What Is Unplanned Maintenance?

Unplanned Maintenance: What Is It and How To Prevent It Using Proven Strategies

When your facility’s operations rely on a network of assets — servers, machines, equipment, and software — unexpected failures are bound to happen.

Whether from equipment breakdowns or human error, unplanned maintenance can ultimately lead to lost time and money.

While it’s impossible to prevent all downtime from unplanned maintenance, the key to ensuring it doesn’t spiral out of control is managing the unplanned maintenance before it happens. In other words, expect the unexpected.

It’s impossible to strategize for all circumstances, especially if you have no idea where to start. 

Here we’ll provide a foundation for identifying unplanned maintenance and offer proven strategies to help you face unexpected downtime of different types.

What Is Unplanned Maintenance?

Unplanned maintenance is a maintenance task that must occur when an unexpected breakdown of an asset occurs. If there is no formal strategy to address a repair, replacement, or inspection before it’s needed, the unanticipated equipment failure is categorized as ‘unplanned maintenance.’ 

You might also hear unplanned maintenance referred to as “reactive” or “emergency” maintenance because the maintenance team is forced to figure out the issue immediately.

For example:

A piece of equipment in your facility relies on a motor to properly operate. The asset experiences motor failure, causing an unexpected breakdown and a disruption in production. Before the breakdown, the motor was working properly and was a reliable piece to the asset, so no predetermined maintenance plan was in place when it failed to perform. The motor failure is considered to be unplanned maintenance.

What Are the Effects of Unplanned Maintenance?

A major effect of unplanned maintenance is increased costs for equipment repair or replacement (including parts), labor, and overtime of maintenance workers. 

But the negative effects don’t stop there. Unplanned maintenance can also lead to:

• Lost production

• Damaged equipment

• Reduced asset life

• Disrupted planned maintenance

• Strained supply chain

• Decreased employee morale

• Safety concerns

When To Use Unplanned Maintenance?

Including unplanned maintenance in your facility’s maintenance strategy is an effective way to balance out handling all maintenance tasks. A strategic maintenance team can use the downtime caused by unplanned maintenance to make additional repairs or perform preventive maintenance on other equipment that is not in use because of unplanned maintenance.

However, you must consider the impact of failure on specific assets when deciding how to include unplanned maintenance in your broader maintenance strategy.

You might use unplanned maintenance strategies in your facility when:

• Equipment is not designed to be repairable or is located where repairs are difficult to perform.

• Equipment is not production-critical and is quick, safe, and inexpensive to repair or replace.

• Equipment can be easily bypassed or redundant systems are in place.

• Equipment has reached the end of its lifespan and must be replaced.

What’s the Difference Between Unplanned Maintenance and Unscheduled Maintenance?

Unplanned maintenance is often referred to as ‘emergency maintenance’ or ‘reactive maintenance,’ but when it’s referred to as ‘unscheduled maintenance,’ there are some distinctions that can guide you in understanding the difference.

Unplanned maintenance is typically completely unexpected. There was no foresight that it might happen and no plan is in place for repair or replacement.

Unscheduled maintenance implies that the issue has been on the horizon, the failure just occurred sooner than expected. Typically, a maintenance plan is already in place, but scheduling to service the equipment must be done.

What’s the Difference Between Unplanned and Planned Maintenance?

Opposite of unplanned maintenance, planned maintenance is scheduled in advance. Typically, this includes scheduled upgrades or other expected activities.

Although planned maintenance can take an asset offline, it’s anticipated and can often be scheduled to minimize downtime and the impact on productivity.

Conversely, unplanned maintenance can be much more damaging because the downtime is uncontrolled, causing immediate disruption to operations and often triggering a loss in revenue.

UpKeep can help you maintain a balanced maintenance strategy and tackle all maintenance tasks — planned, unplanned, and unscheduled — effectively and in a timely manner to minimize disruptions to your facility. Get started today.

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3 Types of Unplanned Maintenance

Unplanned maintenance is inevitable in equipment operations and facilities management. However, not planning for unplanned maintenance can lead to confusion among your maintenance team and a rushed or incomplete job. 

The endless possibilities make it difficult to anticipate unplanned maintenance events, yet, having general “if, then” contingency plans in place can equip your team to react swiftly and confidently.

There are 3 types of unplanned maintenance your maintenance team should be prepared for, including:

• Reactive maintenance

• Corrective maintenance

• Opportunistic maintenance

#1: Reactive Maintenance

Reactive unplanned maintenance is required to fix equipment after an unexpected failure. 

Often referred to as “breakdown maintenance” or “emergency maintenance,” the repairs are a reaction to equipment breakdown that hasn’t been scheduled. In this scenario, maintenance technicians must temporarily abandon other commitments to return the affected asset to service. 

What Is an Example of Unplanned Reactive Maintenance?

A product on a conveyor build gets jammed and breaks a sensor, resulting in a guide rail becoming damaged. The accident was caused by an unexpected malfunction in production. 

Production was halted and a maintenance technician interrupted their schedule to immediately repair the issue.

In the meantime, a manual workaround required additional labor costs to run the production line until the guide rail could be welded and a new sensor installed.

#2: Corrective Maintenance

Corrective unplanned maintenance is performed on equipment to restore it to optimal operations. The equipment may be functioning but it’s affecting other operations by slowing them down, using more energy than normal, or producing a higher rate of defective products. 

Corrective maintenance addresses unforeseen asset problems that haven’t been planned for — similar to an upgrade to help the asset return to peak-level performance.

What Is an Example of Unplanned Corrective Maintenance?

Unplanned corrective maintenance can range from repairing a minor defect that’s causing a machine to run slowly to replacing a part of the equipment that has completely broken down. 

