Facility Maintenance

Types of facility maintenance

Corrective maintenance

Corrective maintenance is often thought of as maintenance that addresses unplanned issues when they arise. However, that’s not always the case. That is a large component of corrective maintenance, but corrective maintenance can follow planned schedules.

Some organizations will allow an asset to run until failure. They then perform planned corrective maintenance to restore it. Typically, this strategy is reserved for non-critical assets or systems with redundancies.

Corrective maintenance can also be part of planned, preventive maintenance processes. Technicians performing this type of corrective maintenance will fix problems to prevent larger breakdowns.

Despite these instances, corrective maintenance should be thought of as restoring functionality. Relying solely on unplanned corrective maintenance can increase downtime, repair costs, and inefficiency.

Preventive maintenance

Preventive maintenance involves scheduled inspections, servicing, and repairs to prevent equipment failures before they happen This proactive approach focuses on routine tasks that adhere to industry best practices.

Structured maintenance can minimize the risk of unexpected breakdowns, optimize equipment performance, and extend the lifespan of assets. Preventive maintenance also helps identify potential safety hazards.

Predictive maintenance

Predictive maintenance utilizes data and analytics to anticipate equipment failures before they occur. Maintenance teams can identify potential issues by monitoring key indicators. By addressing problems at the optimal time, often before they cause significant disruptions, predictive maintenance helps minimize downtime, reduce maintenance costs, and extend the lifespan of assets.

What makes facility maintenance different from other maintenance types?

Facility maintenance can often be confused with other maintenance types, so having a clear definition helps identify key differences.

Facility maintenance tasks fall into the following distinct categories:

• Building infrastructure maintenance: These tasks include carpentry, painting, roofing, door hardware repairs, etc.
• Surrounding property maintenance: These include landscaping, parking lot repairs, pest control, etc.
• Building systems: plumbing, electrical, HVAC maintenance, safety systems, etc.
• Asset maintenance: This includes repairs to equipment, capital assets, medical equipment, vehicles, and office furniture, etc.

What’s the difference between facility maintenance and facility management?

Facilities management is a broad term, and it encompasses facility maintenance. This can lead to confusion. Our article on effective facilities management lists the covered service types, commonly called hard and soft services. Hard services relate to physical spaces, while soft services relate to the organization and its operation.

Hard services include:	Soft services include:
Facility maintenance	Staffing and space planning
HVAC	Custodial and waste management
Plumbing	Grounds and pest control
Electrical	IT and technology
Lighting	Safety and security
Fire safety systems	EHS compliance
Construction and renovation	Catering and food service
Occupancy (leasing, relocation, purchasing)	Mail management

Facility management oversees hard and soft services, whereas facility maintenance oversees mostly hard services (except for groundskeeping and pest control).

Why is facility maintenance important?

Facility maintenance is critical to ensure smooth operations at private and public institutions. Here are a few of the biggest reasons facility maintenance is important:

Asset protection: Regular maintenance protects your facility’s assets from wear and tear. By proactively identifying and addressing issues, maintenance professionals prevent costly emergency repairs or replacements.

Safety and compliance: Employees and visitors must have a safe working environment. Regular inspections and maintenance activities help identify and fix potential safety hazards.

Enhanced efficiency: Well-maintained facilities operate more efficiently. Properly calibrated equipment, clean and well-functioning systems, and optimized workflows increase efficiency and reduce downtime.

Preserving property value: A well-maintained facility retains its value much better than the alternative. Maintenance protects an investment and enhances its marketability and attractiveness to tenants or buyers.

Positive image and reputation: A clean, well-maintained environment is good for a business’ brand. Customers, clients, and stakeholders enjoy a well-maintained facility.

Employee satisfaction and retention: Employees thrive in clean, comfortable, and safe work environments. Facility maintenance can boost morale, productivity, and retention rates.

Cost savings: Despite its added expense upfront, regular maintenance saves businesses money in the long run.

Sustainability initiatives: Sustainable facility maintenance practices reduce your organization’s environmental footprint.

What are facility maintenance roles?

Facilities management teams are typically comprised of three distinct roles.

Manager

A manager oversees all facility maintenance tasks to keep operations running smoothly. They may manage maintenance needs (and additional soft services such as mail delivery or staffing (as with the operations director or facility manager).

Their daily responsibilities include staffing facility management teams, establishing a preventive maintenance program, prioritizing maintenance work, and reporting on maintenance activities to business leadership.

Example job titles

• Facilities manager
• Operations director
• Maintenance manager
• Building and grounds director
• General manager, facilities maintenance

Technician

A facilities maintenance technician executes tasks set by the manager. They resolve service requests and meet maintenance needs. Based on experience, these individuals range from junior to lead technician. A lead technician may even oversee a team of other technicians.

Daily responsibilities include fixing a leaky pipe, replacing electrical outlets, or painting a hallway.

Example job titles

• Facility maintenance technician
• Facility maintenance worker
• Facility engineer mechanic
• Facility maintenance specialist

Vendor

Depending on organization structure, it may make more financial sense to consider outsourcing facility maintenance. Some organizations may outsource their maintenance services or just a few. Here are a few considerations to make when weighing outsourcing options.

In-house	Outsourced
Core to organization function	Peripheral to organizational function
Frequent	Infrequent
Common	Specialized
Low training costs	High training costs

Read more about outsourcing facilities maintenance.

Is a career in facility maintenance right for you?

A facility maintenance career suits individuals with strong critical thinking skills, a love for hands-on work, and a technical skill aptitude.

They begin their career path as a junior or apprentice maintenance technician. From there, techs become senior or lead. An individual can then become a maintenance supervisor or expand into other operational responsibilities as a facilities manager or director of operations.

Here are the typical salaries for the following job titles, although these can change drastically depending on the region and organization.

• Maintenance technician: $30–40k per year
• Maintenance supervisor: $50–70k per year.
• Facility manager: $80–100k per year.

Read more about facilities maintenance career requirements.

What is facility maintenance software, and how can it help?

Facility maintenance encompasses many tasks spread out across a team of people. Tracking incoming work requests while meeting service schedules and keeping everyone in the loop is time-consuming. Maintenance software receives, organizes, and dispatches work so nothing gets missed and everyone has what they need to resolve work quickly.

Maintenance departments are transitioning from paper ticket systems to modern software solutions such facility maintenance software.

With smart buildings and building automation, facility maintenance teams can delegate even more tasks to software tools.

These tools allow maintenance teams to control their HVAC units, lighting schedules, and security systems. Based on alerts, they can also identify areas needing attention.

Read more about the benefits of building automation.