Preventive maintenance process flowchart (scheduled PM)
Preventive maintenance process flowchart template: interval or meter trigger, planned work order, parts kit, isolation, PM task list, test and handback.
How it works
Rename the lanes to your roles
Replace Maintenance planner, Operator / production, Stores, Technician and Quality with the roles that genuinely exist in your organisation. On a small site the planner and the technician are often the same person: merge those lanes rather than drawing a handoff that never happens.
Write your trigger rule onto the first decision
State which assets are time-based and which are usage-based, what the meter actually counts (run hours, cycles, distance, throughput) and who is responsible for logging it. If your CMMS raises the PM on whichever comes first, say so on the chart.
Set the planning lead time
Decide how far ahead of the due date the work order is raised. It has to be long enough to order non-stock parts and get into the production plan. A work order that appears on its due date is already late, and that single number explains most missed PMs.
State the isolation and handover rule
Record what isolation the asset needs, who applies and removes the lock, whether a permit to work is required, and how stored energy in pneumatics, hydraulics and suspended loads is dealt with. Note where the signed handover and handback are recorded.
Decide what happens to defects
Agree the rule for work found during the PM: what may be fixed inside the booked window, what is raised as a corrective work order and planned separately, and what stops the machine going back into service. Also agree who grades the urgency.
Define the record and the meter reset
List what the completed work order must carry — task list results and readings, parts used, labour and downtime — and state whether the next due date runs from the completion date or from the original due date. Those two rules produce very different schedules over a year.
Walk it against a completed PM
Take two or three finished PM work orders, one that went to plan and one that overran, and trace them through the chart. Any step people describe that is not drawn, or drawn but skipped in practice, is the finding worth acting on before you publish it.
Frequently asked questions
What are the steps in a preventive maintenance process?
The PM schedule is generated from the asset register and the job becomes due either on a calendar interval or on a meter reading logged against the asset. The planner raises a work order in advance, agrees a downtime slot with production and has stores kit the parts. Production hands the machine over, the technician isolates and locks it off, then works through the PM task list against its checklist. Anything found outside the PM scope becomes a corrective work order. Isolation is removed, guards are refitted, a functional test is run and checked against the standard, production accepts the machine back, and the work order is recorded, the meter reset, the interval adjusted if the findings justify it, and the record closed.
What is the difference between preventive, corrective and reactive maintenance?
Preventive maintenance is scheduled by time or usage and is carried out whether or not anything appears to be wrong. Corrective maintenance restores a known defect and can be planned, which is exactly what the 'Defects found?' branch of this chart hands off. Reactive or breakdown maintenance starts after the failure, from a fault report rather than from the schedule. Condition-based and predictive maintenance sit alongside these: the work is still planned, but the trigger is a measurement such as vibration, temperature or oil analysis rather than a date or a meter target. This template covers the time- and usage-triggered case only.
Should a PM be triggered by a calendar interval or by a meter reading?
Match the trigger to what actually drives the failure. Ageing, corrosion, lubricant degradation and statutory examination dates track elapsed time, so a calendar interval fits. Wear driven by use — bearings, belts, filters, cutting tools — tracks run hours, cycles or distance, so a meter fits better and stops you servicing a machine that has been standing idle. Many systems support whichever comes first, which is a reasonable default for assets with both failure modes. Usage triggers only work if the readings are logged reliably, so put that step in someone's lane rather than assuming it.
What is PM schedule compliance and how is it measured?
It is the proportion of scheduled PMs completed within their agreed window, and it is the usual health check on a maintenance programme. It only means something once you have defined the window — the grace period either side of the due date — and a rule for deferrals, including who may approve one and how many times a job may be pushed. Organisations set their own target rather than working to a universal figure. Measured without a defined window, compliance can be reported as high while jobs drift weeks past their due date.
How do you know whether a PM interval is right?
Use the evidence the process produces. Several cycles in a row that find nothing at all suggest the interval is shorter than it needs to be. Failures arriving between PMs suggest it is too long, or that the task list is checking the wrong things. Corrective work orders raised from PM findings, and any condition monitoring data, tell you which. Change the interval on the asset register, with a named approver, rather than adjusting one work order. Some intervals are not yours to move: statutory examinations, and manufacturer or warranty requirements, set their own frequency regardless of what you find.