Preventative maintenance can become one of your facility’s greatest cost-saving measures when implemented correctly. However, managing such a program takes time and effort. Otherwise, it will just become another operations obligation that provides no real benefit to you or your tenants. In order to make preventative maintenance truly effective, you need to plan and organize it with your maintenance team.
Preventative maintenance checklists can help you organize your maintenance schedule and ensure that all required tasks are being performed. Checklists can also be adaptive to changing equipment needs. There are several types of PM checklists you can implement to simplify management of the program:
Types of checklists:
- Pass-or-fail checklist – This type of checklists simply asks the question, “Does this system or piece of equipment meet X performance standards?” If the answer is yes, then no maintenance is needed. If not, then a service and diagnosis should be performed to find the problem and correct it.
- Step-by-step checklist – Some pieces of equipment require regular routine maintenance. For example, HVAC units need their air filters replaced and coils cleaned no matter the age or current operating condition. Step-by-step checklists are useful in these circumstances to ensure that the recommended maintenance is performed on time.
- Safety checklist – Some systems, such as electrical systems, require certain safety protocol to be followed before performing maintenance. Checklists of this sort reduce onsite accidents. Safety checklists can also include fail tests to ensure that all safety equipment is in working order and will prevent accidents while the equipment is in operation.
The checklist organization and steps included will depend on the piece of equipment or system’s needs, as well as the experience of the contractor. An experienced technician will likely need a less-detailed checklist to simply see what maintenance tasks have already been performed, and which still need to be completed. Inexperienced or general technicians will need more detailed instructions to ensure that all maintenance is performed correctly.
Checklists can also be used in wrench-time studies. A wrench time study evaluates your maintenance team based on their efficiency performing certain tasks. While these should be sued in conjunction with other evaluations, it can be helpful to know how long a contractor takes to complete the checklist. An extended time could mean that your equipment is reaching the end of its service life, and maintenance is becoming harder to perform.
Maintenance checklists should be updated with the help of your maintenance team. As your systems age they will need different PM tasks. Your maintenance team can also help you strategically plan upgrades when certain systems have reached maximum performance capacity. Talk to your MaintenX team today about your preventative maintenance options!
