both cases, you try to predict a failure that you want to prevent. A distinction with no real difference.

As long as you do the best you can with what you got, then you can't expect any more. It's a matter of due diligence.

Technically, I believe you are correct. In theory, the accuracy of predictive maintenance is greater. The differences are subtle and both are really preventive maintenance, it's just how you determine and when you plan to perform the maintenance. Also, another major benefit of predictive maintenance is in cases where unexpected problems arise. For example, a temperature sensor may pick up a rapid increase in temperature or a sensor bearing may detect vibration due to contamination or some other unexpected issue. This type of predictive maintenance can save a lot of money compared to a catastrophic failure if the condition change had not been monitored or noticed.