What is Corrective Maintenance?

Facilities managers are responsible for keeping on top of a building’s assets, the resources they consume as well as the infrastructure that supports them.  

Therefore, having an effective maintenance strategy in place is crucial for all facilities management professionals. 

Using established maintenance strategies and processes that underpin them helps to increase health and safety levels through the use of proven methodologies as well as save costs by fixing and maintaining assets at the right time. 

At SFG20, the industry standard for building maintenance, we are utilised by a broad range of sectors, so we know how essential these maintenance strategies are for organisations.  

Let's take a look at what you need to know about corrective maintenance, including what it is, how it works and when to use it. 

What Does Corrective Maintenance Mean? 

There are fundamentally two types of maintenance: reactive and proactive. Each is just as important as the other, but their usage depends on the asset you’re applying it to. 

Most maintenance strategies work proactively, anticipating future issues and acting on them accordingly.  

Corrective maintenance is a reactive strategy. It’s initiated once an asset needs restoring or replacing and is usually after another type of maintenance has detected an issue. 

Unlike other types of maintenance that use prognosis and historical data such as predictive and condition-based maintenance, corrective maintenance is carried out as and when an asset needs fixing or replacing. 

This could be when an asset is worn and still functioning (but not optimally) or if it has broken down completely. 

The aim of corrective maintenance is for work to be carried out promptly (causing as little disruption as possible to operations) once an asset has gone outside of its performance tolerances, has broken down or is beginning to malfunction.  

Corrective Maintenance: Planned vs Unplanned 

Planned Maintenance 

Planned corrective maintenance can be divided into two categories: 

• Run-to-Failure maintenance 

• Preventive maintenance 

Run-to-Failure maintenance is when an asset is left to run until it breaks and is then either replaced or repaired.  

This is only applied to assets or systems that are either non-essential or easy and cheap to replace or repair.  

They must also remain in a safe condition if they are to run to failure.  When you make an active choice to allow an asset to run to failure, you have planned it, hence why it sits in this category.   

A good example of this is a light bulb, as there’s nothing you can do to prolong its lifespan. It’s an inexpensive item that can be easily replaced and doesn’t create a dangerous situation when it runs out.  

Preventive maintenance is carried out before a breakdown occurs. Corrective maintenance can’t be predicted and scheduled months in advance. However, data gathered from preventive strategies can highlight issues before they become more costly. 

Often, issues that require corrective maintenance can also be discovered during routine inspections. 

For example, let’s think about a technician carrying out maintenance on machinery. While inspecting other parts, they notice an obvious sign of wear and tear on the tensioner wheel for a timing belt that has not yet been detected.  

In this case, corrective maintenance can be scheduled for a later date that will cause minimal disruption. 

Unplanned Maintenance  

Unplanned maintenance is simply corrective maintenance that needs to be carried out unexpectedly. 

There can be several scenarios that result in this. For example, maintenance might have been scheduled but the breakdown occurred beforehand, or the signs of failure were simply missed. 

Either way, this isn’t an ideal situation. If it’s equipment that needs certain tools or parts to fix it and these aren’t available immediately, then this can increase unplanned downtime as well as create unexpected costs. 

What Are the Pros and Cons of Corrective Maintenance?

Here is a summary of the advantages and disadvantages of corrective maintenance:

Pros 

• Lower costs in the short term. Focusing on repairs and replacements when needed can make corrective maintenance more cost-effective compared to other types of maintenance.  

• It’s a simple process that doesn’t require too much planning. This means that focus can be directed to other types of maintenance. 

• If planned, corrective maintenance can lead to reduced downtime and fewer disruptions to the working day. It can also help to increase asset lifespan by repairing and replacing parts and systems before issues worsen and become costlier. 

Cons 

• Higher costs in the long term. While corrective maintenance is ideal for assets that are cheaper to replace or fix, some equipment left to run to failure could end up costing more if deterioration affects other parts. 

• Machinery breaking down unexpectedly can lead to increased downtime and disruption, making corrective maintenance unpredictable.  

• There is additional resource capacity required to cover unscheduled activities, which can potentially lower your resource utilisation. 

Implementing Corrective Maintenance  

If implemented properly, corrective maintenance can be beneficial in improving asset health and performance.  

As mentioned previously, corrective maintenance issues are often found during routine inspections. For these to be identified, maintenance workers must have the correct training. 

By investing in training, maintenance workers will be more likely to spot possible faults while carrying out other services such as preventive or emergency maintenance.  

Something else to consider creating as little disruption as possible is to ensure basic parts and tools are at hand for emergency repairs and replacements. 

It’s important to remember that if you’re using corrective maintenance, it must be implemented on assets that don’t pose a health and safety risk to workers should they break down unexpectedly.  

In this case, corrective maintenance works better alongside other types of maintenance. Predictive maintenance, for example, is a strategy used to detect potential issues before the failure of an asset, while condition-based maintenance uses real-time data to identify declining performance levels. 

How Do I Know Which Maintenance Strategies I Should Choose? 

Now that you’ve learnt the ins and outs of corrective maintenance and when is the best time to use it, you can see why it is so essential for facilities managers to understand its function in the workplace.  

As a facilities manager, it is your responsibility to keep assets and equipment running as efficiently as possible, increase their lifespan and create a safer working environment for staff. If some of these obligations are not met correctly, this will lower your risk of achieving compliance. 

While this can feel overwhelming, meeting these responsibilities is achievable through certain maintenance strategies. 

At SFG20, we have over 30 years of experience in this field and want to empower maintenance professionals like yourself with the vital knowledge they need to keep buildings safe.   

That’s why we’ve created a number of handy guides to help you make the right decision – click the buttons below to read about other maintenance strategies. 

Build on Your Knowledge