A manufacturing plant is considering a proposal to replace its fixed-schedule maintenance routine, in which each machine is serviced every eight weeks regardless of condition, with predictive maintenance, in which sensors continuously monitor each machine and trigger a service only when the data indicates a part is likely to fail soon. Proponents argue that predictive maintenance avoids servicing machines that do not yet need it, catches developing problems that a fixed eight-week schedule might miss between visits, and reduces the total number of maintenance hours billed by outside technicians.

Based on a one-year trial on one production line fitted with the new sensors, the plant's operations management has concluded that adopting predictive maintenance across every production line would reduce unplanned equipment breakdowns and lower total maintenance costs, without requiring the plant to hire additional maintenance staff.