Infrastructure maintenance is the care of the assets a site forgets because they fail rarely: the incoming power and distribution, the compressed air and water systems, drainage, the roof and the structure, the yard. They fail rarely and expensively, their failure modes are slow, and their records span decades rather than months, which makes them the opposite of the production machines a maintenance team spends its days on. This page says how those assets are put on the schedule, what the inspections look for, and why the record for infrastructure matters more than for anything else on the register.
Why infrastructure is different
The failure modes are slow: corrosion, settlement, insulation ageing, silt. The P-F interval is long, months or years, so inspections can be infrequent but must actually look. The consequence is large: a distribution failure stops the whole site, not one line. And the history is long: a roof inspected every five years has a record that outlives the people who made it. The schedule has to hold long intervals honestly, which is exactly where calendar-based scheduling on a whiteboard fails.
What goes on the schedule
Electrical: thermographic or visual inspection of switchgear on an annual interval, insulation and earth tests on the statutory one, generator and UPS test runs monthly. Water and air: leak and pressure checks quarterly, vessel inspections on the statutory interval, filters and dryers on the manufacturer's. Drainage: interceptors and gullies before the wet season. Structure and roof: an annual walk with a checklist and a professional survey on a multi-year interval. Each is an asset in the register with a task and an interval, whatever the interval's length.
The inspections
They look for the slow modes: heat where there should be none, corrosion, water where it should not be, cracks that have grown since the photo taken last time. Photographs are the finding, because the next inspection is a year away and the comparison is the point. A corrective work order is raised for anything that has changed, with a priority from the consequence rather than the urgency, because most infrastructure work is planned months ahead.
The record over decades
The register entry for a switchboard should carry every inspection, test certificate and repair since it was installed, because the decision to replace it is made on that history. A CMMS keeps it as long as the site keeps the system and exports it when it changes; paper survives if it is filed by asset. Either way, infrastructure is the part of the register where a lost history costs the most, and the maintenance log worksheet on this site has the asset column for exactly that filing.
Questions people ask about infrastructure maintenance
Is infrastructure maintenance the facilities team's job?
On many sites it is shared: facilities for the building, maintenance for the services that feed production. The register should say who owns each asset so that neither assumes the other.
How often should a roof be inspected?
A walk with a checklist yearly and after storms; a professional survey on the interval the roof type and the insurer suggest. The record of both is the point.
Can infrastructure be run to failure?
Rarely, because the consequence is the whole site. Inspection-based maintenance with long intervals is the usual strategy.