JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. – Requesting routine maintenance repairs to most Joint Base Lewis-McChord-owned facilities will become easier starting March 15.
JBLM is one of 73 installations using the new Army Maintenance Activity, or ArMA, exclusively to eliminate emails, walk-ins and calls about routine work orders.
“On JBLM, ArMA will cover maintenance orders for almost everywhere but base housing, Madigan and a few other nongarrison-owned facilities,” said Tom Olsen, chief of Operations and Maintenance Division for JBLM’s Directorate of Public Works. “On JBLM, we handle almost 3,000 routine maintenance service orders a month. Army Materiel Command and Army Installation Management Command directed us to use ArMA to streamline the work. ArMA (staff) hopes to save us and the customers time and get our team on site much quicker.”
There are two ways to use ArMA. One way is to visit: www.armymaintenance.com and register an account using either a username and password or your Common Access Card. The other way is to follow the link in the Digital Garrison mobile app.
“Of all of the benefits of the Digital Garrison app, this may be one of the best features,” said Joe Piek, JBLM public affairs officer. “ArMA is one of the first things you see when you launch the app. Better, once you establish an ArMA account, you can do it all by your phone through the Digital Garrison app.”
Olsen said another benefit of ArMA is customers can submit photos directly along with the work orders, so the maintenance team can better understand the problem.
“Sending photos will eliminate time from work order submission to work completion, as it avoids potential confusion, and our teams will have a better idea on what needs to be done,” Olsen said.
Like many of the bases using ArMA, JBLM began using it for barracks maintenance issues in December 2020 to help test the program, according to Olsen.
“We expanded it in February 2022, but working with IMCOM, we didn’t make an announcement ahead of time to avoid confusion as the online program wasn’t fully working outside the barracks,” Olsen said. “We didn’t want folks to be confused when they couldn’t find their facility in the program.”
Olsen said although ArMA handles routine maintenance needs for garrison-owned buildings, customers with emergency maintenance issues – life, health and safety – should still call 253-967-3131 (option 2) for priority situations. Residents living on JBLM still need to go through Liberty Military Housing for housing maintenance issues by calling 888-578-4141.
“We are so excited to catch up and use the technology we have now to improve the entire maintenance program,” Olsen said. “It will streamline information flow and help give ownership to the service members and civilians in garrison-owned facilities.”
For more JBLM News, click here.
Social Sharing