Simple PPM software for cafés, bakeries and kitchens
Fabric makes planned maintenance easy for multi-site food and drink businesses. Start from a ready-made schedule for a typical café or kitchen, adjust it to your kit, and Fabric raises the jobs, books the right engineer and files the paperwork.
Why planned maintenance slips without PPM software
Planned maintenance should be the easy part. You know the boiler needs servicing, the extract needs cleaning and the fire alarm needs testing. Yet across a group of cafés, bakeries or kitchens, it is the planned work that quietly falls behind until a coffee machine or fridge fails mid-service.
A PPM schedule that lives in a spreadsheet does not remind anyone. It does not know which contractor covers which site, whether last quarter's visit actually happened or where the certificate went afterwards. When the person who maintains it is on holiday, nothing gets raised. The first sign of a problem is often a failed inspection, a lapsed certificate or a breakdown that a service would have caught.
Planned maintenance software solves this by turning the schedule into work. Each service becomes a job, with a due date, an owner and a record of completion.
For multi-site operators the benefit compounds. A single missed service is an inconvenience. The same service missed across twenty sites is a pattern of breakdowns, emergency call-out charges and compliance gaps. Planned maintenance software makes that pattern visible early, while it is still cheap to fix.
Planned maintenance, connected to everything else
In Fabric, a PPM schedule belongs to an asset at a site. That means every planned job already knows where it is, what it is for and who usually does it.
Schedules on assets
Set the interval for each service or inspection against the asset it relates to, whether that is monthly, quarterly, annual or your own interval.
Jobs raised on time
Planned jobs appear ahead of their due date, so there is time to book the contractor and access to the site.
Sent to the right contractor
Assign planned work to the contractor who covers that site and discipline, with the SLA and job details attached.
Completed on mobile
Engineers use a mobile job card to add photos and notes and capture sign-off when the work is done.
Certificates filed
Where a visit produces a certificate, it is stored against the asset and its expiry date is tracked.
Planned and reactive together
See planned and reactive jobs side by side for each site, so you can spot assets that keep failing between services.
Because each planned job sits in the same record as reactive work, compliance and invoices, the schedule stays honest. If a service was booked but never signed off, it shows. If a certificate came back with remedial actions, you can raise them as follow-on jobs against the same asset.
From spreadsheet to live PPM schedule
- Add your sites and assetsStart with the buildings you manage and the equipment that needs maintaining in each one.
- Set the planned tasksStart from our café and kitchen starter schedule, then adjust each interval to the manufacturer's guidance or your engineer's advice.
- Assign contractorsLink each task to the contractor responsible, so jobs go to the right people.
- Let Fabric raise the workJobs appear as they fall due and close out with photos, notes, sign-off and certificates.
During early access we help you move your existing schedule across, so you do not have to start from a blank page.
A ready-made PPM schedule for a café or kitchen site
Most café, bakery and kitchen sites have the same core kit. This is the kind of starter schedule we set up with you, before tuning it to your equipment, usage and risk assessments.
| Equipment or system | Typical planned task | How often |
|---|---|---|
| Espresso machine | Preventative service, gaskets and group heads, water filter change | Service per manufacturer and usage; filter by litres or months. Boiler examined under its written scheme (PSSR) |
| Coffee grinders | Burr inspection and clean | By volume of coffee ground, per manufacturer |
| Fridges, freezers and cold rooms | Refrigeration service, condenser clean, seals | Typically every 6 to 12 months; F-gas leak checks where the system requires them |
| Ovens, combi ovens and provers | Service, door seals, descale where needed | Per manufacturer, often every 6 to 12 months |
| Gas appliances | Gas safety inspection and record | Annual check is standard practice |
| Kitchen extract | Clean to BESA TR19 Grease with report | 3, 6 or 12 months depending on daily cooking hours |
| Dishwashers and glasswashers | Service and descale | Per manufacturer and water hardness |
| Ice machines | Clean and sanitise | Per manufacturer, often monthly to quarterly |
| Fire alarm and emergency lighting | Weekly alarm test, monthly lighting test, periodic servicing | BS 5839-1 and BS 5266-1 |
| Water systems | Temperature checks and flushing | Set by your legionella risk assessment |
Intervals here are typical examples, not rules. Your equipment manuals, engineers and risk assessments set the final schedule, and Fabric makes it easy to change an interval for one site or every site at once.
Build a better planned maintenance schedule
- PPM schedule template for multi-site operators
- Reactive vs planned maintenance
- Commercial kitchen compliance checklist
- Espresso machines and pressure systems
Fabric is in early access ahead of launch in 2027. If your planned maintenance lives in a spreadsheet today, we would like to show you how it looks in Fabric.
Common questions
What is PPM software?
PPM software manages planned preventative maintenance. It holds a schedule of services and inspections for each asset, raises jobs when they fall due and records that the work was done.
What is the difference between PPM and reactive maintenance?
PPM is work you plan in advance at set intervals, such as servicing a boiler or testing emergency lighting. Reactive maintenance is work raised when something breaks. Most estates need both, and Fabric shows them side by side.
Do I have to build a maintenance schedule from scratch?
No. During early access we set you up with a starter schedule for a typical café, bakery or kitchen site, covering common equipment and UK compliance checks. You then adjust intervals to match your equipment and your engineers' advice.
How much does Fabric PPM software cost?
Pricing will be announced at launch in 2027. Early access is open now if you would like to try Fabric on your own estate first.
Can I import my existing PPM schedule?
During early access we will help you bring your sites, assets and schedules across from spreadsheets. Talk to us about the format you have.
Related
Maintenance software for bakery chains
Maintenance software for bakery chains. Keep ovens, provers, mixers, fridges and coffee machines running across every shop and bakehouse. Early access.
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How to build a PPM schedule across multiple sites
Build a planned preventative maintenance schedule across many sites: asset register, SFG20 task types, frequencies, a café template and tracking.
Reactive vs planned maintenance
Reactive vs planned maintenance explained: the cost and risk trade-offs, how to shift the balance across your sites, and the KPIs that show it is working.
Run your estate on Fabric.
Early access is open for multi-site operators, caterers and FM providers.