Preventative Maintenance vs. Corrective Maintenance: Why It Matters for Your Facilities

In the world of facility management, maintenance strategies are critical to the long-term health of your assets and the efficiency of your operations. Two categories dominate the field: preventative maintenance (PM) and corrective maintenance (CM). At Skookum, our facility management services emphasize the importance of preventative maintenance, and here's why it matters.

Preventative Maintenance Basics

Preventative maintenance takes a proactive approach by scheduling regular inspections, servicing, and repairs to keep equipment running smoothly and avoid unexpected failures. The purpose is clear: address potential problems early to prevent them from escalating into expensive breakdowns or interruptions.

Skookum’s Chief Operations Officer explains:
"Following a properly planned and executed PM schedule for building assets can forestall costly asset repairs or failures. The most apt analogy is oil changes on a car. If regular oil changes are not completed, eventually the engine can seize, leading to an expensive repair or replacement. This holds true for building assets like HVAC systems, fire protection systems, plumbing, and electrical systems." - Skookum COO

Benefits to PM:

Extended Equipment Life: Routine maintenance reduces wear and tear, helping equipment last longer.

Reduced Downtime: By addressing issues before they cause failure, preventative maintenance minimizes unplanned downtime.

Cost Savings: While preventative maintenance requires an upfront investment, it prevents costly emergency repairs and replacements, saving money in the long run.

Corrective Maintenance Basics

Corrective maintenance, on the other hand, is a reactive approach. It involves fixing equipment only after it breaks down or malfunctions. This type of maintenance is often unavoidable, as not all failures can be predicted. However, relying solely on corrective maintenance can lead to significant disruptions and higher costs in the moment.

Drawbacks:

Increased Downtime: Unexpected failures can cause prolonged downtime, impacting productivity and service delivery.

Higher Costs: Emergency repairs are typically more expensive than scheduled maintenance, both in terms of labor and replacement parts.

Shorter Equipment Lifespan: Frequent breakdowns can shorten the lifespan of assets, leading to premature replacements.

Why Preventative Maintenance Matters for Your Facilities?

At Skookum, we believe that preventative maintenance is the cornerstone of effective facility management. Here’s why:

Improved Asset Reliability: Preventative maintenance ensures that your equipment and facilities remain in optimal condition, reducing the risk of unexpected failures. This reliability is crucial for organizations that need consistent, uninterrupted operations.

Enhanced Safety: Regular maintenance helps identify and mitigate safety hazards before they become serious issues. This is especially important in environments like military bases and universities, where the safety of personnel and visitors is paramount.

Sustainability and Efficiency: Preventative maintenance aligns with sustainable practices by maximizing the efficiency of equipment, reducing energy consumption, and minimizing waste.

Cost-Effective Operations: By avoiding the high costs associated with emergency repairs and equipment replacement, preventative maintenance helps organizations manage their budgets more effectively. This is especially important for government contracts, where cost-efficiency is a priority.

“While deploying technician mobility starts on day one, it will take a year or more for the effects of a more robust PM program to bend the cost curve with lower corrective maintenance costs. Even so, a facility with better asset reliability will reduce downtime and avoid negative impacts to productivity.” - Skookum COO

Skookum’s Commitment to Preventative Maintenance

Skookum’s facility management services prioritize preventative maintenance because we understand its value in creating reliable, safe, and cost-effective environments. Our approach ensures that our clients can focus on their core missions without the disruption of unexpected equipment failures.

“Our experience over the past six years at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island proves the value of preventative maintenance. Over time, by clearing legacy corrective maintenance and applying the correct PM frequencies to assets, the number, cost, and severity of corrective maintenance has decreased markedly. At Whidbey, we’ve gone from just over 2 PMs for every CM at Year 1 to just over 4 PMs for every CM at Year 4. This translates into 22% fewer expensive corrective maintenance work orders." - Skookum COO

At Skookum, we are committed to providing facility management that protects your assets, enhances safety, and promotes long-term sustainability, ensuring that your facilities stay running smoothly.

The Evolution of Disability Employment

A Journey of Progress and Empowerment

Each year, October marks National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), a time dedicated to celebrating the invaluable contributions of individuals with disabilities to our workforce. For much of the 20th century, individuals with disabilities faced significant barriers to employment, but the past few decades have been transformative.

A major shift began with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, specifically Section 504, which was the first federal law to prohibit discrimination based on disability in employment. This groundbreaking legislation set the stage for further progress, including the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. The ADA not only required reasonable accommodations but also redefined inclusivity, empowering millions of individuals to bring their talents into the workforce.

