30 Fascinating Maintenance Metrics, Statistics & Facts

While sometimes overlooked, the maintenance industry is essential to the global workforce. It supports economic stability, ensures safety and operational efficiency for various sectors and is a key player in offering diverse career opportunities. As a rapidly expanding field, maintenance is also continually developing innovative technologies and strategies to provide more efficient, accurate and sustainable solutions for organizations. 

We rounded up 30 maintenance metrics, statistics and facts to provide insight into the current state of the maintenance industry and its trajectory, which in turn can help you develop an effective maintenance strategy and better prepare for the future. 

Maintenance Industry Overview

The global inspection, repair and maintenance market has an estimated value of $54.98 billion in 2024. 

How big is the maintenance industry, and how much growth can we expect to see in the coming years? The Business Research Company based its market evaluation on a 6.9 percent annual growth rate, up from a market value of $51.43 billion in 2023. Fortune Business Insights projects the market to continue growing to $72.46 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9 percent.

There are more than 1.6 million jobs in the general maintenance and repair industry in the U.S. 

In 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported this number and expects it to grow by 57,200 jobs (4 percent) by 2032. Common repair and maintenance roles include HVAC technicians, electricians, plumbers, aircraft and automotive technicians, groundskeepers, and custodians and janitors. As of 2023, the median pay for these workers is $46,700. 

69% of maintenance professionals are aged 50 or older. 

A 2023 survey by Plant Engineering, which polled 243 workers in the general maintenance and repair industry, found that the average maintenance professional is 54 years old, works 46 hours per week, has 26 years of experience in the manufacturing sector and has been with their current employer for 14 years.

Investing in maintenance and repair programs decreases downtime by an average of 44% within organizations. 

A 2021 report from the International Journal of Prognostics and Health Management also reported that organizations experienced a 54 percent reduction in defect rate, 35 percent fewer lost sales due to defects and 29 percent fewer lost sales due to maintenance-related delays.

More than 30% of the total workforce contributes to maintenance operations.

Although automated technologies are gaining prominence in the manufacturing industry, a 2018 International Production Management Systems Conference proceeding indicates that only few maintenance activities are fully automated. Many operations still rely on a human workforce. 

Approximately 45% of a maintenance professional’s time is spent retrieving physical work orders or documents needed to complete a maintenance task. 

Digitizing these procedures through a computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software can alleviate some of this workload by centralizing maintenance on a single platform. This allows workers to access and track work orders efficiently and remotely. Ultimately, using a CMMS software reduces downtime and labor costs while simultaneously increasing the operational efficiency and profits of the organization. 

Industry Pain Points

66% of facility managers diagnose staffing and retention as a top challenge within their organizations. 

According to the Professional Facility Management Institute, 50 percent of facility managers anticipated having open positions within their organizations in 2023. The staffing and retention challenges can be attributed to difficulties in finding individuals with the necessary technical and managerial skills, losing staff to other employers and the retirement of older maintenance workers. 

52% of facility managers cite a lack of skills among their staff as the primary reason for outsourcing maintenance. 

Additionally, 39 percent mentioned that the need for specialized skills drives their decision to outsource, while 37 percent pointed to a lack of time and manpower for maintenance tasks. 

88% of facilities outsource some or all of its maintenance operations. 

A 2018 Plant Engineering report found that the average facility outsources 23 percent of its maintenance operations. 

Maintenance and repair work was ranked the 21st most dangerous job in 2021. 

The maintenance and repair industry has a fatal injury rate of 13 per 100,000 workers, with the leading cause of fatalities resulting from contact with objects and equipment. 

80% of manufacturing plants cite aging equipment or machine breakdowns as the leading cause of operational inefficiency.

A 2022 Plant Engineering survey also revealed that difficulties in recruiting labor ranked second at 49 percent, while integrating digital management technologies into legacy equipment ranked third with 41 percent. 

Compliance with OSHA’s lockout tagout (LOTO) standards prevent an estimated 120 fatalities and 50,000 injuries per year.

In OSHA’s 2023 list of most-cited violations, the LOTO standard (29 CFR 1910.147, “Control of Hazardous Energy”) ranked sixth with a total of 2,539 violations. With worker safety at stake, it’s vital for facilities to oversee LOTO standards effectively and efficiently. CMMS software can help organizations centralize LOTO coordination and communication, ensuring that workers follow proper procedures. 

Downtime and Revenue Losses

Facilities lose an average of $108,000 per hour to unplanned downtime. 

Of the respondents to a 2022 Plant Engineering survey, 19 percent reported suffering losses of over $100,000 per hour. In a 2019 IBM study, 53 percent of IT managers reported that the costliest aspect of downtime is lost revenue, 47 percent said lost productivity, and 41% cited the negative impact on corporate reputation.

Unplanned downtime results in an annual total of $1.4 trillion in losses for Fortune Global 500 organizations. 

According to a 2024 Siemens report, these losses amount to 11% of their cumulative annual revenues. These losses were reported to have decreased by 6 percent since 2022.

Automotive manufacturers lose $2.3 million per hour to unplanned downtime.

The cost of an hour’s downtime has increased by 113 percent from 2019 to 2023, surpassing the U.S. inflation rate, which rose by 19 percent over the same period. This surge in downtime costs is attributed to the energy crisis that followed the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the highly interconnected nature of the automotive manufacturing process means that downtime in one area can significantly impact production throughout the supply chain. 

​​Downtime can have crippling effects on small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), costing them up to $150,000 per hour. 

For SMEs, these losses can be unsustainable. If they fail to supply on time and in full, they risk losing their status as a supplier. Additionally, holding stock incurs storage and management costs, further straining their resources.

