The True Cost of Maintenance: Statistics & Insights

As machines become more technologically complex, maintenance costs and stakeholder expectations are rising.

Whether you manage a plant, facility, or a maintenance team, understanding where your time and budget are utilized is critical.

Today, we’ll provide fresh data and insights on the true cost of maintenance to help you make smarter, more cost-effective decisions.

64% of Facilities Allocate Between 5 and 20% of Their Operating Budget to Maintenance

Maintenance continues to be one of the biggest ongoing investments for most facilities.

The State of Industrial Maintenance Report 2024 by MaintainX, based on a global survey of more than 1,100 MRO professionals, confirms this.

When asked what percentage of their plant’s annual operating budget goes to maintenance, nearly two-thirds said it falls within the 5–20% range.

Here’s the full breakdown of their response:

Maintenance accounts for a sizable share of operating costs, with 20% of companies allocating more than 20% of their annual budget.

Still, many facilities and plants are planning to invest even more.

With aging equipment, labor shortages, and rising downtime costs, most MRO teams are shifting their budgets toward process improvements.

The goal is to streamline operations, reduce waste, and get more value from existing resources.

Here’s where respondents plan to focus their maintenance budgets over the next 12 months:

Where MRO teams choose to invest often depends on the size of their budget and their specific pain points.

For example, just a few major unplanned failures can prompt companies to revisit their maintenance budgets to prevent future disruptions and protect productivity.

Such cases highlight the importance of optimizing budget planning and long-term maintenance strategy.

Despite these challenges, the next statistic shows that most companies are making maintenance a strategic priority.

84% of Maintenance and Reliability Teams Sustained or Increased Their Budget in 2024

This finding comes from UpKeep’s 2025 State of Maintenance Report, which surveyed MRO professionals across industries, primarily in North America.

It shows that, despite economic uncertainty, most companies didn’t cut back on maintenance in 2024.

Actually, 84% of maintenance teams said they either retained or increased their budgets, and 19% reported a significant increase.

Looking ahead to 2025, their outlook remains largely positive:

• 67% expect a budget increase
• 19% anticipate no change
• 14% expect a decrease

Here’s how respondents described their 2025 maintenance budget expectations:

These figures show that two-thirds of organizations see maintenance as more than a cost center.

For them, maintenance is a strategic function directly tied to uptime, efficiency, and safety.

Maintenance teams are increasingly seen as essential performance drivers, from reducing unexpected failures to extending asset life.

This shift in mindset is helping secure more leadership support and, in most cases, bigger budgets.

In fact, another survey (referenced in the next section) found that 60% of maintenance leaders plan to increase investments over the next three years.

Here are the benefits they expect in return:

These expectations highlight that many facilities are serious about getting the most out of their equipment and maintenance teams.

Still, with a third of respondents (33%) unsure about their 2025 maintenance budgets, there’s clearly room to improve transparency and internal communication around budget planning.

That uncertainty can have real consequences, especially when unexpected failures hit.

And according to the following data point, they hit more often than you might think.

69% of Plants Experience Unplanned Outages Monthly

This staggering figure comes from ABB’s 2023 Survey Report on Maintenance and Reliability, which gathered insights from more than 3,200 plant maintenance leaders across industries worldwide.

More than two-thirds of respondents reported unplanned downtime events, many occurring weekly or even daily, which is a major driver behind rising maintenance budgets.

To grasp the true scale of the issue, take a look at how often critical equipment failures occur in plants and facilities:

Despite the high frequency of unplanned outages, 21% of respondents still rely on reactive, run-to-failure maintenance.

In many cases, the barriers are financial or organizational.

While proactive approaches promise better uptime and cost control, they often require upfront investments in new digital tools and training.

According to another report, the top obstacles to adopting maintenance technologies include perceived high costs and internal resistance to change.

Here’s how respondents ranked the biggest roadblocks:

While these concerns are valid, the high costs perceived by many respondents are often overstated.

Fully automated, AI-powered maintenance systems with integrated sensors can indeed be expensive, especially when deployed across large facilities.

But significant improvements don’t always require a major investment.

Starting with a cost-effective, easy-to-use tool like a CMMS can drive measurable results quickly by streamlining maintenance workflows and improving visibility.

That’s why the next finding is especially encouraging: many MRO professionals already see fewer unplanned outages.

45% of MRO Professionals Reported Lower Unplanned Downtime in 2024

This encouraging statistic comes from MaintainX’s report, which we referenced earlier.

It shows that many MRO professionals have made real progress in reducing operational disruptions over the past year.

Specifically, 45% of respondents said their facilities experienced fewer unplanned outages, a clear sign that preventive maintenance strategies are paying off.

Even more telling, only 14.8% reported an increase in unplanned downtime, suggesting that most organizations are moving in the right direction.

Here’s the full breakdown:

So, what’s behind the same or reduced number of incidents for over 85% of respondents?

The majority (65%) pointed to a shift toward more proactive maintenance practices as the key factor.

This evolving approach typically includes scheduled inspections, preventive maintenance, and greater use of digital tools to monitor asset health.

