PSIwebware Blog

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.

Every aspect of a facility needs a certain level of maintenance that is determined by the management team to minimize operations costs and to maintain the desired level of performance.

Approaches to facility maintenance typically fall under the following categories:

1. Inspect and Repair Only as Necessary
2. Cyclical Repair
3. Preventive Maintenance
4. Predictive Maintenance
5. Breakdown Maintenance

A good maintenance program uses a combination of the techniques above to ensure that facility elements are maintained and repaired cost-effectively.  Depending on the goals of the facility, one of the categories should be chosen as a primary approach, with other categories providing flexibility and support to the plan.

Preventive Maintenance Software can be a big help when designing and managing your maintenance plan.  A good system will ensure that the plan is followed by effectively scheduling work, responding to requests, tracking work performance, and understanding costs.

Your maintenance plan would not be complete without tenant input.  Active roles can be taken by the tenant to save up to 10% of operation and maintenance costs in most facilities:

• Report spills and leaks quickly
• Report deficiencies
• Turn off lights when not in use
• Turn off water faucets
• Use mats to clean feet
• Report unsafe conditions

When you put all of the requirements and resources within your facility into one plan, you have a solid path to avoid many costly issues and improve the efficiency of your facility.

Inventory management serves three purposes:  To keep an accurate count of what is available, to understand consumption for better planning, and to ensure depreciable items are accounted for properly.

Although some inventory management rules are not made by the facility management team, facility managers are responsible for efficient utilization of their inventory.  To get the most from your inventory resources, technology such as bar coding used by Preventive Maintenance Software can be a good investment.

Bar coding assigns a number to a piece of property to track its physical location and also to create a history of use.  Handheld scanners can then be used to effectively manage inventory, such as supplies, tools, parts, and equipment.

 Considerations for implements a bar coding system:

1. What degree of detail is desired for inventory tracking?
2. What will be described (Condition, Quantity, etc.)?
3. How are locations defined so that everyone understands them?
4. Will inventory be differentiated (depreciated value, owned v. leased, etc.)?
5. What will be the strategy used for initial tagging?
6. How will information be updated?

Although purchasing handheld scanners to benefit from bar coding does come with an up-front expense, it is an effective way to optimize inventory management in mid to large size organizations.