Any failure in the functioning of the critical equipment in a captive power plant (CPP) can reduce the plant load factor or stop the plant altogether incurring heavy production loses in the parent heavy industry. To provide uninterrupted power supply the rotating machines as well as other stationary equipment of the power generating units should be operated with maximum efficiency and reliability. This can be ensured by the periodic maintenance system commonly known as preventive maintenance (PM). In this paper we address the issue of how preventive maintenance program can be implemented more effectively. We conceptualize our explanatory framework and the data for suggesting solution are derived from expert and executive managers through personal interview method in a large steel plant in India. Our analysis suggests that by addressing the issues related to the ineffective planning failure to execute the preventive maintenance job on schedule time and a lack of cost plus approach could improve the effectiveness of a preventive maintenance system.