Preventive Maintenance is a systematic approach to maintaining equipment (manufacturing, facilities, infrastructure) on a schedule to avoid unplanned failures. Used by maintenance engineers, operations managers, and plant supervisors. Salary: $45k–$110k USD. Time to learn: 4 months. Sits adjacent to equipment-diagnosis, lean-manufacturing, and asset-management.
Preventive Maintenance (PM) is a systematic, schedule-based approach to maintaining equipment and systems to prevent failures before they occur. Unlike reactive maintenance (fixing things when they break), PM follows a calendar or usage-based schedule, e.g., change oil every 500 hours, replace filters every 6 months, inspect bearings quarterly. The goal is to keep assets running reliably, reduce unplanned downtime, extend asset lifespan, and lower total cost of ownership. It's the backbone of manufacturing plants, utility companies, facilities management, and any operation where uptime is critical.
| Region | Junior | Mid | Senior |
|---|---|---|---|
| USA | $45k | $70k | $110k |
| UK | $30k | $50k | $75k |
| EU | $32k | $52k | $80k |
| CANADA | $42k | $65k | $100k |
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