PSIwebware Blog

Building operators and team projects have the opportunity to be awarded points for exceptional performance through technological strategies.  The LEED for New Construction Green Building Rating System encourages strategies for measureable environment and health benefits through technological innovations.

There are two innovation strategies that qualify under the LEED standards:

A project that incorporates energy efficiency measures and demonstrates performance improvements for environmental benefits.  These credits are awarded for achieving percentage change in existing building maintenance.

An innovation credit can be attained with a Building Operations Plan.  This would include an operating plan which identifies all space uses, occupancy types in the building, and conditions required in the spaces.  There would be documentation of schedules for all occupants of the building, whether they are a full time occupant or part time.  The mode of operation provides indoor scheduling for the employees occupied and unoccupied or day versus night scheduling. 

The Building Operations Plan summary would give a report of the systems installed in the building, for example:  space heating, space cooling, ventilation and humidification.

The documents submitted to USGBC must include narrative submittal of credit requirements, projects approach to achievement, description of quantifiable environmental benefits, and copies of the reports.

Using either strategy, the results of the project or plan need to be tracked to demonstrate value was achieved.  Companies of all sizes use Facility Maintenance Software to keep them on track and to document their performance.

Many companies are working to find solutions to control energy usage and at the same time become environmentally friendly.

The LEED Green Building Rating System for Building Operations and Maintenance sets standards for certifying existing commercial and institutional buildings.  The intent promotes high performance, affordable, and environmentally sound practices in existing buildings.

Facility Managers are using Facility Maintenance Software to implement sustainable operations and maintenance practices to reduce the environmental impact of their buildings.

Facility Maintenance Software can help you obtain LEED credits for:  sustainable site, water efficiency, energy and atmosphere, materials and resources, indoor environmental quality, and innovation in operations.

Other Sustainable Maintenance Benefits:

1. Web based systems significantly eliminate paper consumption.
2. Routine Preventive Maintenance improves indoor environmental quality by replacing filters regularly, checking ducts, and ensuring that the building is properly load balanced.
3. Repairs are done faster and problems are solved more quickly and efficiently.
4. Preventive Maintenance Improves Asset Life, reducing waste and improving energy efficiency.
5. Good operation and maintenance practices can reduce total energy usage by up to 50%.

All buildings are eligible for LEED certification including:  offices, retail and service establishments, institutional buildings, libraries, schools, museums, churches, and hotels.

Since many facility budgets have been squeezed lately, some facility managers are relying on basic approaches to improve work efficiency:  increase workload or reduce staffing.  Unfortunately, both approaches usually result in reduced work quality and cheating in time and/or work reporting.

Work standards are too easily corrupted without a means to clearly communicate work requirements, track work progress, and demonstrate the quality of work performed.  As budgets get squeezed, many organizations have turned to Preventive Maintenance Software to help them perform these critical functions.

Preventive Maintenance Software can help your organization define work standards that are simple, clearly stated, and that follow industry work standards.  The work standards should have enough detail to clearly communicate work requirements, and also provide a means of easily inspecting completed work to confirm that your quality standards are being met.

When considering performance tracking, ensure that you can clearly confirm what time has been spent on your planned and unplanned work.  Just by having a good tracking system, nearly all managers notice an increase in employee accountability, and if you have any questions about an individual’s work performance, there is plenty of documentation to support corrective action.

The work management challenges facing today’s facility managers are not likely to decrease.  Improving work management systems is a proven path that many facility managers have taken to maintain work performance while improving efficiency.

Long term planning does not always hold a high priority with facility managers, but all major organizations require it.  They know that a facility management plan is critical for effective budgeting.

It is important to organize an annual facility management plan that includes your budget along with performance tracking, so you measure progress in terms of performance within your budget.

The budget should be formatted so that key indicators can be easily calculated by you and your financial management team.  Also the budget should incorporate detailed financial accountability by department or job function.  This encourages managers to be responsible for funds assigned to them.

To make the budgeting process most effective, all significant costs should be budgeted as part your plan, plans from previous years should be compared to this year, and any financial changes should be highlighted so they can be measured.

One of the best tools for monitoring plan versus cost is Building Maintenance Software.  Your facility manager will have the complete picture of planned work, and be able to better manage unplanned work without spending undue time or resources.

Preventive Maintenance (PM) Planning is an essential factor to optimize cost and extend equipment life.  Preventive maintenance can be better planned when it is separated into four disciplines:

1. Plant or Manufacturing Support
2. Exteriors, Interiors, Furniture, Security, Fire and Life Safety Systems
3. Electrical Switchboards, Floor panels, and Devices
4. Vendor Maintenance Services such as Elevators, Building Controls, Painting, etc.

Using this approach, your maintenance team can focus on the important aspects of each critical area to avoid generalizing services, which will lead to lower costs and more consistent service.

