Glossary term
Preventative maintenance (PM)
Also called: preventive maintenance · planned maintenance
Short definition
Preventative maintenance is scheduled service intended to reduce failures, preserve uptime, and satisfy contractual or regulatory obligations—expressed as explicit tasks on a cadence tied to assets.
Related terms
Expanded explanation
Full definition and contextExpand
PM is operational when it is enumerable: which devices, which tasks, which frequencies, and what evidence counts as complete.
Teams struggle when PM lives in spreadsheets parallel to execution, or when “PM” is a vague customer promise without task libraries.
PM also intersects revenue: under-delivered PM is churn risk; over-delivered PM without pricing discipline is margin leak.
Industry relevance
Foundational vocabulary for any equipment-heavy service org selling uptime, compliance, or contract coverage.
Industry tags: field service general, hvac, medical equipment, commercial kitchen