Lesson 8 of 10 · 10 min
Starting preventive maintenance
Written by Melek Mehrez, founder of FreeMaint · Last reviewed October 11, 2026
Lesson objective
By the end of this lesson, you can choose your ten most critical assets, set a calendar or meter frequency for each of their tasks, and write short task lists that a technician can check off.
Preventive maintenance is where a CMMS starts to pay off: tasks come due on their own, nothing depends on one person's spreadsheet, and failures start to drop. It is also where many projects overreach, creating hundreds of plans in the first week and drowning the team in work orders.
This lesson starts small on purpose: ten critical assets, a few well-chosen tasks, frequencies you can justify, and task lists short enough to be done properly every time.
Start with your ten most critical assets
Take the class A assets from lesson 5 and, if needed, the class B assets that fail most often according to the audit. Ten assets are enough for a first wave: the team settles into the routine, the frequencies are put to the test, and the workload stays under control.
For each asset, list the tasks that prevent its most frequent or most serious failures: lubrication, inspection, cleaning, adjustment, replacement of wear parts. A task that prevents no known failure mode is a task to question.
Choose a frequency: calendar or meter
| Trigger | When it fits | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Calendar | Wear depends on time (corrosion, aging, seasons), or a regulation sets a fixed interval | Monthly inspection of a fire pump; quarterly check of a cooling tower |
| Meter | Wear depends on use, and use varies: operating hours, cycles, kilometers | Oil change every 500 operating hours; belt check every 100,000 cycles |
Some tasks use both triggers, whichever comes first: an oil change every 500 operating hours or every 12 months.
Frequencies come from three sources: the manufacturer's manual, the asset's own history, and the experience of the technicians who maintain it. Start from the manual, adjust with history and experience, and write down why you chose each frequency.
Then let the results decide. If a monthly inspection has found nothing after a year, the interval can probably be extended, unless a regulation or the manufacturer sets it; if failures happen between two visits, the interval is too long, or the task is the wrong one.
Write task lists that can be checked
A task list (or job plan) describes what the technician does, step by step. The best ones are short and checkable: each step says what to do and what a correct result looks like, so that two technicians doing the same task reach the same result.
| Vague | Checkable |
|---|---|
| Check the belt | Check belt tension: deflection between 10 and 15 mm under thumb pressure |
| Lubricate the bearings | Grease the 4 bearings: 2 shots each, grease type shown on the label |
| Inspect the motor | Measure motor temperature: below 70 °C after one hour of operation |
| Clean the filter | Replace the air filter if the pressure drop exceeds the value on the label |
Keep each list to a dozen steps at most, and add a photo or a diagram when it saves a long explanation.
Example
The packaging plant's first plans
The plant starts with its 7 class A assets and the 3 class B assets that, according to the audit, break down most often. These ten assets carry 35 of the 60 imported plans; the other 25 stay paused until a second wave, once the first plans run on time. After review, 22 of the 35 remain: 9 are merged with others and 4 are deleted, because they prevented no known failure.
The fillers' plans switch from calendar to meter: their running hours vary with orders, so lubrication now follows operating hours rather than the first of the month. The other plans stay on the calendar, spread over the four weeks of the month.
Each task list is rewritten with a field champion, with values and photos. Three months after go-live, the preventive share has risen from 15% to 24% of hours, on the way to the 35% goal set in lesson 1.
Four common mistakes
- Creating plans for every asset in the first week.
- Copying the manufacturer's frequencies without ever adjusting them.
- Task lists of thirty vague steps that nobody reads to the end.
- Letting preventive work slip at every emergency, without telling anyone.
In FreeMaint
Included in Core (free)Preventive plans in FreeMaint
In FreeMaint, Preventive holds your plans: each one covers one or several assets, has a frequency in days, its own task list and the spare parts it needs, and can create its work orders automatically when they come due. Calendar plans are unlimited on the free Core plan; meter-based and hybrid triggers are part of the Starter plan. “On these days only” keeps due dates on the weekdays you choose.
Read the documentationTemplate for this lesson
Preventive plan and task list template
Excel (.xlsx), blank, with workload formulas
Key takeaways
- Start with your ten most critical assets, not with the whole plant.
- Use a calendar frequency when wear follows time, and a meter when it follows use.
- Start from the manual, adjust with history and experience, and write down why.
- Write short task lists in which each step says what to do and what a correct result looks like.
Exercise in FreeMaint
Do it in your own FreeMaint workspace, then check it here. Optional: the exercises of lessons 5, 7 and 8 add “with hands-on practice” to your certificate.
Create a preventive plan
Create at least one active preventive maintenance plan yourself.
Check your understanding
A few quick questions. Nothing is recorded.