# Maintenance glossary and guides > Plain-English explanations of the terms, metrics, and strategies maintenance teams actually use. Canonical HTML: https://maintenease.com/learn Markdown URL: https://maintenease.com/learn.md ## Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS): Complete Buyer's Guide Maintenance management systems centralize work orders, assets, inspections, and preventive schedules so teams can plan, execute, and measure maintenance in one system of record. ## Agentic CMMS: AI Agents for Maintenance Workflows A CMMS that lets authorized AI agents retrieve maintenance data and complete workflow steps, such as reviewing requests or creating work orders, while preserving permissions and human oversight. ## Preventive Maintenance: Complete Guide, Schedule, Examples, and Templates Preventive maintenance is planned work performed before functional failure, triggered by time, usage, condition findings, or asset risk to reduce avoidable downtime and preserve equipment performance. ## Total Productive Maintenance: The 8 Pillars, KPIs, and Implementation Plan Total productive maintenance (TPM) is a company-wide operating system that engages production, maintenance, quality, engineering, safety, and support teams in preventing equipment losses. ## Work Order A formal request that describes a maintenance task — what needs doing, on which asset, by whom, when — and tracks it from creation to completion. ## Facility Maintenance All the work required to keep a building and its systems safe, comfortable, and operational — HVAC, plumbing, electrical, lighting, life safety, and the building envelope. ## Fleet Maintenance Keeping a group of vehicles — trucks, vans, cars, heavy equipment — safe, compliant, and on the road through scheduled service and quick reactive repairs. ## MRO (Maintenance, Repair & Operations) The supplies, parts, and consumables a maintenance team uses to keep operations running — separate from raw materials that become finished products. ## Building Maintenance The day-to-day and scheduled work needed to keep a building's structure, systems, and finishes in safe and serviceable condition. ## Property Maintenance Ongoing upkeep of residential or commercial rental property — units, common areas, grounds, and life-safety systems — to protect the asset and keep tenants happy. ## Reactive Maintenance Fixing equipment after it has already broken down — the unplanned, run-to-failure work that a maintenance program tries to shrink. ## Predictive Maintenance Using live condition data — vibration, temperature, current — to predict failures and service equipment just before it would break, not on a fixed calendar. ## Corrective Maintenance Planned repair work that fixes a known defect found during an inspection or PM — before it becomes a breakdown. ## Condition-Based Maintenance Servicing equipment when a monitored condition (temperature, vibration, pressure) crosses a defined threshold — not on a fixed schedule. ## MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) The average operating time between one failure and the next for a repairable asset — a core reliability metric maintenance teams track to spot bad actors. ## MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) The average time it takes to restore a failed asset to working order — a key maintainability metric that captures how fast your team responds. ## Maintenance KPI Reference: Build an Internal Baseline A practical reference for defining planned-work ratio, MTTR, PM compliance, and cost per work order without treating unrelated industry figures as universal targets. ## CMMS ROI Calculator Method: Use Your Own Baseline A transparent way to estimate CMMS return using your own downtime, labor, parts, implementation, and subscription inputs instead of vendor benchmark claims. ## Root Cause Analysis (RCA) A structured method for finding why a failure happened — not just what broke — so the same problem can be eliminated instead of repeatedly repaired. ## Deferred Maintenance Maintenance work that is known, needed, and postponed — usually for budget or staffing reasons — and that quietly accumulates into a backlog with a price tag. ## Infrared Thermography Camera Guide for Maintenance Inspections Infrared thermography cameras reveal surface-temperature patterns that can help trained maintenance teams find abnormal