Category: Facilities Management

Why You Should Audit Your Facilities

Most business owners (and even facility managers) don’t know as much as they should about the health of their biggest single asset: their facilities and equipment. In fact, it’s often the case that successful companies have faulty buildings holding them back from even more success.

With a thorough facility audit, however, business owners and facility management staff can organize more precise budgets, better direct fundraising efforts, and plan more accurately for the long-term.

What’s involved in a Facility Audit?

A comprehensive facility audit includes all relevant systems in a facility—from HVAC and electrical to water, septic, and safety systems. It can also address things like:

  • Needed technology updates
  • Energy conservation strategies
  • Accessibility management

Most audits also involve a review of regulatory compliance.

Parts of a Facility Audit

  • Scheduling and forecasting future asset replacement needs
  • An inventory of building assets
  • Suggested approaches for future and ongoing corrective measures
  • Energy conservation plans
  • National, state, and local regulatory compliance overviews

Time and Money Well-Spent

While all this auditing can seem overwhelming, it can be a lifesaver for your business. A provider simply needs to set up a structure for organizing and formalizing some processes and procedures.

The best defense is a good offense. Owners and facility managers who handle an audit in a proactive way will safeguard themselves and assure a seamless work environment while protecting their costly investments for years to come.

Want to know more about facility audits? Call a MaintenX representative today!

Commercial Property Maintenance: Key Areas to Focus on

Facilities of almost every type share one thing: they require routine maintenance. Below are some helpful tips on how to implement that.

Start with the Outside

If you can’t get your employees and customers in, you won’t bring profits in either. Repair or replace anything damaged immediately. Also be prepared to touch up the paint and landscaping as needed – your building should look nice even if it never sees a consumer.

Then Go Inside

Here as with your outdoor check-up, look for damage: anything that’s broken or that needs a touchup. Fix it! This includes things like:

  • Paint
  • Flooring
  • Furnishings
  • Light fixtures
  • Plumbing
  • Light switches and wiring

Don’t Forget the Utilities

HVAC units and water heaters should be regularly checked and maintained to ensure your facilities, employees, and customers are in a healthy and productive environment. Your facility should be relatively warm in the winter, cool in the summer, and your bathrooms should work properly and be cleaned on a strict schedule.

By properly maintaining your facility, you can ensure its physical and structural integrity while increasing productivity and alleviating costs. If any of this seems like too much to handle, or your space is in desperate need of maintenance, give MaintenX a call today.

Our team of professional dispatchers, operations personnel, and technicians will work untiringly to make sure your facility has a competitive edge.

Whether you need scheduled preventive maintenance or emergency services due to unforeseen circumstances, our expert technicians and friendly customer service representatives are here to help.

Why You Need a Preventative Maintenance Schedule

If you depend exclusively on reactive maintenance, your company is wasting a lot of money.

The good news is that developing a preventive maintenance program isn’t very difficult. Follow these tips to preventative maintenance success:

Suitable Applications for Preventative Maintenance

Assets suitable for preventive maintenance include those that:

  • Have a critical operational function
  • Run constantly
  • Operate out of sight or away from where most employees work

Draw a Map!

An architectural drawing is a rendering, plan, and/or elevated view of a building or structure. Using these drawings make it possible to view your structures and equipment visually rather than in a spreadsheet. Knowing the locations of critical equipment can help you plan preventive maintenance more efficiently.

Gather Up Maintenance Manuals and Serial Numbers

A vital part of maintenance schedules is becoming familiar with your equipment using the manuals which detail their recommended maintenance schedules and troubleshooting information. Serial numbers ensure that you order the correct parts when replacements are required.

Equipment Repair Logs

Getting information about your asset use and repair histories can be helpful. This added information is a great way to fine-tune your preventive maintenance schedule. Reviewing your repair history can also give you valuable information about the effectiveness of your assets.

By using and modifying their preventive maintenance schedule as needed, businesses can increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness.

Want to know more about preventative maintenance? Call the experts at MaintenX!

Tips for Preparing for Hurricanes

Hurricanes can be life-threatening, causing serious hazards like floods, storm surges, high winds and even tornadoes. Read on to learn what to do to keep safe.

Prepare NOW

To ensure you are hurricane-ready:

  • Know your area’s risk of hurricanes.
  • Sign up for your community’s weather warning system. The Emergency Alert System (EAS) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Weather Radio also provide emergency alerts.
  • If you are at risk for floods, watch for warning signs such as heavy rain.
  • Based on your location and community plans, make your own plans for evacuation or sheltering in place.
  • Become familiar with your evacuation zone, evacuation route, and local shelter locations.
  • Gather needed supplies for at least three days. Keep in mind each person’s specific needs, including medication. Don’t forget the needs of pets.

