From predictive to prescriptive maintenance: 5 signs you’re ready for the next step

Predictive maintenance (PdM) is no longer an experiment. Across sectors—facilities, healthcare, fleets, networks, and critical infrastructure—you’re connecting equipment, collecting condition data, and using models to flag issues before something fails.

In part 2, we looked under the hood at the gears and rotors that make that possible: sensors, machine learning, and the connectivity layer that keeps data moving.

But once the tech engine is in place, a different problem shows up: the workload doesn’t always change. Alerts increase, but decisions don’t get easier. Schedules stay time-based. Scaling beyond a pilot feels heavy.

That’s also where ROI gets foggy. If insights don’t reliably translate into planning, action, and measurable outcomes, predictive maintenance stays stuck in “pilot purgatory” territory.

One practical way to think about the next step is intelligent maintenance (prescriptive maintenance)—not as a new buzzword, but as the point where PdM becomes ...