Most published preventive maintenance examples are lists of tasks with no interval and no reason, which is the least useful half of an example. What a site actually needs to see is the whole shape: what the asset is, how often it is due and why, what the visit consists of, and what happens when a check fails. Four asset kinds cover most of what a typical site owns, and seeing one worked example of each is usually enough to write your own for the rest.
A calendar asset and a runtime asset
An air handling unit: quarterly filter change and belt check, annual coil clean, interval driven by the season and the environment it draws from. A compressor: service at a running-hours figure from the manufacturer, adjusted for duty, with the hour meter read at each visit. Same structure, different driver, and the difference in driver is the single most important thing an example should make visible.
A distance asset and a fixed-date asset
A van: service at a mileage figure or a time period, whichever comes first, with the driver's daily check as a separate repeated observation. A statutory examination or an insurer-required inspection: a fixed date nobody in maintenance may move, held on the same schedule so it is visible, and marked as fixed rather than flexible so nobody tries to reschedule it into a convenient week.
What every example should carry and usually does not
The reason for the interval, in a sentence, and the route for a failed check. Without the first, a successor cannot adjust the plan and therefore never does. Without the second, a technician who finds something has nowhere to put it, and the finding becomes a verbal report that may not survive the walk back to the office.
Questions people ask about preventive maintenance examples
Can we copy another site's preventive maintenance plan?
As a starting structure, yes. As intervals, no: their duty, environment and consequences are not yours. Copy the shape and set your own intervals with whoever is competent for your equipment.
How detailed should a checklist item be?
Detailed enough that two different people do the same thing, short enough that all of it gets done. Items that are consistently skipped are telling you the list is too long, not that the people are careless.
Should examples include durations?
Yes, once you know them. A duration turns a plan into something that can be scheduled against real hours instead of hoped into a week.