What is maintenance management is answered by responsibilities rather than software: deciding what the equipment needs, getting it done safely and on time, and knowing afterwards what was done and what it cost. This page lists the maintenance responsibilities the function owns, gives a maintenance supervisor job description as the work actually is rather than as an advertisement, a maintenance technician description of the day, and the records the whole function runs on, which is where a CMMS comes in and where it stops.
The responsibilities the function owns
The asset register: knowing what the site owns and where it is. The strategy: which assets get preventive work, inspections, or run to failure. The schedule: the tasks against each asset and their triggers. The work: planned and reactive, done safely under the isolation rules. The record: what was done, what was found, how long it took. The compliance file: the statutory tests and their certificates. And the reporting: the reactive share, the compliance figure and the cost, to whoever pays for the function.
A maintenance supervisor job description, in practice
Reads the overdue list and the reactive queue every morning and sets the day's priorities. Assigns work orders and checks that the isolation and permit steps are followed. Reviews findings from inspections and raises the corrective work. Levels the schedule when it is raising more than the team can do. Keeps the register current when equipment arrives or leaves. Writes the monthly report from the work orders. Trains technicians on the procedures and on closing work orders with findings. The job is run from the record, and a supervisor without one runs it from memory and interruption.
A maintenance technician description of the day
Takes the day's work orders on a phone or a sheet. Reads the history against each asset before opening it. Isolates and locks out. Does the task against its checklist, records readings and findings, replaces what the task says to replace. Raises a corrective work order for what the task did not cover. Takes reactive calls as they come, with the same lockout and the same record. Closes each job with the hours and the parts. Hands over what is open. The record the technician leaves is what the supervisor, the planner and the next technician all work from.
The records the function runs on
Four: the register, the schedule, the work orders and the history. A CMMS holds them; the maintenance log worksheet on this site holds them for a small team; a whiteboard holds the first two and loses the rest. Maintenance management is the discipline of keeping those four true, and the software is only as good as the habit. This site's worked example, 180 assets, 240 work orders a month, 60 preventive jobs, is one function's records described in numbers.
Questions people ask about what is maintenance management
Is maintenance management the same as facilities management?
No. Facilities management runs buildings as a service; maintenance management keeps equipment running. On this estate the facilities hubs carry their own money pages and this one keeps to equipment.
What qualifications does a maintenance manager need?
A trade or engineering background, experience of running a schedule, and the habit of working from records. CMMS experience is asked for on most job ads and is the record-keeping part.
What does a maintenance technician do all day?
Scheduled work against checklists, interrupted by reactive calls, with every job isolated, recorded and closed. On a well-run site most of the day is scheduled; on a badly-run one most of it is calls.