Reactive maintenance is a form of physical asset management in which maintenance is only performed on equipment or machinery when it malfunctions or fails entirely. Sometimes referred to as run-to-failure maintenance or breakdown maintenance, reactive maintenance strategies provide the most basic level of asset maintenance and offer a minimum threshold of stability until your organization is prepared to take a preventive approach to maintenance.

The primary advantage of reactive maintenance is that it’s a cost-effective and uncomplicated way to get the most output from assets before they fail. Although preventive maintenance can minimize long-term costs, it presents upfront costs of its own that some organizations can’t manage.

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