A preventive maintenance schedule only works if it's actually followed, and most teams have no reliable way to know whether it is. The schedule exists. The tasks are defined. The intervals are set. And yet, equipment still fails unexpectedly. Reactive work still dominates the week. And technicians still spend more time firefighting than following the plan.
The issue isn't the schedule itself. It's the gap between what's planned and what's executed. Preventive Maintenance Compliance (PMC) is the metric that measures this gap, quantifying how many scheduled PM tasks are actually completed on time.
Without tracking PMC, teams operate on assumptions rather than evidence, trusting that the plan is being followed without any way to verify it.
For many facilities, that verification doesn't exist because they're tracking compliance manually, often in spreadsheets. These tools can store a schedule, but they can't enforce one. They can't trigger reminders, escalate overdue tasks, or show real-time completion rates.
The result is a compliance tracking method better known as "guesswork." The schedule looks fine on paper while compliance quietly erodes, and it's anyone’s guess what the actual state is. This article explains what PMC actually measures, why manual tracking allows it to slip undetected, and what effective compliance tracking requires.
Key Points
- Preventive Maintenance Compliance (PMC) measures the percentage of scheduled PM tasks completed on time, making it the critical metric for evaluating whether your maintenance program is actually being executed.
- World-class operations target 90% compliance or higher, and falling below 70% typically signals that reactive work has taken over the maintenance function.
- Spreadsheet-based tracking creates "preventative guesswork" because it cannot automate task triggers, escalate overdue work, or provide real-time visibility into completion status.
- A CMMS with real-time compliance tracking transforms PM schedules from static plans into executable, accountable systems that detect gaps before they become failures.
What Is Preventive Maintenance Compliance (PMC)?
Preventive Maintenance Compliance measures the percentage of scheduled PM tasks completed on time within a defined period.
It answers a simple but critical question. “Is the maintenance team actually following the schedule?” A high PMC indicates disciplined execution. A low PMC reveals that planned work is slipping, which means equipment is running without the protection the schedule was designed to provide.
The formula is straightforward:
PMC = (Completed PM Work Orders ÷ Scheduled PM Work Orders) × 100
For example, if your team scheduled 50 preventive maintenance tasks last month and completed 42 of them within their assigned windows, your PMC would be 84%. That's a reasonable score, but it also means 8 tasks were not completed on time. Depending on asset criticality, those missed PMs could represent a significant risk.
World-class maintenance programs aim for 90% or higher compliance. To ensure accuracy, many teams apply the 10% rule: a task counts as "on time" only if it's completed within 10% of its scheduled duration.
A monthly PM, for instance, should be completed within three days of its due date. This prevents late completions from inflating the score and masking chronic delays. PMC covers only preventive tasks, not reactive work orders, isolating the proactive portion of your maintenance program and revealing whether that foundation is solid.
Why Compliance Tracking Matters
Without visibility into whether PM tasks are actually completed, a schedule becomes a planning artifact rather than an operational tool. The tasks may be defined, and the intervals may be reasonable, but if no one is measuring execution, there's no mechanism to catch slippage before it causes problems. Compliance tracking is what converts a schedule from intention into accountability.
The consequences of low compliance are well documented. Reactive maintenance typically costs three to five times as much as preventive maintenance. Unplanned downtime costs most manufacturing facilities over $100,000 per hour. Equipment that misses scheduled service degrades faster, fails sooner, and requires more expensive intervention when it does.
These outcomes don't arrive with warning signs. They accumulate quietly while the schedule remains untouched, and they surface only when something breaks or an auditor requests records.
This is why PMC matters beyond operational performance. It's also a compliance and audit issue. Regulatory frameworks across manufacturing, food processing, pharmaceuticals, and energy require documented evidence that preventive maintenance is being performed.
Facilities that track compliance in real time can demonstrate adherence immediately. Those relying on manual records often discover gaps only when they're under scrutiny, and by then, the documentation problems are symptoms of deeper execution failures.
Why Does Manual Tracking Fail?
Spreadsheets cannot trigger tasks, escalate overdue work, or provide real-time visibility, which is why they create the illusion of compliance rather than the reality of it.
A spreadsheet can hold a schedule. It can list due dates and assigned technicians. But its list of can nots is much longer.
A spreadsheet with a schedule can’t:
- Act on the information in the spreadsheet.
- Send a reminder when a task is approaching its window.
- Reassign work when someone is unavailable.
- Flag a PM that's three days overdue and climbing in risk.
A spreadsheet-based schedule is a tracking system that depends entirely on manual discipline.
- Technicians must remember to update completion status, often after the fact.
- Supervisors must manually check for overdue items, usually by scanning rows and comparing dates.
- When multiple people access the same file, version control issues become a problem, and data entry errors increase.
- Tasks may not be finished, even when marked "complete.”
- Unmarked tasks may have been done but never logged.
Over time, the spreadsheet diverges from reality, and no one notices until a failure forces a closer look.
The team believes they're staying ahead of failures because the schedule is in place and people are generally following it. But without real-time tracking, small delays compound. A task completed a week late won't appear as late in next month's tally. Chronic problem areas stay hidden because the data isn't structured for trend analysis. By the time compliance visibly declines, the backlog is already significant, and the operation has shifted into reactive mode with little effort.
In a sense, the spreadsheet-based manual tracking system is the inevitable path to reactive maintenance, repeated over and over again.
What Effective PMC Tracking Requires
Real compliance tracking requires automation, real-time visibility, and integration with execution. These are foundational capabilities that manual systems structurally cannot provide.
