Note
What to Do When Your Maintenance Visit Uncovers a Fault
A scheduled maintenance visit runs as planned until it does not. The solar inverter’s error log shows a recurring overcurrent event that clears itself each time. An LED driver in a high-heat zone above a production line is running warm when it should be cool. A distribution board connection is discolored in a way that was not there at the last visit.
None of these faults triggered a client call. You found them. Now you need to decide what to do: fix it on the spot, document it and schedule a follow-up, or stop work and escalate to the client right now. The decision depends on what the maintenance agreement says, what you have on the truck, and how serious the finding is.
Is the Fault Inside the Maintenance Agreement?
The first question is not how serious the fault is. It is whether repairing it is part of what you are contracted to do.
Most industrial electrical maintenance agreements in Thailand distinguish between:
- Inspection and routine servicing: cleaning, torque checks, visual inspection, log review. Covered by the visit fee.
- Replacement of consumable items: failed LED drivers, inverter cooling fans, and fuses within the covered system. Usually included up to a defined component type.
- Repair of faults caused by normal use: this varies significantly between agreements. Some include it; others treat any unplanned repair as additional scope billed at an agreed rate.
- Faults caused by external factors: power quality issues, physical damage, unauthorized modifications, and overload conditions are commonly excluded.
Read the agreement before deciding whether you are fixing or reporting. If the fault is inside the scope, fix it and record it in the maintenance report. If it is outside the scope, document it as a finding and present it to the client with a quote for the additional work.
What Can You Fix on the Spot?
A same-visit repair makes sense when all of the following conditions are met:
- You have the replacement part on the truck
- The repair is inside the maintenance agreement scope
- The repair does not require the factory to shut down machinery or interrupt production
- The repair takes under one hour and does not push the rest of the scheduled checks beyond the agreed visit window
If any of those conditions are not met, document the finding and schedule the repair separately. Do not attempt a repair that requires parts you do not have or leaves the scheduled inspection incomplete.
Worked example: During a semi-annual maintenance visit at an industrial LED retrofit in a food processing facility, a technician finds two failed drivers in the cold storage corridor. Replacement drivers in the same family are carried on the truck as standard consumables. The maintenance agreement covers failed driver replacement. The technician replaces both during the visit, photographs the old units and the installed replacements, and records everything in the maintenance report. No additional scope is raised.
At the same visit, the technician notices a conduit bracket above an overhead conveyor has broken, leaving a short section of conduit unsupported. That is mechanical damage, excluded from the maintenance agreement. The technician photographs it, notes it as a finding, and the project manager calls the client’s engineering contact the next day with a description and a quote.
How Do You Tell the Client What You Found?
At the end of every maintenance visit, brief the factory’s site contact before leaving. This should take three to five minutes and cover:
- What was checked and confirmed as serviceable
- What was repaired during the visit, including any parts used
- What was found outside the agreement scope, and what the recommended next step is
- Any item that presents a safety or operational risk, described plainly
Do not leave the site without this briefing. A maintenance report delivered three days later is not a substitute for the conversation that should happen before you pack up.
What Should the Maintenance Report Record for Discovered Faults?
A fault found outside the planned inspection checklist needs its own record in the maintenance report, separate from the routine items. For each finding, record:
- Location on site (which room, which panel, which equipment)
- Description of what was found, in plain language
- A timestamped photograph showing the fault clearly
- Assessment of urgency: safety issue, performance issue, or cosmetic issue
- Whether the fault is inside or outside the maintenance agreement scope
- What action was taken during the visit, if any
This record protects you in both directions. If the fault worsens, your report shows you identified it and notified the client. If the client disputes an additional repair invoice, the report shows the finding predates the billing.
When Does a Finding Stop the Visit?
Some findings require escalation rather than documentation and continuation:
- A connection, bus bar, or cable showing signs of overheating that could progress to an arc fault
- Evidence of water ingress into a live distribution board or inverter
- A protection device that has been manually bypassed or taped open
- Any finding where continuing work would require an unsafe condition to remain live
If you encounter something in this category, stop work on the affected circuit, inform the factory’s engineering contact directly, and document the exact finding and the time of escalation. Confirm the contact has acknowledged the issue and has a plan to address it before you leave. Do not keep working around a live safety finding and simply note it in the report.
FAQ
What if the fault is inside equipment still under manufacturer warranty?
Do not attempt the repair yourself. Document the fault with timestamped photos and direct the client to the manufacturer’s warranty claim process. If the client does not have the original purchase documentation, your site register should carry the serial number and purchase date from installation. That record is what the warranty claim will need.
What if the client says the fault was caused by your previous visit?
This is where the documentation from each prior visit matters. Timestamped photos from the previous inspection showing the component in serviceable condition are the record that refutes the claim. Without that documentation, the dispute is difficult to resolve. Consistent, dated, photographed maintenance reports exist for this reason as much as any other.
Can you charge for unplanned repair work discovered during a maintenance visit?
Yes, if the repair is outside the maintenance agreement scope and the client authorizes it. The cleanest approach is to present the finding with a description and a quote before the technician begins work. A verbal quote confirmed in writing before starting avoids disputes about whether the scope was authorized. If the factory cannot authorize on the spot, schedule the repair for a separate visit once the quote is approved.
When a maintenance visit raises a repair job, Field Operation System’s TRACE 30 install creates that job order inside the same system that holds the maintenance record. The repair cannot be marked closed without a client signature, which means your documentation is complete before the truck leaves the site. To learn more, visit /program/.