electrical, mechanical, insulation, and process conditions without contact. ## AI Maintenance Assistant An AI interface that helps maintenance teams find records, summarize work, prepare actions, and spend less time navigating CMMS screens. ## CMMS for ChatGPT A secure connection that lets ChatGPT use approved CMMS tools to retrieve maintenance records or complete defined workflow steps for an authenticated user. ## Maintenance MCP Server A Model Context Protocol service that exposes controlled maintenance data and actions to compatible AI clients without granting direct database access. ## AI Work Order Automation Using AI to turn maintenance requests and operational context into structured work orders while keeping priorities, approvals, and execution under human control. ## Equipment Risk Scoring A repeatable way to rank assets by likelihood and consequence of failure so maintenance teams can direct limited labor toward the most important work. ## Predictive Maintenance Without Sensors A practical approach that uses work history, manual readings, inspections, and failure patterns to prioritize equipment risk before investing in permanent sensors. ## Maintenance Request QR Codes QR codes that open a location- or asset-specific request form so tenants, operators, staff, or guests can report problems without installing an app. ## AI-Native CMMS Maintenance software designed around AI-assisted retrieval, reasoning, and controlled actions rather than adding a generic chatbot to a legacy workflow. ## Agentic Maintenance Workflows Controlled maintenance processes in which an AI agent retrieves CMMS context and completes approved software steps while people retain operational authority. ## Related resources - [Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS): Complete Buyer's Guide](https://maintenease.com/learn/cmms) - [Agentic CMMS: AI Agents for Maintenance Workflows](https://maintenease.com/learn/agentic-cmms) - [Preventive Maintenance: Complete Guide, Schedule, Examples, and Templates](https://maintenease.com/learn/preventive-maintenance) - [Total Productive Maintenance: The 8 Pillars, KPIs, and Implementation Plan](https://maintenease.com/learn/total-productive-maintenance) - [Work Order](https://maintenease.com/learn/work-order) - [Facility Maintenance](https://maintenease.com/learn/facility-maintenance) - [Fleet Maintenance](https://maintenease.com/learn/fleet-maintenance) - [MRO (Maintenance, Repair & Operations)](https://maintenease.com/learn/mro) - [Building Maintenance](https://maintenease.com/learn/building-maintenance) - [Property Maintenance](https://maintenease.com/learn/property-maintenance) - [Reactive Maintenance](https://maintenease.com/learn/reactive-maintenance) - [Predictive Maintenance](https://maintenease.com/learn/predictive-maintenance) - [Corrective Maintenance](https://maintenease.com/learn/corrective-maintenance) - [Condition-Based Maintenance](https://maintenease.com/learn/condition-based-maintenance) - [MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures)](https://maintenease.com/learn/mtbf) - [MTTR (Mean Time To Repair)](https://maintenease.com/learn/mttr) - [Maintenance KPI Reference: Build an Internal Baseline](https://maintenease.com/learn/cmms-benchmarks-2026) - [CMMS ROI Calculator Method: Use Your Own Baseline](https://maintenease.com/learn/cmms-roi) - [Root Cause Analysis (RCA)](https://maintenease.com/learn/root-cause-analysis) - [Deferred Maintenance](https://maintenease.com/learn/deferred-maintenance) - [Infrared Thermography Camera Guide for Maintenance Inspections](https://maintenease.com/learn/infrared-thermography-inspection) - [AI Maintenance Assistant](https://maintenease.com/learn/ai-maintenance-assistant) - [CMMS for ChatGPT](https://maintenease.com/learn/cmms-for-chatgpt) - [Maintenance MCP Server](https://maintenease.com/learn/maintenance-mcp-server) - [AI Work Order Automation](https://maintenease.com/learn/ai-work-order-automation) - [Equipment Risk Scoring](https://maintenease.com/learn/equipment-risk-scoring) - [Predictive Maintenance Without Sensors](https://maintenease.com/learn/predictive-maintenance-without-sensors) - [Maintenance Request QR Codes](https://maintenease.com/learn/maintenance-request-qr-codes) - [AI-Native CMMS](https://maintenease.com/learn/ai-native-cmms) - [Agentic Maintenance Workflows](https://maintenease.com/learn/agentic-maintenance-workflows)