This is where a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) becomes a central component of an industrial maintenance strategy. A CMMS plays such a prominent role because it delivers the foundational capabilities required for real compliance tracking, built in as primary functions.
When preventive maintenance software is implemented, it marks a plant’s transition from schedule documentation to schedule enforcement.
- Real-time dashboards showing compliance rates give maintenance leaders immediate visibility into what's been completed, what's pending, and what's overdue. Instead of compiling reports at month-end, managers can monitor PMC continuously and intervene while there's still time to recover.
- Mobile access for technician updates allows completion data to be captured at the point of work. Technicians update task status from the floor, eliminating the lag between execution and documentation that plagues spreadsheet-based systems.
- Automated work orders and alerts for overdue tasks ensure nothing slips through the cracks. When a PM passes its due date, the system automatically flags it and notifies the responsible parties before the delay compounds into a reliability issue.
These capabilities change the relationship between planning and execution. When compliance is visible in real time, teams respond differently. Accountability becomes embedded in the workflow rather than dependent on periodic audits.
4 Steps to Improve PM Compliance
Improving PMC starts with visibility into your current state and builds through standardization, automation, and continuous review. These steps don't require a complete system overhaul, but they do require moving beyond the assumption that a schedule alone is sufficient.
Step 1: Establish your baseline.
Calculate your current PMC using the data available. Identify which asset categories or task types have the lowest completion rates. This baseline reveals where compliance is weakest and where improvement will have the greatest impact.
Step 2: Standardize task execution.
Create consistent procedures for each PM type, including checklists that define what "complete" actually means. Standardization reduces variation across technicians and shifts, ensuring that a task marked as done by one person meets the same criteria as the same task marked as done by another.
Step 3: Automate scheduling and tracking.
Move from manual scheduling to system-driven task generation. Implement a platform that allows technicians to update completion status in real time, ideally from mobile devices on the floor. Automation eliminates the need for memory and manual follow-up.
Step 4: Review and optimize continuously.
Conduct monthly compliance reviews to identify trends and patterns. Look for recurring delays on specific assets or task types. Adjust intervals based on actual equipment behavior and failure history, rather than relying on generic OEM recommendations that may not reflect your operating conditions.
How Tractian Supports PM Compliance Tracking
Tractian's AI-powered CMMS transforms PM compliance into a real-time operational metric, connecting scheduling, execution, and visibility in a single platform built for industrial maintenance teams.
The system automates PM scheduling based on time intervals, usage thresholds, or asset criticality, ensuring tasks are generated and assigned without manual intervention. Real-time KPI dashboards display PM compliance alongside MTBF, MTTR, and backlog trends, giving maintenance leaders continuous visibility into execution status without waiting for end-of-period reports. When tasks approach or pass their due dates, the platform automatically escalates, flagging overdue work before it compounds into reliability issues.
Technicians execute through the Tractian mobile app, which supports offline capability for facilities with inconsistent connectivity. Completion status updates flow back to the system immediately, eliminating the documentation lag that undermines manual tracking. AI-powered SOP generation standardizes task execution, and the built-in work order chronometer tracks time spent at each phase, providing data for continuous optimization.
The result is a PM program where compliance is measured continuously, gaps are detected early, and the connection between schedule and execution is never left to assumption. Tractian closes the gap between having a plan and actually following it.
Explore Tractian's CMMS to see how real-time compliance tracking transforms preventive maintenance from documentation into execution.
What Industries Benefit Most from PM Compliance Tracking?
Industries such as the following, with critical rotating equipment and tight production schedules, benefit most from structured PM compliance tracking. When unplanned downtime carries significant consequences, knowing whether preventive tasks are actually being completed becomes essential.
- Automotive & Parts: High-speed production lines depend on equipment availability, making PM compliance critical for preventing the unplanned stoppages that disrupt throughput targets.
- Fleet: Shop equipment reliability directly affects vehicle turnaround times, and tracking PM completion helps ensure service bays remain operational during peak demand.
- Manufacturing: Continuous operation of motors, pumps, and conveyors requires consistent preventive care, and compliance tracking shows whether that care is being performed.
- Oil & Gas: Regulatory frameworks require documented preventive maintenance, making real-time compliance tracking essential for both operational continuity and audit readiness.
- Chemicals: Process stability depends on catching issues before they escalate, and PM compliance serves as the leading indicator that scheduled inspections and service tasks aren't slipping.
- Food & Beverage: Production schedules leave little room for equipment failures, elevating PM compliance as the metric that protects against mid-run breakdowns and product waste.
- Mills & Agriculture: Seasonal processing windows create high-stakes periods in which missed PMs can lead to missed harvests, making compliance visibility essential during critical months.
- Mining & Metals: Heavy equipment operating in harsh conditions requires disciplined preventive maintenance, and compliance tracking ensures scheduled service happens before failures occur.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good PM compliance rate?
World-class operations target 90% or higher, with 85-95% considered an effective range for most industrial facilities.
How do I calculate PM compliance?
Divide completed PM work orders by scheduled PM work orders within a defined period, then multiply by 100.
Why does my PM schedule fail even though tasks are scheduled?
Scheduling is not the same as execution, and without compliance tracking, missed or late tasks go undetected until equipment fails.
What is the 10% rule in PM compliance?
Tasks should be completed within 10% of their scheduled interval to count as on-time, so a monthly PM must be done within plus or minus three days of its due date.
How does a CMMS improve PM compliance?
A CMMS automates scheduling, provides real-time visibility into completion status, and escalates overdue tasks before they become failures.