As an example, Painting is a common issue in a number of facilities.  Preventive maintenance engineers are usually not responsible for painting, but they may be asked to do touch-ups.  However, excessive touch-ups can leave a leopard look in the facility, so painters should be called in to re-paint instead.

These types of issues are common, and can be predicted with some level of accuracy, so they should be included in the Preventive Maintenance Plan to avoid inconsistent service.  To lower costs and increase service, tools such as Preventive Maintenance Software are often used to keep track of all PM frequencies, work instructions, and PM Inspections.

Inspecting your facility regularly can also improve PM performance:

     – Public and Executive Areas – usually inspected weekly
     – Building Exteriors – usually inspected annually
     – Garages and Back Hallways – usually inspected semi-annually
     – Occupied Areas of the Building – usually inspected quarterly

Creating and effectively using your Preventive Maintenance Plan will increase control, reduce costs, and improve service in your facilities.

When choosing a Maintenance and Repair Management System, it often difficult to find one system that meets the needs of everyone in the organization.   Although there are quite a number of Preventive Maintenance Software systems available, they each are organized differently and have their own requirements regarding maintenance.

An effective maintenance and repair system operates from the perspective of a facility manager.  Maintenance needs to be goal oriented, and Preventive Maintenance Software should support the needs of those directly performing or managing the work.

A well-designed management system will follow the classic management model: planning, organizing, staffing, directing, controlling, and evaluating.  An excellent system will include a high level of automation and notification of significant events.

Elements to look for in a Maintenance and Repair Management System:

- Work Planning and Budgeting
- Staffing, Scheduling, and Performance Tracking
- Unscheduled Work Management and Automated Notifications
- Preventive Maintenance Management, Condition Assessment, and Equipment History
- Reports that increase understanding and lead to Preventive Action

Of course, oversight control and quick access to key performance measurements are important to corporate managers, and they should seek a system that will give them the tracking capabilities they need.

However, the most important priority should be choosing a system that your staff understands so they use it properly.  Bells and whistles may look desirable, but if the bell never rings and the whistle never blows, you have just purchased expensive eye candy.

Once you plan is in place, you now have a game plan to insure performance.  Tracking performance is a critical part of your plan – without it, there is no need for a plan.

This is where tools such as Preventive Maintenance Software can really help you.  Understanding the dynamics of your facility, and having the framework to improve performance will help your team achieve their objectives.

Performance tracking is a daily event.  Whenever work is performed, there is a cost and hopefully a benefit.  Knowing the balance between cost and benefit is one of the primary roles of a CMMS.  It is easier to make improvements when you have a performance baseline rather than taking an educated guess.

Tracking performance will improve your budget control, allow you to test your assumptions better, and understand when conditions have changed that can affect your maintenance plan.

Discussion within your team is essential to help you consider many different scenarios to improve contingency plans.  This will allow you to be more responsive when issues arise, but also demonstrate the capabilities of your staff to respond to those issues in a consistent manner.  Your goal is to think through the scenarios that will protect you from failure.

Here are some common scenarios to consider:

Fiscal – Running out of funding is not fun.  Estimate your “burn rate” for normal services, but include likely scenarios where you may need additional funds.  In particular, if additional funding is needed, how will the extra funds be secured?  If there is a high probability of exceeding your budgets, you should clearly define the circumstances that need to be managed to minimize the potential budget threats.

Emergency Response – What will be done in case of a flood?  How about a power outage?  What if the sewage is not flowing?  Emergencies don’t have to be disasters if they are thought through and you have a plan to overcome them.

Personnel – Do you have coverage for key personnel if they were unavailable to work?  Understanding your human resources and what can be done to cover for key staff is an important part of your plan.  Considering today’s budget shrinkage at many facilities, even if you only have to cover for vacations and sick days, you could be too light staffed to perform adequately.

Budgeting, Work Notifications, and Scheduling are fundamental needs of your facility.  Using tools such as Facility Maintenance Software will help you control day to day activities more efficiently, which leads to better organization when dealing with the unexpected.

Assumptions:

When looking into the future, some assumptions need to be made for the sake of planning.  Accurate assumptions can be made through knowledgeable individuals and with effective use of what you already know.

It can be helpful to ask yourself the question, “What information do I need to prepare a facility plan for five years from now?” Assumptions should be limited to only the ones that are truly significant to the plan.

Constraints:

Sometimes, facility constraints that can impede the maintenance plan’s effectiveness are listed separately.  The goal is to understand the real world issues that you face, such as budgetary pressures, equipment condition, facility history, rising energy costs, etc.

Constraints should only be declared when they have the potential to significantly affect your performance objectives.

Planning and efficiency tools such as Building Maintenance Software can help understand past performance, surges in tenant demand, staffing requirements, and equipment history.