Reactive vs. Preventive vs. Prescriptive Maintenance
Poor maintenance strategies can reduce a structure’s life span and possibly create a life hazard if not attended in time. Most inspections are visual and do not consider any internal damages if no visual signs are present. Maintenance strategies fall into one of three categories, each with its own challenges and benefits:
Reactive Maintenance
Strategy of repairing a structure only after any damage is visible and obvious or at a point of failure.
Costs are only incurred when failure is imminent and some organizations feel that this creates an operational cost savings, when truth is that the longer you wait to repair damage it will only raise the repair costs exponentially.
More often than not ends up treating the asset symptom, rather than the problem causing the symptom.
Waiting for damages to be obvious can be a large financial burden to any organization and may lead to a dangerous situation.
Preventive Maintenance
Also referred to as planned maintenance, this consists of regular pressure washing, painting, roof repairs and equipment maintenance.
Based on theoretical failure rates and not necessarily based on actual structural performance.
Maintenance on a regular basis is no guarantee that the structure is safe and that there is no internal unseen damage.
Internal damage could be lingering until this damage is obvious and therefore more costly to repair and may even make your structure unsafe to occupy.
Prescriptive Maintenance
Your structure or asset is tied to your historical data through the use of Structural Health Monitoring System (SHM), similar to having an EKG machine put on your body to listen to what is going on internally.
SHM will continually monitor your structure in real time and comparing the results to the design parameters of the structure and inform you immediately if any structural changes have occurred.
By detecting small changes, it enables you to inspect these areas and perform minor repairs before they become a bigger and more expensive problem and possibly avoiding a dangerous situation that may costs lives.
Quantitative data is recorded and stored to a cloud where it can become the “black box” for your structure, facilitating the settlement of any claim to your insurance company.
