PM / preventive maintenance
noun
The practice of performing planned, routine maintenance on equipment or systems at predetermined intervals in order to reduce the likelihood of failure, extend service life, and maintain reliable performance.
Maintenance tasks carried out proactively rather than in response to equipment breakdown or malfunction.
Origin
Abbreviation of preventive maintenance, a term widely adopted in industrial, mechanical, and facilities management contexts during the mid-20th century as scheduled maintenance programs became standard practice.
Usage
Common in maintenance, manufacturing, turf and grounds management, transportation, and facilities operations.
Example
“The mower fleet is on a strict PM schedule to minimize downtime during peak season.”
The simplest PM system that actually gets used
A no-excuses maintenance rhythm that keeps your fleet reliable
It was barely 7:15 a.m. on a Monday when the first call came in. One of the primary mowers was dead in the yard, coolant everywhere, crew standing around waiting for a decision. The schedule was already tight, and now the day started behind.
The frustrating part wasn’t the breakdown itself. It was that everyone had seen it coming. The machine had been running hot for weeks, but no one had owned the fix. Notes lived in someone’s head, not on paper.
This is how most preventable downtime starts. Not with a catastrophic failure, but with silence. Small warnings that never turn into action until the machine forces the issue.
The pressure in small and mid-size shops is real. Crews are stretched, mechanics are forced to be reactive, and preventive maintenance becomes the first thing skipped when the schedule fills up. The result is a fleet that technically runs, but never reliably.
What changed things for this shop was not new software or more staff. It was a minimum viable PM system. Simple enough to use. Clear enough that no one could dodge it.
Here’s what actually worked.
First, a one-page checklist per machine. Not a manual rewrite. Just the 12 to 20 checks that catch 80 percent of failures. Fluids, belts, filters, fittings, tires. If it didn’t prevent downtime, it didn’t make the list.
Second, a fixed rhythm. Daily walk-around by operators. Weekly 15-minute PM block per machine. Monthly deep-check. Same days, same order, every week. No guessing when PM would happen.
Third, visible ownership. Each machine had a name on it. One operator responsible for daily checks. One tech responsible for weekly PM sign-off. When something was off, it was written down immediately.
To implement this without blowing up your schedule:
Build one checklist and test it for two weeks before rolling it fleet-wide.
Tie daily checks to clock-out, not clock-in.
Keep PM supplies staged in one location so no time is lost hunting.
Review PM sheets for five minutes every Monday with the crew.
The biggest pitfall is overbuilding the system. Too many steps, too much paperwork, and it quietly dies. The goal at this point isn’t perfection. The goal is consistency.
Bottom line: A simple PM system that gets used will outperform a perfect one that does not.
Most breakdowns don’t come out of nowhere. They come from silence.
Shop Talk
The 10-minute end-of-day reset that prevents tomorrow’s chaos is not about cleaning everything. It’s about setting tomorrow up to start clean.
The best version looks like this:
Fuel machines before parking them.
Blow off decks and hot zones. Wash as required.
Note any issues on a whiteboard or shared log.
Stage the next day’s attachments and tools.
This happens every day, no exceptions, and it’s timed. When it’s built into the schedule, it stops feeling optional.
Shops that do this consistently see fewer morning delays and fewer “we didn’t notice that yesterday” problems. Ten minutes at the end of the day buys back far more than ten minutes the next morning.
Behind the Business
Reactive maintenance feels cheaper because it avoids planned downtime. In reality, it quietly drains the budget.
Consider a mower that goes down unexpectedly for four hours. You lose one operator, one route, and often another person shuffling equipment. At $35 per hour fully loaded, that’s $140 in labor before parts. Add a tow or emergency repair, and the number climbs fast.
Now compare that to a 30-minute weekly PM slot. Planned, staffed, and predictable. Over a month, that’s two hours of labor, but it prevents the four-hour fire drill.
The math favors planning every time. The hard part is protecting the time when everything feels urgent.
Practical takeaway: Schedule PM like a job, not a favor. If it’s on the calendar, it’s harder to skip.
New + Noteworthy
Color-coded labels on machines and attachments reduce hookup errors and speed training.
Small-parts bin systems with min-max levels prevent last-minute supply runs.
Simple digital checklist apps replace memory and keep PM visible without adding paperwork.
Opinion
Hero mechanics shouldn’t be the system.
Many shops survive because one person knows everything. They hear a noise and diagnose it instantly. They remember which machine is overdue and which part to order.
That works until they’re sick, on vacation, or burned out. Then the cracks show.
Systems protect people, and equipment. They make good work repeatable and visible. They turn experience into a process instead of a personality trait.
If your shop depends on heroes, start writing down what they know. Build a system that supports them instead of leaning on them.
Closing thought: The goal is not to replace your best people. It’s to stop relying on miracles.
Closing Question
What’s one PM task you wish your team never skipped, even on the busiest weeks? Hit reply and tell us. We read every response, and it may give us inspiration in a future issue of TurfOps Weekly.
P.S.
Next week, we’ll shift from the shop to the trade show floor with a pre-GCSAA Conference & Trade Show edition focused on planning before buying. If you’re heading to Orlando, this one’s designed to help you walk the aisles with purpose.
Share TurfOps Weekly with someone who helps make equipment decisions.
Until next week - Kurt