How to Build a PPM Plan for O&M Contracts in Saudi Arabia

Planned preventive maintenance (PPM) is the part of an O&M contract the client sees least and remembers most. When it works, nothing happens: chillers keep running through the summer, generators start when they're needed, lifts pass inspection. When it doesn't, the reactive calls pile up, SLA clocks start ticking, and the monthly report becomes an argument.

This guide explains how to build a PPM plan for an O&M or facility-management contract in Saudi Arabia: where it comes from, how to schedule it, how to prove it was done, and what software has to do to keep it running for the life of the contract.

What a PPM plan actually is

A PPM plan is the full list of scheduled maintenance tasks for every asset a contract covers, with a frequency for each — weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually — spread across the year so your teams can actually deliver it.

It has three ingredients:

1. An asset register — what you maintain, where it is, and what type it is
2. Task lists per asset type — what a technician does on a chiller visit, a fire-pump visit, a lift visit
3. Frequencies — how often each task is due, from the contract scope, the manufacturer's guidance and any regulatory inspection

Multiply the three together and you have the plan. Most of the work is getting the first ingredient right.

Step 1: build the asset register first

You cannot plan maintenance on assets you haven't listed. For each asset, record at least:

• Site, building, floor and room
• Asset type and category (HVAC, electrical, plumbing, fire & life safety, lifts, BMS)
• Make, model and serial number
• Installation date and warranty end date, if known
• Criticality — what happens to the client if it fails

On a new contract, the register is often incomplete. Plan a site survey in the first weeks; tag each asset with a QR label as you go, so technicians can open its record by scanning it later.

Step 2: write task lists per asset type, not per asset

A building may have forty fan-coil units but only one fan-coil checklist. Write task lists — checklists — per asset type, then apply them to every asset of that type. A good checklist:

• Lists steps in the order a technician does them
• Includes the readings to record (pressures, temperatures, currents) with acceptable ranges
• Says which steps need a photo
• Lists the consumables and spare parts normally used

This is also where the scope of the contract becomes concrete. If the contract says "quarterly maintenance of AHUs", the checklist defines what quarterly maintenance means.

Step 3: set frequencies from the contract — then check them

Take frequencies from, in order:

1. The contract's scope of work and maintenance schedule
2. Manufacturer recommendations for the specific equipment
3. Inspections required by regulations or the client's own policies

Where they disagree, the contract wins for billing purposes — but flag the gap to the client in writing. Some tasks are better triggered by usage than by calendar: generator run-hours, lift trips, filter differential pressure. Plan those by meter reading, not by date.

Step 4: spread the year so teams can deliver it

A plan that puts every quarterly visit in the first week of the quarter is a plan that will be missed. Balance it:

• Spread visits evenly across weeks and technicians
• Group tasks by building so travel time is low
• Move heavy seasonal work — chiller servicing, cooling-tower cleaning — before the summer peak
• Keep capacity free for reactive calls, which don't follow a schedule

The result should be a calendar a supervisor can read: this week, these assets, these teams.

Step 5: generate work orders automatically

Every PPM task should become a work order on its due date — without anyone creating it by hand. Each work order should carry the asset, the checklist, the expected parts and the due date, and land on the right technician's phone.

Step 6: prove it was done

The PPM plan only protects you if you can show it was delivered. For each completed work order, capture:

• The completed checklist with readings
• Photos before and after, where required
• Parts used, drawn from the van or store
• Time spent
• The client representative's sign-off, where the contract requires it

That record feeds two things: the monthly report the client reads, and the defence you need if an asset fails between visits.

Step 7: measure compliance every month

Report the numbers clients look for:

• PPM compliance — tasks completed on time as a share of tasks due
• Overdue tasks — by asset criticality
• Reactive-to-planned ratio — rising reactive work on an asset type usually means its PPM isn't working
• Repeat failures — the same asset failing again within a short period

Use these to adjust the plan: shorten frequencies where assets keep failing, extend them where they never do.

What software has to do for PPM

Spreadsheets can hold a plan; they can't run one for five years across hundreds of assets. A CMMS — or an ERP with maintenance built in — should:

• Hold the asset register with locations, QR tags and history
• Apply checklists by asset type and generate a year of PPM from them
• Create work orders on schedule or on meter readings
• Give technicians the job, checklist and photo capture on a phone
• Track parts from store or van against each job
• Produce PPM compliance and the monthly client report from the same records

In Odoo, the Maintenance app covers equipment and preventive schedules, Field Service puts jobs on technicians' phones, and Inventory tracks spare parts. For FM companies running O&M contracts, the contract layer — sites and assets per contract, PPM per contract scope, and client reporting — is what we build on top.

Work with us: see how we build Odoo for facility management and O&M contracts — asset registers, PPM plans, work orders, SLAs and contract billing — or read how to track SLAs in O&M contracts.

FAQ

What is the difference between PPM and reactive maintenance? PPM is scheduled in advance to stop failures; reactive maintenance responds to a fault after it happens. A healthy contract shows mostly planned work and a falling share of reactive calls.

How often should PPM be done? As often as the contract, the manufacturer and any required inspections say — whichever is most demanding for each task. Some tasks are better triggered by usage, such as run-hours, than by date.

What is PPM compliance? The percentage of PPM tasks due in a period that were completed on time. Many O&M contracts report it monthly as a key performance indicator.

Can PPM be planned before the asset register is complete? Only partly. Start with the assets you know, schedule a site survey early, and add assets to the plan as they are tagged.