Supplies Kit

Assemble a disaster supplies kit and think about possible storage locations for different circumstances.

Hurricane Supplies Kit

A basic emergency supply kit should include the following items:

  • Water: one gallon of water per person per day for at least three days, for drinking and sanitation
  • Food:  at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food
  • Battery-powered or hand crank radio and a NOAA Weather Radio with tone alert
  • Flashlight
  • First aid kit
  • Wrench or pliers to turn off utilities
  • Manual can opener for food
  • Local maps
  • Cell phone with chargers and a backup battery

Want to know more about hurricane preparedness? Contact MaintenX.

Areas that Should be Preparing for Hurricanes

Depending on where you live, your likelihood of being affected by hurricanes could be zero, but for those living in the southeast or on the east or gulf coasts, these awful storms are a stark reality.

What Areas are Affected?

A lot of people assume hurricanes only affect places like the Gulf of Mexico, but hurricanes can go as far north as Maine. In recent years, Americans in the Mid-Atlantic and New England have seen firsthand the devastation that hurricanes like Sandy cause. Katrina caused terrible damage, not only in Louisiana, but in Alabama, Mississippi and Florida. Michael ravaged the Florida panhandle, but caused damage as far inland as Georgia.

Vulnerable U.S. states include:

Virginia

Virginia is quite a bit farther north than most states vulnerable to hurricanes. In fact, from 1851 until 2004, twelve hurricanes struck Virginia. One of those hurricanes was a Category 3—the most powerful and most damaging.

New York

Another northern state not normally known for its hurricane vulnerability, New York has been through a total of twelve hurricanes. Five of those were classified a Category 3. When New York City is struck with a hurricane, the damage can be staggering.

When Do They Occur?

The hurricane season is from June 1st and lasts until November 30th. August through September tends to have the most hurricanes. If you’re traveling or moving to a new locale, it’s a good idea to know where hurricanes are most likely to hit and prepare accordingly. To learn more about hurricane preparedness, contact MaintenX.

How to Tell if Your Facility is Vulnerable to Hurricanes

A large part of the United States is in the potential path of hurricanes. That is why facility managers throughout the country should be informed about the potential risks and prepare themselves.

One of the best things you can do is prepare in advance for hurricane risks and to act on those plans when alerted by emergency officials.

What are Hurricanes?

Hurricanes are huge storm systems that form over ocean waters and then move toward land. Possible dangers from hurricanes include:

  • Powerful winds
  • Heavy rainfall
  • Storm surges
  • Coastal and inland flooding
  • Rip currents
  • Tornadoes
  • Landslides

Make an Evacuation Plan

The chief reason people have to evacuate during hurricanes is storm surge, a rise in water generated by a storm’s winds that can reach heights well over 20 feet and span hundreds of miles, according to the National Hurricane Center.

To protect your structures and staff, you should find out if you live in a hurricane evacuation area. Local governments provide the public with information about evacuation areas and evacuation plans. Review this information in advance.

Assess Your Readiness

To properly assess your hurricane readiness, ask yourself these questions:

Can your organization operate without any of the following: computers, copier, fax machine, files, inventory, or special equipment?

Can your organization operate without any of the following: gas, power, water, internet, or telecommunications?

To learn more about your facility’s potential hurricane risk, contact MaintenX.

Pros and Cons of Permanent Maintenance Staff

What is the difference between hiring temporary and permanent maintenance staff? We will discuss the pros and cons of each.

Temporary Maintenance Staff Pros:

  • Your company can test out their potential to perform various responsibilities before making a long-term commitment. 
  • It’s generally more cost-effective to hire a temporary facility management company, taking into consideration employee costs like a 401K, health insurance, and Paid Time Off.

Temporary Maintenance Staff Cons:

  • Training is required for any temporary employee. This can be time-consuming and expensive.
  • There will be a set end date for the employment period which may fall during a busy time when extra work is necessary.
  • Staff may be less dedicated and familiar with your plant, and performance may suffer.

Permanent Maintenance Staff Pros:

  • Permanent, full-time maintenance staff offers more financial security and job stability. This can reduce stress for workers and possibly make their performance better.
  • Your permanent staff can develop long-term friendships with colleagues in a team-oriented environment, which can contribute to the overall success of your company.
  • Extended engagements mean the team will be intimately familiar with the systems they maintain.

