--- title: "Corrective vs. preventive: which really costs more | attendo" description: "Fixing equipment when it breaks vs. servicing it first: the costs almost nobody adds up, how to run the numbers with your data and when run-to-failure fits." url: "https://attendo.me/en/blog/corrective-vs-preventive-maintenance-cost" lang: "en" --- # Corrective vs. preventive maintenance: which one really costs more Everyone says preventive maintenance is cheaper, but few companies prove it with their own numbers. That is why it is the first thing dropped when an emergency hits. Here is the math, including the uncomfortable part: when corrective is the right call. - By the attendo team - Published September 27, 2026 - 5 min read **In this article** 1. The two costs everyone adds up 2. The five costs almost nobody adds up 3. Why preventive work still gets dropped 4. When corrective maintenance is the right call 5. How to run the numbers with your data 6. Three mistakes when comparing 7. The KPI that sums it up ## The two costs everyone adds up When people compare [corrective](https://attendo.me/en/glossary/corrective-maintenance) and [preventive](https://attendo.me/en/glossary/preventive-maintenance) maintenance, they almost always compare two things: - **The technician’s time.** An emergency repair is paid at emergency rates, often after hours. - **The spare part.** In a breakdown you buy it in a hurry, without negotiating, from whoever has it in stock. That alone usually makes a breakdown more expensive than the equivalent inspection. But it is the easy part of the math. ## The five costs almost nobody adds up 1. **Downtime.** What you stop producing or billing while the equipment is out of service. In manufacturing it is usually the biggest cost, and it rarely shows up in any spreadsheet. 2. **Unplanned travel.** The technician drops what they were doing and drives across the county. That trip also wrecks the plan for the rest of the day. 3. **The domino effect.** The inspection that got skipped to handle the emergency causes next month’s breakdown. Corrective work feeds on itself. 4. **Diagnosing blind.** Without the equipment history, the technician starts from scratch. With it, they often arrive knowing what to check, with the part already in the van. 5. **The customer.** A breakdown that stops their operation costs credibility, and sometimes the renewal. It is the hardest cost to put a number on and the most expensive one over two years. ## Why preventive work still gets dropped Because it competes at a disadvantage. The emergency has someone on the phone demanding a fix now; the scheduled inspection has nobody speaking up for it. Three causes keep coming back: - **There is intent, but no schedule.** If preventive work does not create a work order with a date and an owner, it does not exist. - **Postponing costs nothing.** If nobody records that an inspection was pushed back, it gets pushed back again. - **Nobody measures it.** Without the corrective-to-preventive ratio in plain sight, nobody notices things getting worse until it is obvious. ## When corrective maintenance is the right call Not everything should be preventive. Running to failure makes sense when any of these is true: - The asset has **low criticality**: its failure does not stop anything important. - It can be replaced **quickly and cheaply**, with the spare on hand. - Inspecting it regularly **costs more** than replacing it when it fails. A light fixture does not need a maintenance plan. It needs someone to change the bulb when it burns out. The goal is not “zero corrective.” It is deciding which equipment gets preventive care and which runs to failure. Many companies never make that decision: they simply react. ## How to run the numbers with your data Five steps. A spreadsheet is enough to start: 1. Pick **one family** of equipment, not the whole fleet. 2. Pull the work orders from the last 12 months. 3. Add up hours, parts and travel for the corrective ones. 4. Estimate the cost of the inspections that would have prevented them, and how many of those failures they would really have caught. 5. Add the cost of downtime, even as a rough estimate. It is usually the number that decides the result. Example A family of pumps had 24 failures in a year. Each one meant 6 hours of downtime at $250 an hour, plus $900 in repairs. ``` Corrective: 24 × (6 × $250 + $900) = $57,600 a year New plan: 48 inspections × $150 = $7,200 a year If it prevents 7 of the 24 failures: 7 × $2,400 = $16,800 saved ``` In this example, the plan pays for itself once it prevents three failures a year. These figures only show the math: use your own. The conclusion is often uncomfortable. It is not that preventive maintenance is cheap. It is that, until now, nobody had the data to know. ## Three mistakes when comparing - **Using the price of an inspection instead of its real cost.** An inspection also means travel, materials and the time to document it. - **Assuming preventive work prevents everything.** There are random failures, impacts and misuse. Count only the failures an inspection would have caught. - **Forgetting about findings.** An inspection that spots a problem and does not create a corrective work order has prevented nothing. Calculator Run the numbers with your own data CMMS ### [Corrective vs. preventive maintenance](https://attendo.me/en/calculators/corrective-vs-preventive-maintenance) What unplanned breakdowns cost you a year, compared with a preventive maintenance plan you set yourself. ## The KPI that sums it up The **corrective-to-preventive ratio** is a good gauge of how a maintenance operation is doing. Measure it in hours: corrective hours divided by total maintenance hours. There is no universal good number. The trend, however, tells the truth. If corrective work climbs month after month, the plan is falling apart, even if nobody has said so out loud. Review that ratio with your team every month. It is a short, cheap conversation, and it heads off a lot of expensive ones. Last updated: September 27, 2026 Downloadable guide · Template Preventive maintenance plan template A template to print or copy into your spreadsheet: task tables by asset family, how to prioritize with the hours you actually have and how to measure whether the plan is being met. Every interval is marked as an example. [Download the free guide](https://attendo.me/en/guides/preventive-maintenance-plan-template) ## How attendo handles it In attendo CMMS, preventive plans create their work orders on your working calendar, and attendo flags overdue plans. A finding from an inspection becomes a scheduled corrective work order. The corrective-to-preventive ratio, plan compliance and cost per asset come in the reports, which can be emailed on a schedule. - [attendo CMMS](https://attendo.me/en/cmms) - [Assets and inventory](https://attendo.me/en/modules/assets) - [attendo Checklist](https://attendo.me/en/modules/checklists) ## More on maintenance ### How to build a preventive maintenance plan that actually gets done The hard part of preventive maintenance is not designing the plan. It is keeping it alive past the first few months. When a plan is abandoned, it is rarely for lack of will. It was usually sized wrong from day one. 5 min read ### The five maintenance KPIs that actually matter There are lists of thirty maintenance KPIs out there, and almost nobody uses thirty. These are five that change decisions, each with its trap, plus the ones you can usually drop. 4 min read ### How to calculate MTBF and MTTR without fooling yourself Both formulas fit on one line. The hard part is making the number mean something. Here are the formulas, a complete example and the three mistakes that turn these KPIs into decoration. 4 min read [All blog articles](https://attendo.me/en/blog) ## Shall we look at it with your operation? Tell us how you work today and we will show you attendo with your own data. If it is not a fit, we will say so. - With your operation, not a generic demo - A real person from our team replies - No cold calls afterwards Would you rather talk first? - Phone [+34 910 053 530](tel:+34910053530) - Email [sales@attendo.me](mailto:sales@attendo.me) - Monday to Thursday 9:30 AM to 6:30 PM and Friday 9:30 AM to 2:30 PM (Spain time)