Building maintenance work is either reactively or proactive addressed. Whilst Cyclical-Based systems may be held as proactive and preventive; maintenance cycles are determined at design stage and do not factor quality of construction and maintenance effort and building use. This could lead to over-maintenance due to premature replacement or to unexpected consequences when failure occurs before stipulated schedules.

In a Predictive Maintenance system, work is based on real time evidence of need as ascertained from inspections, and planned and prioritised accordingly. Some 30% cost savings have been achieved in moving from a Cyclical-based to a Condition-based system in engineering installations maintenance.

Predictive maintenance systems requires objective inspection data, the variability in defect prognosis arising from subjectivity of inspectors needs to be addressed as a pre-requisite to implementation. A new Dutch standard NEN 2767, believed to be a world-first in Building Condition Assessment, seeks to provide uniformity in condition assessment, through an inspection and reporting system based on defect classification and condition scores. The resultant data also serves as a means of communicating building technical condition between strategic, tactical and operational level decision makers.