It now takes an average of 81 minutes to get production operating again after downtime, up from 49 minutes in 2019. 

The introduction of data analytics and predictive maintenance programs has helped address smaller issues that previously caused downtime for facilities. As a result, the remaining causes of downtime are now more complex and harder to detect, leading to longer recovery times. Additionally, a 2024 Siemens report attributes this increase in recovery time to a loss of maintenance staff with the necessary skills and supply chain issues that delay the arrival of replacement parts. 

Plants now experience an average of 25 downtime incidents per month per facility, a 41% reduction from 42 incidents in 2019.

The implementation of CMMS software, predictive maintenance programs and sensors has enabled organizations to manage facilities more efficiently, thereby reducing the number of downtime incidents and the hours lost to them. As a result, plants now lose an average of 27 hours per month to unplanned downtime, down from 39 hours in 2019.

Deferred Maintenance

The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) reported a deferred maintenance backlog amounting to $137 billion in 2020.

The DoD, which oversees more than 550,000 facilities, accumulated this substantial backlog due to inadequate facility sustainment funding and competing priorities. Deferred maintenance can result in costly repairs, reduced asset efficiency and lifespan, safety and health hazards for workers, and non-compliance with regulatory standards. 

The U.S. may face more than $1 trillion in deferred maintenance costs for its public infrastructures.

A 2019 Volcker Alliance report stated that infrastructure needs amount to a maintenance gap of $873 billion across the state level and $170 billion at the federal level. These estimates may be conservative, as few state and local government budgets comprehensively disclose the necessary costs to repair public assets such as roads, highways, waterworks and buildings.

Approximately $8.1 billion has been allocated to address the U.S. Department of the Interior’s deferred maintenance backlog from fiscal years 2021 through 2025.

The Department of Interior, which manages 20 percent of the nation’s lands and waters, is estimated to have accumulated a deferred maintenance backlog of $32.4 billion as of 2023. Given that it takes about 15 months to complete a backlogged project, the department anticipates addressing $400 million in deferred maintenance in 2025, $800 million in 2026, $900 million in 2027 and $1.6 billion in 2028. 

Reactive vs. Preventive Maintenance

35% of maintenance assets are managed by reactive maintenance programs. 

According to the previously mentioned 2022 Plant Engineering survey, facility maintenance managers let these assets run to failure before opting to repair or replace them. Reactive maintenance has some advantages, such as lower upfront costs, fewer staff members needed to run and manage equipment, and no need for planning or scheduling. But it also has its disadvantages…

Organizations that relied heavily on reactive maintenance instead of employing a variety of alternative maintenance strategies simultaneously experienced 3.3 times more downtime. 

Additionally, reactive maintenance is associated with several other downsides: 16 times more defects, 2.8 times more lost sales due to defects, 2.4 times more lost sales due to maintenance-related delays and 4.89 times more inventory increases due to different types of maintenance-related issues.

38% of maintenance assets are managed by a preventive maintenance program. 

The facility maintenance managers in the 2022 Plant Engineering survey indicated that their predictive maintenance programs ran on estimated cycle times. Preventive maintenance offers several advantages. Routine maintenance and inspections minimize unexpected equipment failure, extend asset life expectancy, reduce the risk of out-of-hour breakdowns requiring emergency labor callouts and mitigate potential safety hazards.

CMMS 

59% of facilities use CMMS software to manage their maintenance and repair operations. 

A 2022 Plant Engineering survey reveals that organizations may integrate multiple maintenance management softwares into their facilities. Among the respondents, 39 percent use an enterprise asset management system and 19 percent use plant floor or manufacturing execution software. When asked about the installation and deployment of their management systems, 48 percent of respondents specified on-premise, 30 percent mentioned cloud-based, 22 percent said hybrid, 18 percent indicated software as a system (SaaS), and 14% stated a mobile system. 

17% of organizations reported insufficient customization features in their current maintenance management systems. 

When selecting a CMMS software, maintenance managers should consider the specific components and assets that need to be managed within their organization. Instead of adapting the organization’s operations to fit a particular CMMS, the system should be customizable to meet the organization’s unique use case and needs. 

Predictive Maintenance 

Predictive maintenance is associated with a 10 to 20% increase in equipment uptime and availability. 

Additionally, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) reports that the reduced downtime from predictive maintenance leads to manufacturers producing higher quality products and achieving shorter production times. 

Manufacturers that rely more heavily on predictive maintenance rather than preventive maintenance experience up to an 87% reduction in equipment defects. 

NIST adds that reliance on a predictive-heavy maintenance program can reduce inventory increases caused by unplanned maintenance by up to 66 percent. Predictive maintenance also saves 5 to 10 percent in material and maintenance costs while reducing maintenance planning time by 20 to 50 percent. 

87% of major manufacturers now gather data that enables predictive maintenance. 

However, not every organization will fully benefit from this maintenance strategy because they are not collecting the complete range of necessary data. A 2024 Siemens report emphasizes that a robust predictive maintenance program requires data from various sources: maintenance records, operational systems, manufacturing execution systems, service data and human insights.

The integration of condition monitoring and predictive maintenance programs at Fortune Global 500 industrial organizations could save an estimated total of 2.1 million hours in downtime annually. 

Additionally, the implementation of these strategies is expected to save companies $388 billion through a 5 percent increase in productivity and $233 billion through a 40 percent reduction in maintenance costs. In practice, predictive maintenance has improved downtime forecasting by 85 percent and maintenance staff productivity by 55 percent, while shrinking unplanned machine downtime by 50 percent and maintenance costs by 40 percent.