How to Analyze Last Year’s Facilities Maintenance Performance

Andrew Ohlinger
Jan 17
4 min read

A structured look back allows you to identify recurring issues, uncover systemic weaknesses, and eliminate problems rather than carrying them forward into the next year.

As another year closes, facilities teams often focus on budgets, inspections, and preparing for what lies ahead. However, one of the most valuable exercises you can undertake is a disciplined review of the past year’s maintenance performance.

This process is not about assigning blame; it is about learning, improving reliability, and building a more resilient operation.

Start With the Problems That Wouldn’t Go Away

Every facility has issues that seem to resurface no matter how many times they are addressed. These are the first areas to focus on.

Ask yourself:

Which work orders were repeatedly generated for the same asset or system?
Which repairs felt temporary rather than permanent?
Where did downtime recur despite prior corrective action?

Recurring problems often indicate deeper root causes, such as aging equipment, improper repairs, inadequate specifications, or operational misuse. Listing these issues explicitly is the first step toward eliminating them.

Review Reactive vs. Planned Maintenance

One of the clearest indicators of maintenance performance is the balance between reactive and planned work.

Review:

How much time and cost were driven by emergency or unplanned repairs?
Which emergencies could have been prevented with earlier intervention?
Were preventive maintenance tasks skipped or deferred, and why?

A high volume of reactive work typically signals gaps in preventive maintenance planning, staffing constraints, or unrealistic schedules. These patterns rarely resolve themselves without deliberate changes.

Remember that any planned maintenance you did contributed to the smooth functioning of the building and well-being of its users.

Additionally, any work performed in-house saved the facility money and grew the skills of your maintenance team.

Examine Asset Performance and Lifecycle Decisions

Not all equipment deserves equal attention. Some assets consume disproportionate amounts of time, labor, and budget.

Evaluate:

Which assets generated the most work orders or repair costs?
Are these assets beyond their expected service life?
Were repairs consistently more expensive than replacement planning?

Look at repairs and breakdowns to find your bad actors—assets that have repeated breakdowns. If an asset repeatedly fails, the issue may no longer be maintenance execution; it may be a capital planning decision that has been deferred for too long.

Take time to count up critical assets that functioned without problem. Analyze their use, functions, and maintenance plans. This gives you a window into what's working and helps you to duplicate this process with other troublesome assets.

Use this information to update capital budgeting plans and financial goals for the coming year.

Assess Communication and Coordination Breakdowns

Many maintenance struggles are not technical failures but process failures. How are issues with equipment communicated to the facilities team? Is this process the same for routine work and emergencies?

Reflect on:

Delays caused by incomplete work requests or unclear scopes.
Misalignment between operations, vendors, and maintenance staff.
Repeat call-backs due to misunderstood expectations.

Identifying where communication broke down helps refine workflows, documentation, and accountability in the year ahead.

Identify Resource and Skill Gaps

Performance issues often reveal themselves through staffing and capability constraints.

Consider:

Were certain tasks delayed due to a lack of in-house expertise?
Did vendor response times create recurring bottlenecks?
Were staff stretched too thin to perform proactive work?

Understanding these limitations allows you to justify training, staffing adjustments, or vendor strategy changes based on evidence rather than intuition.

Transform Insights into Actionable Priorities

The final and most critical step is translating insight into action.

For each recurring issue identified:

Define the root cause, not just the symptom.
Assign a clear corrective strategy.
Establish measurable success criteria for the coming year.

This could include revised preventive maintenance schedules, asset replacement plans, improved documentation standards, or new monitoring and reporting practices.

Facilities that struggle year after year often do so because the same issues are addressed repeatedly without being fundamentally resolved.

By intentionally reviewing last year’s maintenance performance—especially recurring problems—you position your facility to break those cycles.

The goal for the coming year should not be to “work harder,” but to work smarter: fewer emergencies, fewer repeat failures, and more control over your building’s performance. A thoughtful look back is the foundation for a stronger, more predictable year ahead.

This process can seem overwhelming, so break it down. Use the checklist below to get started. Take one area at a time, perhaps review one each week with the team.

Maintenance Performance Review Checklist

Identify Recurring Problems:
- List repeated work orders for the same asset.
- Note temporary repairs and recurring downtime.

Review Reactive vs. Planned Maintenance:
- Assess emergency repair costs and preventable incidents.
- Evaluate skipped preventive tasks.

Examine Asset Performance:
- Identify high-cost assets and compare repair vs. replacement.

Assess Communication and Coordination:
- Reflect on delays from unclear requests and misalignments.
- Note repeat call-backs due to misunderstandings.