Maintenance strategies has evolved from reactive methods to proactive ones. In this paper, the investigation compares different approaches and clarifies which maintenance strategy is more widely recognized and why. The current research includes a review of 38 peer-reviewed papers to find out which maintenance strategies are used most often. This study reviews two main types of maintenance - reactive (corrective) and proactive (preventive and predictive) - using academic literature. A structured collection of peer-reviewed papers was compiled from Scopus, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore, using targeted keywords such as maintenance strategy, maintenance management, reliability, and specific approaches (Preventive Maintenance, Condition-Based Maintenance, and Predictive Maintenance). The findings reveal that reactive maintenance, while simple and low-cost, frequently results in unplanned downtime and higher long-term expenses. In contrast, proactive methods (such as scheduled maintenance and condition-based monitoring) significantly improve operational efficiency, reduce failures, and optimize lifecycle costs. The evidence suggests that proactive strategies are the superior choice for industries where reliability and cost-effectiveness are critical.
Yousof et al. (Wed,) studied this question.