What is facilities maintenance?

This relies on regular and scheduled maintenance to prevent failure, aiming to mitigate issues before they occur.

Pros: Reduced asset downtime and disruption as breakdowns are avoided, extension of asset lifespans.

Cons: Costs of regular inspections and fixes.

This relies on unscheduled repairs after a component has failed.

Pros: No ongoing maintenance or inspection costs, which may be better suited for those with larger estates or limited resources.

Cons: Asset downtime and disruption to your organisation’s activities. Larger fixes due to breakdown or failure are likely to be more costly.

This relies on the ongoing collection of data with specialist sensors, software and AI to predict when assets/ equipment will fail. Maintenance is scheduled based on this forecast.

Pros: Reduced costs of regular inspections and maintenance, reduced asset downtime, better reliability of assets, and a reduced timeframe from detection to fixing the fault.

Cons: Costs involved with implementing and maintaining the system.

Having regular or predictive maintenance reduces the risk of larger or more urgent fixes or malfunctions. These can cause considerable disruption to your organisation’s activities.

Reducing the risk of urgent fixes or emergencies also benefits the safety of your employees. And besides ensuring their well-being, you’ll keep your building compliant with health and safety legislation.

Unexpected or large-scale emergency repairs are often very resource-intensive and have a high associated cost (both in terms of the fix itself and the impact on your organisation’s activities).

Having assets break or operate with reduced functionality can greatly impact performance. Downtime can mean large costs and reduced efficiency for your organisation.

Regular or predictive maintenance, fixing issues before they turn into larger malfunctions, helps to prolong the lifespan of your important assets. This saves money in the long run.

Compliance with health and safety legislation relies on buildings and equipment being safely maintained. Malfunctions or issues with either risks a breach of compliance.

Facilities maintenance and facilities management are closely related but differ in their scope and focus. Facilities maintenance is a subset of facilities management, concentrating on the upkeep, repair, and servicing of a building’s physical assets. This includes both preventative maintenance – such as regular inspections, cleaning, and equipment servicing – and reactive maintenance, which involves addressing unexpected issues like breakdowns or malfunctions. In contrast, facilities management takes a broader, more strategic approach. FM not only includes maintenance but also involves the planning, coordination, and optimisation of a facility’s operations. This might cover areas like budgeting, energy efficiency, health and safety compliance, and third-party coordination. These activities make sure the facility runs smoothly and efficiently.

If you own or operate any organisation with physical premises, facilities maintenance is essential to be sure your buildings and systems remain safe, efficient and functional. Regular maintenance helps prevent costly breakdowns, extends the lifespan of equipment and supports compliance with health and safety regulations. Without consistent maintenance, small issues can quickly escalate into expensive repairs or operational disruption. Facilities maintenance is particularly important for larger or high-demand environments such as hospitals, universities, manufacturing plants, and public sector buildings like prisons or immigration centres. In these locations consistent performance and safety are critical.

Facilities maintenance can either be conducted by your own colleagues or, more commonly, maintenance contracts can be outsourced to specialist providers such as Mitie. Our facilities maintenance services are usually offered as part of our wider integrated facilities management offering, often alongside broader management services. We are also happy to discuss pure maintenance services for your facility. Get in touch to see how we can help.

Mitie is the UK’s largest facilities management company. We create high-performing places and believe in more than just more than just managing buildings and estates; it’s about transforming them into strategic assets. We work across:

• Decarbonisation and energy
• Facilities and estates
• Projects and workplace
• Security and intelligence

Safety, compliance and optimal environments come as standard. Our integrated facilities management (IFM) offering brings all your services under one partner. This means you benefit from our expert self-delivery without the added complication of third parties, plus smarter, data-led decisions that improve efficiency, reduce risk and accelerate your ESG goals.