In which maintenance approach is failure not actively prevented?

The maintenance approach where failure is not actively prevented is reactive maintenance. This strategy involves responding to equipment failures only after they occur. Rather than implementing measures to prevent failures beforehand, reactive maintenance focuses on addressing issues as they arise, which can lead to unplanned downtime and disruptions in operations. Businesses using this approach often experience higher repair costs and increased equipment downtime since they address problems from a crisis-management perspective rather than an anticipatory one.

In contrast, preventive maintenance involves scheduled inspections and maintenance tasks conducted to prevent equipment failures before they happen. Predictive maintenance relies on monitoring equipment conditions, using data analytics to anticipate failures and schedule maintenance proactively. Proactive maintenance focuses on identifying the root causes of failure and mitigating them to enhance equipment reliability over the long term. Each of these approaches aims to minimize disruptions, unlike reactive maintenance, which addresses failures after they have impacted operations.