Maintenance Plan: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Build One

A maintenance plan is a document that outlines the necessary activities to keep equipment, machinery, and infrastructure in optimal condition. It is a practical and strategic tool that helps prevent breakdowns, plan resources, ensure safety, and maintain business continuity.

Drafting a maintenance plan means defining who does what, when, and how, specifying timelines, methods, tools, required skills, and technical documentation.

Why is a maintenance plan important?

• Prevent unplanned downtime
• Improve resource allocation
• Ensure regulatory and contract compliance
• Track completed interventions
• Lower costs and reduce emergencies

A well-structured plan improves communication between technicians, managers, and external suppliers, offering a shared and clear overview of required activities.

Key steps in drafting a plan

1. Asset inventory Create a detailed list of all equipment and infrastructure to be maintained.
2. Criticality and classification Assess asset importance and assign priority levels based on operational risk.
3. Define activities For each asset, determine required maintenance tasks: preventive, corrective, or extraordinary.
4. Set frequencies and deadlines Assign periodicity (weekly, monthly, yearly, or condition-based).
5. Assign roles and responsibilities Identify internal staff or external vendors responsible for each activity.
6. Attach documentation Include manuals, checklists, technical sheets, and maintenance history.

How UTwin helps you

With UTwin, all these elements are managed within a single digital platform. The maintenance plan is integrated with:

• BIM models, which allow for a precise and up-to-date asset inventory, linking technical data and maintenance tasks directly to each component
• IoT sensors, that provide real-time status updates
• CMMS tools, for planning, tracking, and alerting interventions
• Dashboards and reports, for monitoring KPIs and maintenance costs

The result is a smart, shareable, and constantly updated plan. No more spreadsheets or emails—just efficient, data-driven maintenance management.