For example, if products are coming down a conveyor but stopping when they reach a section where the roller is seizing up, a traffic jam of product is caused, pushing just a few products forward at a time as the traffic jam increases. 

The tight roller isn’t causing production to completely stop, but it’s decreasing its efficiency. To optimize the asset, the roller must be repaired or replaced. 

#3: Opportunistic Maintenance

Opportunistic maintenance occurs when preventive maintenance is performed on other assets while production is halted to repair an asset. 

Additionally, preventive maintenance can be performed on other components of the same downed asset to avoid additional downtime down the road. 

An unplanned stoppage in production results in unplanned maintenance — specifically reactive maintenance for the affected asset — and potentially opportunistic maintenance for other related machines or components. 

Taking advantage of downtime to perform preventive maintenance on assets affected by a stoppage in production can help maintenance teams discover potential issues that prevent the need for future planned or unplanned maintenance. 

What Is an Example of Unplanned Opportunistic Maintenance?

Suppose we continue with our previous conveyor example where the asset is under corrective maintenance to repair the tight roller. In that case, the maintenance manager notices another sensor is reaching its warranty end. They know the specific sensor rarely lasts beyond its warranty and can see that it’s scheduled to be replaced next month.

Instead of waiting until next month, they take advantage of the unplanned downtime to install the new sensor, avoiding the planned maintenance downtime next month.

How To Plan for Unplanned Maintenance

We know that every unplanned maintenance scenario cannot be predicted, let alone its contingency plan and the necessary inventory to quickly repair or replace the asset.

Even if it could be, the cost and time required to do so would cripple any organization.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t be prepared for many maintenance issues when they inevitably arise.

The key to planning unplanned maintenance is using a risk-weighted analysis:

1. Start by identifying critical operations equipment, including assets that are imperative to safety and regulatory compliance. 

2. Target your attention and maintenance spend to address the various ways these assets might fail. 

3. Consider if the costs of regular maintenance outweigh the cost of an unplanned failure for assets that can fail without impacting safety or regulatory compliance.

You can ask the following questions to help determine if an asset should be added to an unplanned maintenance plan:

• Does the asset have a history of failure?

• Does it have a low capital cost?

• Is there equipment redundancy?

• Is the asset disposable?

Utilize a CMMS and Maintenance Software

A computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) can help you manage your assets and maintenance team to keep you operating efficiently and reliably, no matter the maintenance issue at hand.

With UpKeep’s innovative CMMS tool, businesses across various industries can effectively manage their:

• Maintenance tasks

• Work orders

• Equipment tracking; and

• Inventory management

By digitizing and centralizing these operations, UpKeep enhances operational efficiency, reduces downtime, and promotes proactive maintenance strategies. 

Mobile features in UpKeep’s user-friendly app allow technicians to easily view their daily prioritized maintenance tasks and encourage technicians to take full accountability from start to finish with mobile checkpoints and work order updates. 

Learn why UpKeep is consistently rated the best inventory management software in value for money, ease of use, functionality, and customer support.

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Prevention Is Key To Addressing Unplanned Maintenance

When downtime can cost you revenue, reputation, and reduced productivity, it’s imperative to find a way to measure and implement preventive and predictive maintenance strategies. 

According to the United States Department of Energy, companies can save 12-18% in costs by investing in preventive maintenance.

By focusing on proactively preventing equipment failures and reducing unplanned downtime by carefully assessing assets, you can minimize the impact an unplanned failure might have on your production.

6 Strategies To Prevent Unplanned Maintenance

#1: Preventive Maintenance

Building a preventive maintenance plan and efficiency checklist can help keep assets in good working condition and minimize or prevent unplanned downtime due to breakdowns or the need for repairs.

#2: Asset Condition Monitoring

This proactive strategy can increase uptime when you continuously analyze the conditions of your assets to better predict potential failures and take actions to prevent them from happening.

#3: Criticality Analysis

Identifying which components are most important for an asset to function efficiently helps prioritize the assets that should be addressed first if multiple breakdowns occur, based on their criticality. 

#4: KPIs

Tracking Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) related to maintenance can help maintenance technicians track unplanned maintenance. Consider paying extra attention to:

• The amount of time spent on unexpected asset issues

• How long a non-repairable asset is expected to last before it fails

• The percentage of hours spent on planned maintenance vs. unplanned maintenance

#5: Predictive Maintenance

Use this strategy to help better predict when equipment may need maintenance to help optimize its performance while minimizing maintenance costs and downtime.

#6: Spare Parts Inventory

Having a spare parts inventory that is perfectly stocked ensures your maintenance team has the necessary parts to replace or repair equipment parts that have failed. Keeping track of the inventory ensures you always have what you need on hand but also ensures you’re not wasting money on an overflow of unnecessary inventory.

Take Advantage of UpKeep’s CMMS Software To Help Your Maintenance Team Plan for the Unplanned

Let’s face it, unplanned maintenance is an inevitable part of managing facility operations. But it doesn’t always have to catch you off-guard or risk driving your business into the ground.

With a sound assessment of your equipment needs and a preventive maintenance plan, you can seize every opportunity to minimize downtime.

The revolutionary mobile CMMS system from UpKeep helps your maintenance team predict and prepare for equipment failures, reducing the need for unplanned maintenance.

UpKeep helps organize asset management in one centralized command center by digitizing:

• Maintenance tasks

• Work orders

• Asset inventory tracking

• Safety and compliance

• Data analysis

• And more

With our unique analytics and reporting feature, maintenance managers have a bird’s eye view of data for every asset that allows them to create an effective, flexible, approach to preventive maintenance. 

Integrating UpKeep’s intuitive, easy-to-use software can help improve your facility’s conditions and extend asset lifetime to reduce unplanned maintenance. 

Request a demo today.

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