Preventive maintenance examples are usually offered as lists of tasks, which is the least useful form: a task list from another site tells you what their machines needed. What is worth taking from an example is the reasoning, and four examples cover most of the reasoning you will ever need. A pump that fails predictably with running hours. A forklift with a legally required pre-shift check. An air handling unit whose interval depends on the environment rather than the machine. And a roller door that is correctly run to failure. This page is those four.
A pump: the case for usage-based intervals
Seals and bearings wear with running, not with calendar time, so a duty pump and its standby need different schedules even though they are identical machines. Scheduling both by the calendar over-maintains the standby and under-maintains the duty, which is exactly backwards, and it is the commonest scheduling error on rotating plant.
A forklift: the case where the interval is not yours
OSHA 1910.178(q)(7) requires a powered industrial truck to be examined before being placed in service, which on a two-shift operation means twice a day rather than once. Six trucks on two shifts across 22 days is 264 checks a month, and the interval is set by the regulation rather than by your judgement. Your regulator's rules govern the detail.
An air handling unit: the case where environment sets the interval
Filters in a clean office and filters beside a woodworking shop are the same filters on completely different intervals. The manual cannot know which you have, which is why manufacturer intervals are a starting point and the findings from your first year are the correction.
A roller door: the case for deliberately doing nothing
A door that is cheap to fix, quick to repair, and whose failure blocks one bay for an afternoon may be correctly left to fail. What makes that professional rather than negligent is that somebody decided it, wrote it against the asset with the reason, and would notice if the consequence changed.
Questions people ask about preventive maintenance examples
Where do I find task lists for my machines?
The manufacturer's manual first, then your own findings. Task lists copied from other sites carry their duty and their environment, not yours.
How many tasks should an asset have?
As few as keep it running. Tasks that never find anything are the first thing to cut when a schedule cannot be staffed, and cutting them is evidence-based rather than a retreat.
Is a walk-round a preventive maintenance task?
Yes, and a good one, if the person records what they saw. An undocumented walk-round is a habit rather than a task, and it disappears with the person who does it.