In 1996, the Department of Labor introduced the Work Opportunity Tax Credit (WOTC), encouraging employers to embrace diversity by hiring individuals from underrepresented groups, including those with disabilities. The creation of the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) in 2001 further demonstrated a sustained commitment to promoting inclusive practices that ensure equal opportunities for all.

A Positive Outlook on Disability Employment

Despite historical challenges, we’ve seen remarkable strides in fostering an inclusive workforce. However, there are still disparities. 2023 statistics from the Department of Labor highlight some ongoing differences between individuals with and without disabilities in the workforce:

Labor Force Participation Rate:

- Persons with disabilities (aged 16-64): 40.3%
- Persons without disabilities (aged 16-64): 77.7%

Employment-Population Ratio:

- Persons with disabilities (aged 16-64): 37.2%
- Persons without disabilities (aged 16-64): 75.0%

Unemployment Rate:

- Persons with disabilities (aged 16-64): 7.7%
- Persons without disabilities (aged 16-64): 3.5%

Although these statistics reveal a persistent gap, they also serve as a powerful reminder that progress is possible and necessary. At Skookum, we view these numbers not just as a challenge but as an opportunity to lead the way in creating more inclusive and equitable workplaces.

Building on Progress: Skookum’s Role

At Skookum, where 74% of our employees have a disability, we’re driven by a clear mission: to provide meaningful employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities while fostering a culture of support, inclusion, and upward mobility.

One of our many success stories involves our one of our facility management employees, Cole (left). Cole faced challenges finding meaningful employment due to his disabilities. After going through our interview process, we created a Laborer position for him at Skookum. Shortly after he was hired, another Skookum employee, Patrick (right), became both a mentor and teacher to Cole, encouraging him to grow. With Patrick's guidance, Cole has truly thrived. Over the past year, he has transformed into an essential member of our maintenance team, independently handling tasks across more than 10 barracks facilities.

*Cole (left) and Patrick (right) at their worksite.*

Cole's story is just one example of how Skookum empowers individuals to succeed. Explore more opportunities and be part of our mission on our careers page.

We believe in empowering our employees to reach their full potential, whether they choose to grow within Skookum or pursue new opportunities elsewhere. Through our dedicated employee development programs, hands-on training, and mentorship, we’re not just helping our employees succeed in the present, we’re equipping them with the skills and confidence for a lifetime of success.

Our impact goes beyond just Skookum's employment. We’re committed to educating other communities and offering resources that promote sustainable growth in disability employment through our Community Employment Services.

What’s next?

While there’s still work ahead, the strides made in disability employment are inspiring. Skookum stands at the forefront of this progress, committed to building a future where every individual, regardless of ability, can thrive in the workplace. But we can’t do it alone.

If you share our vision of an inclusive workforce, join us in this mission. Whether you're an employer looking to make a difference or someone seeking to grow your career, Skookum is here to support you. Together, we can continue reshaping the employment landscape and unlock the full potential of individuals with disabilities.

Skookum Wins 2023 Uptime Award

Skookum has won the 2023 Uptime Award for Best Digitalization for Reliability and Asset Management (RAM). The award was presented December 5th at the International Maintenance Conference sponsored by ReliabilityWeb. Over the past 10-years, we have been on an exciting journey, with clients and business partners, to build highly tailored, scalable, digitalized infrastructure and facility management programs. Currently we operate such programs at sites across the United States, supporting over $20B in asset and plant value. The foundation of Skookum’s facility management practice is digital mobility that drives entirely paperless workflows this solution regularly delivers a 20% efficiency gain for field technicians and back-office teams – resulting in improved maintenance quality and cost savings for clients.

“I contacted government points of contact to confirm [Skookum’s] performance. My contacts raved about Skookum. Comments included, ‘They have moved maintenance management from a reactive mode to a proactive mode through utilizing technology, and management of processes’.” – Roger Westermeyer, Air Force Installation Contract Center (AFICC) from the June 2023 edition of NCMA’s Contract Management Magazine.

Throughout the years, the Department of Defense (DoD) has steadfastly pursued the enhancement of its installation management programs, aspiring to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of its organizational landscape. At the heart of this endeavor, Skookum has presented a definitive solution to address these challenges. We are enthusiastic about the prospect of expanding our presence within this domain and contributing valuable insights to meet the needs of our esteemed DoD and federal government partners.