Other common contributors include updating outdated equipment and improving technician training.

Here’s how respondents ranked the biggest factors behind their success:

These findings show that while proactive maintenance, equipment upgrades, and training are making a real impact, they’re only part of the story.

Despite the downward outage trend, nearly 30% of respondents reported rising downtime costs.

Factors like inflation, persistent supply chain delays, and skilled labor shortages are likely to blame.

That’s why fewer outages don’t always mean lower costs.

The following statistic shows just how expensive a single hour can be.

An Hour of Downtime Can Cost Up to $2.3M

While downtime cost estimates vary by industry, they all point to the same conclusion: unplanned outages are enormously expensive.

According to Siemens’ 2024 True Cost of Downtime report, an hour of downtime at a large automotive plant can cost up to $2.3 million.

That’s more than $600 per second.

Estimates for other industries are lower, with FMCG costs remaining stable over the past five years and Oil & Gas seeing a sharp drop in line with falling oil prices.

Still, across sectors, the average cost of downtime has nearly doubled since 2019.

Here’s how hourly costs compare across industries:

Hourly cost estimates from the other reports we’ve referenced vary widely, ranging from $25,000 for smaller operations in specific industries to more than $500,000 for large-scale facilities.

Virve Viitanen, Global Lead for Secondary Switchgear at ABB, gives a useful general benchmark:

“Our survey found that outages cost the typical industrial business a hefty $125,000 per hour.”

She also highlights that the full impact goes beyond immediate financial losses:

Clearly, unplanned downtime doesn’t just result in lost production.

It often points to deeper issues that drive maintenance costs and hurt the bottom line.

While some cost drivers, like rising energy prices, are beyond a company’s control, others aren’t.

For instance, poorly timed or reactive fixes are usually far more expensive than planned interventions.

That’s why many organizations are turning to data-driven tools to reduce disruptions and better manage maintenance spending.

65% of Companies Use a CMMS to Optimize Maintenance Costs

More and more companies are adopting technology to rein in maintenance costs, and computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) are leading the charge.

According to UpKeep’s 2024 State of Maintenance Report, 65% of companies now use a CMMS to manage maintenance activities and optimize costs.

This shift is driven by the clear benefits reported by CMMS users:

• Better visibility into task completion (35%)
• Fewer unplanned downtime incidents (28%)
• Improved team communication (28%)

Still, nearly 35% of organizations have been slow to adopt a CMMS.

They continue to rely on spreadsheets, paper-based systems, or no system at all, as illustrated below.

For those using a CMMS, the advantages are more than theoretical.

Another report we cited highlights the measurable improvements companies experience after transitioning to a CMMS:

• 32% reduction in unplanned downtime
• 53% improvement in work order completion rates
• Annual savings of over 250 labor hours

These results speak for themselves.

Christopher Wilcox, Maintenance Manager at Univar Solutions, points out that one of the most transformative aspects of CMMS adoption is easy access to real-time maintenance data.

By giving teams real-time access to data, a CMMS shifts maintenance from reactive firefighting to proactive planning.

It also helps fine-tune spare parts management, improve scheduling, and boost uptime.

With a CMMS like WorkTrek, companies can control maintenance costs and make smarter decisions about budgets, labor, and long-term asset performance.

That’s the power of data-backed maintenance optimization.

Predictive Maintenance Can Reduce Maintenance Costs by 5–10%

This promising statistic comes from Deloitte’s Position Paper on Predictive Maintenance (PdM).

Typically integrated with a CMMS, PdM leverages equipment condition monitoring, real-time sensor data, and advanced analytics to anticipate failures before they happen.

IoT devices and AI-powered tools allow teams to move beyond reacting to breakdowns.

They can now intervene precisely to minimize disruption, reduce costs, and avoid wasted labor.

Here’s what Deloitte’s internal analysis found about the potential of PdM programs:

According to the report, a full-scale PdM program can reduce material and maintenance costs by 5–10%, increase uptime by up to 20%, and cut maintenance planning time by as much as 50%.

However, PdM isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution.

Its ROI and effectiveness depend on factors like equipment type, process complexity, and the cost of downtime, so a targeted, gradual rollout is essential.

In fact, some experts recommend starting small by upgrading select preventive maintenance (PM) tasks with CMMS-enabled condition monitoring technologies.

As maintenance and reliability expert John Schultz explains:

He adds that, in many plants, analysis shows another 30% of PM activities add little or no value, and can be eliminated or replaced with PdM.

Ultimately, predictive maintenance takes cost optimization to the next level.

It helps teams avoid equipment failures, improving uptime while reducing scheduled and unscheduled maintenance.

Conclusion

The true cost of maintenance goes beyond repairs.

It includes downtime, inefficiencies, and missed opportunities.

As the data shows, most facilities invest more, not less, in maintenance because the return is clear: better uptime, safer operations, and lower long-term costs.

By embracing smarter tools like CMMS and predictive maintenance, teams can shift from reactive to proactive maintenance, turning maintenance into a driver of performance rather than just a budget line.