Preventative Maintenance
Preventative maintenance is aimed at catching and fixing problems before they happen. It is most carried out in the form of regular inspections, usually occurring multiple times per year.
When you inspect a system or a piece of technology, carefully check for all signs of wear, tear, or imminent breakdown. Replace damaged parts immediately. This will prevent having to go into “crisis mode” if something breaks unexpectedly. The primary benefit of preventative maintenance is that it can eliminate unplanned shutdown time as you will ideally catch problems before they occur.
Corrective Maintenance
Corrective maintenance is initiated when a problem is discovered while working on another work order. With corrective maintenance issues are caught ‘just in time’.
For example, during a scheduled maintenance check or while fixing another issue, a maintenance technician notices that a pipe in a HVAC system is not working as it should. Corrective maintenance is then scheduled for a future date where the problem is repaired or replaced. Because corrective maintenance issues are found ‘just in time’, it reduces emergency repairs and increases employee safety. Unlike an emergency work order, a corrective maintenance work order is planned and scheduled because the failure was identified in time. A corrective maintenance work order may consist of repairing, restoring, or replacing equipment or equipment parts.
Unscheduled Maintenance
Unscheduled maintenance is maintenance that is planned but is not scheduled for specific time and has not been assigned to a technician. Here's an example of that: You know that a lawn mower needs maintenance every 50 hours of operation. You know how long maintenance will take, what tasks need to be completed as part of that maintenance, how much it will cost, and what parts you will need for the job. In other words, you have a plan for it. However, you don't know when the unit will hit 50 hours of use. It might be in one week or in three. In other words, it's unscheduled.
Construction
Construction is the act, art, or business of moving, demolishing, installing, or building a structure, facility, or system according to a plan or by a definite process. Construction consists of the application of any of these techniques to physical plant facilities such as structures, utilities, excavations, landscaping, site improvements, drainage systems and roads, and additions, deletions, or modifications of such facilities. Exterior and interior painting of new structures is a form of construction. Painting, while seemingly maintenance, is generally deemed construction.
Decommission
The formal retirement of an asset from service, which may or may not include the actual physical removal of the asset from the premises. A work order set with this classification will be related to the activity of decommissioning this asset. Could require physically removing components of an asset or barricading them off from the public or the use of a decommissioning check list.
Emergency
Emergency work orders address an immediate threat to life, health and safety to property or to the resident, or are related to fire safety. Examples include, but are not limited to, an unhealthy or undrinkable water supply, gas leak, broken/blocked sanitary sewer line, failed heating system, hazardous electrical system, and situations causing an exposure to asbestos, lead-based paint, or other toxic materials.
Inspection/ Evaluation
An inspection work order indicates when a maintenance technician needs to audit or inspect the condition of an asset. This is usually based on a predetermined period, like preventive maintenance work orders. During an inspection, a maintenance technician may identify a problem and then create a new work order to correct that problem. Note that setting the Inspection/ Evaluation classification does not automatically make this an Inspection Work Order Type in Citywide.
Betterment
The cost incurred to enhance the service potential of a tangible capital asset is a betterment. Service potential is enhanced if one of the following occurs:
• there is an increase in the previously assessed physical output or service capacity;
• associated operating costs are lowered;
• the original useful life is extended;
• the quality of output is improved.
If you had a grader that was at the end of its estimated useful life and replacing the motor would allow the municipality to continue to use the grader for another 10 years, then it would be considered a betterment. If you widen a trail in a park to accommodate for more people and bicycles you have increased the service capacity of that asset, that would be considered a betterment.
Replacement
Replacement is defined as a substitution of a component of the asset with one of similar quality. This implies that no replacement could be capitalized as a betterment. However, some replacements can be considered betterments and capitalized under certain conditions when they are evaluated against the criteria established. For example, a major roof replacement near the end of the useful life of a building enables the building to be used for several years past its useful life. This replacement may be of similar quality to the old roof but would meet the definition of a betterment base on the criteria. Therefore, it is important to review the expenditure in relation to the criteria to determine if it is capital in nature.
Repair
The cost incurred in the maintenance of the service potential of a tangible capital asset is a repair, not a betterment. Ordinary repairs are expenditures made to maintain assets in operating condition; they are charged to an expense account in the period in which they are incurred on the basis that it is the only period benefited. An example of this is the replacement of minor parts, lubricating and adjusting of equipment, repainting and cleaning are examples of the type of maintenance that occurs regularly. The key is that Work Orders with this classification are ordinary and required to keep an asset in good standing.