Permanent Maintenance Staff Cons:

  • Permanent maintenance staff requires additional costs in the form of benefits, training, resources, and space, among others.
  • If the job does not provide enough work to keep permanent employees busy, it may lead to reduced paid hours for the workers.

In the end, it all boils down to your company’s specific needs, and budget.

Have questions about maintenance staffing? MaintenX is here to help!

What is OEE?

Overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) is a mathematical system developed to accurately measure the performance of a company’s manufacturing operations, processes, and overall productivity. This metric is expressed as a percentage; OEE shows how efficient a production facility is. It can be compared to a company’s past OEEs to gauge improvements or losses, and to predict future productivity.

What are Overall Equipment Effectiveness Metrics used for?

OEE is a decent gauge of a machine’s or a system’s productivity level. It can also glean insights into the behaviors and effectiveness levels of the workers who maintain and operate the system.

For example, a lousy maintenance technician might fix problems, but they won’t prevent them from occurring again in the future. A good maintenance technician will complete regular inspections to find and fix problems before they occur. OEE also offers a method of gauging the success of facilities, staff, systems, and processes.

Calculating Overall Equipment Effectiveness

The calculation of overall equipment effectiveness uses three metrics:

  • Availability = Production Time / Loading Time
  • Performance = Actual Output / Production Time
  • Quality = Good Output / Actual Output

All three of these metrics are expressed as percentages.

Using these three metrics gives business owners and facility managers a real-world view of their facilities’, employees’, and machinery’s current and former productivity and overall cost-to-benefit ratio.

If you’d like to know more about calculating overall equipment effectiveness and how it can help track your manufacturing procedures, speak to a MaintenX representative today.

How to Find Quality Maintenance Professionals

Hiring a maintenance professional can be difficult, expensive work. That’s why you need to know precisely what you need from a candidate for the job. Here are some things to prioritize when you’re looking for your perfect maintenance professional:

Certified and Licensed

You’re hiring someone who will be repairing complex, expensive systems, so first of all, you’ll want to ensure that every prospective candidate has the proper certifications and licenses to carry out such work. Without a license or a permit, there is no guarantee of quality, and the company is opened to different kinds of legal liability. Don’t get too excited at the lower wages unlicensed maintenance workers ask for. If they make a mistake, it might turn into a much more expensive problem than you’d anticipated.

People Skills

People with good interpersonal skills know how to deal with complicated, stressful issues with grace. They can keep their cool during problems and are well-respected by their colleagues and management. Ensure that your candidate possesses these characteristics by checking their references and speaking to former clients or managers.

Attention to Detail

From your property to the people who work in it, the perfect maintenance professional will be able to provide you with the skillful and attentive service you and your employees require. Sloppy maintenance work can be dangerous.

If you are looking for a licensed, personable, and detail-oriented maintenance professional, look no further than MaintenX. Call a MaintenX service representative today and learn more about the many facility maintenance services we offer!

Types of Building Sensors that can Improve Your Facilities

It’s an exciting, innovative time in the world of smart technology and the Internet of Things. Commercial buildings and homes alike are experiencing a technological revolution in how they operate and are becoming smarter and smarter by the minute.

But what makes a building “smart”? Put simply, automated systems in homes and companies:

  • reduce operational expenses
  • save energy
  • enhance space allocation
  • increase safety and security
  • improve comfort

You can think of sensors as the ‘sense organs’ of the building which allow it to take in information about the things happening within and outside it. Just like a living thing, a  building’s sensors give it the data it needs to react appropriately.

Here are some examples of the sensors now available:

  • Accelerometers
  • Air Quality
  • Atmospheric Pressure
  • Biometric
  • Electrical
  • Fluid Flow
  • Humidity
  • Imaging
  • Light
  • Magnetometers
  • Motion Detectors
  • Occupancy Detection
  • Air Pressure
  • Radiation
  • Sound
  • Temperature
  • Vibration

Energy Efficiency

By counting the number of occupants in a given space, HVAC systems can be optimized to save energy and money. Integrating sensors into lighting fixtures allows property managers a new understanding of energy management by allowing them to track lighting usage and observe trends and problem areas in energy consumption.

A smart, well-connected sensor array can automatically monitor any conditions you require and substantially boost performance in the residential, public or commercial facilities, including:

  • Hotels
  • Office buildings
  • Airports
  • Train stations
  • Libraries
  • Sport stadiums
  • Schools
  • Government buildings

Sensor-based smart facilities make life easier for facility managers while helping a business’s bottom line.

Want to know more about smart buildings? Call MaintenX today!