Maintaining business premises
Corrective maintenance
Corrective maintenance is the work done once something has already failed: repairing the cold room that will not cool, replacing the blown fluorescent tube, unblocking the changing-room drain. It differs from preventive maintenance, done on a set date, and from predictive maintenance, done when a reading gives warning.
Also known asreactive maintenance · breakdown maintenance · repairs · fix on failure
Corrective, preventive and predictive: when the work happens
What separates the three ways of maintaining premises is not the tool or who turns up, but when the work is done. Corrective work comes after the failure; preventive maintenance follows a calendar even when the equipment is running well; predictive maintenance waits for a reading (temperature, vibration, power draw) to show that something is starting to go wrong.
| Type | When the work is done | In a restaurant kitchen |
|---|---|---|
| Corrective | Once the equipment has already failed | The cold room reads nine degrees on a Saturday and the refrigeration engineer is called out |
| Preventive | On the date the plan sets | The condenser is cleaned and the refrigerant checked at the scheduled visit |
| Predictive | When a measurement signals the fault | The temperature log creeps up a little every day and the visit is brought forward |
Corrective work can be urgent or can wait. The emergency exit that will not open or water leaking onto the electrical panel cannot wait; the loose tile in the storeroom can go on the week's list. What sets it off is a maintenance ticket: someone sees the problem and reports it. From there, in businesses with more structure, the report becomes a work order for the technician, and the time it takes to be put right is measured with MTTR.
Worth knowing
It is often assumed that good preventive maintenance does away with corrective work. It reduces it, it does not remove it: there will always be a dripping tap or a hinge that gives way between two inspections. And the other way round: premises that only fix what breaks are not spared the inspections the law requires, because those have a due date even if nothing has failed (see statutory maintenance).
Sources
Related terms
- Maintenance ticketA maintenance ticket is the record of a fault in a residence's facilities (a dripping shower, a broken blind) with what is wrong, where, who reported it and when. It is used to assign the job to whoever fixes it, track the deadline and keep a record of how it was closed.
- Preventive maintenancePreventive maintenance is the work done before something breaks: inspections, servicing and certificates with a due date (lifts, air conditioning, gas or electrical installations) that a residence has to complete so its equipment keeps working and stays compliant.
- Predictive maintenancePredictive maintenance decides when to step in from the actual condition of the equipment, measured with readings such as temperature, vibration or power draw. It does not wait for a breakdown, like corrective work, or for a fixed date, like preventive work: it acts when a reading says a fault is coming.
- Work orderA work order is the written instruction that assigns a maintenance job to a specific person or company: what needs doing, on which piece of equipment or where, with what priority and by when. When it is closed, the hours, the materials used and what was done are recorded.