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Your facility probably has some form of recycling program already in place. However, that program might not be the right fit for the way your facility operates.  Many facility managers and business owners erroneously think that they don’t have the resources or money to properly increase or augment their facility’s current recycling program. But that is often false! Simple steps can be taken to really rev up your facility’s current recycling program. It may even help save your business a good chunk of change in the process. Here are some tips to increase your facility’s recycling numbers:

Collect More Types of Recyclables

In addition to recycling paper, there are lots of other waste items your facility can be diverting from local landfills. Recycling goes way beyond paper, aluminum, and glass bottles. Computers, cell phones, and other e-waste are just a few examples of the vast number and type of materials that recycling facilities reclaim and repurpose. We suggest conducting a full and detailed facility waste audit to help gain more insight into all the materials in your facility that are currently being trashed and whether some of these items could be recycled instead.

Separate Organics

If your facility isn’t collecting food waste already, you’re doing it wrong! Composting programs are very simple to set up and can not only save the landfill from taking this waste, they can be used to improve the soil and vegetation outside your facility.

Good maintenance of your facility’s assets helps catch common problems before they become bigger ones, can help to extend the working life of your facility’s expensive machines and help to prevent future unexpected asset breakdowns. Watch out for these warning signs to save your organization time and money in the future.

Increased Operator Need

Most facility assets are set up to run autonomously. If you see that your operators are always fiddling with the same piece of equipment, that machine may need maintenance. Fix the issues and your downtime will be heavily reduced and future costly breakdowns can be prevented.

Asset Usage

If you have found an increase in materials being used, then you may have a problem on your hands. A properly operating piece of facility equipment won’t just give you savings by lowering the instances of asset downtime, but it will also save your facility budget on the extra costs of materials used.

Strange Sounds

Odd or loud sounds can be a strong indication of anything from a worn-out bearing to a bad gearbox. If your employees start to hear any unfamiliar or strange noises coming from your facility’s machines, this is a clear sign that it is in need of service. Heed the warning and have the machine looked at by a trained repair expert. This could save you a lot of money and headache-inducing downtime in the future.

Want to know more about your maintenance needs? Call the experts at MaintenX today!

Going paperless is a great idea for facility managers who want to go green while saving their organization money. But before you make the jump, you should take time to plan out how going paperless will affect your organization.

Set Goals

But how will you know when you’ve achieved paperlessness? It’s vital to outline some metrics before implementing your document management software.

Ask yourself how long it will take for your staff to process an invoice, and record how much time your workers save with the new document management system.

Prioritize

You simply can’t address every single part of facility and organization operations all at once. Save yourself and your employees a big, confusing mess by prioritizing. Which of your processes needs the biggest overhaul?

Improving Processes

You must examine your existing procedures before you figure out what to keep and what to discard. Some processes are monotonous, but making them electronic won’t necessarily increase effectiveness.

Make a Plan to Scan

There are many different ways to get to paperless, but document scanning is a key tool. To maximize time efficiency with document scanning, you might try first scanning only the current documents.

When scanning documents, it’s imperative to leave plenty of space to organize the files. You will also want to be very careful with removing staples and paperclips before scanning documents.

Today’s facilities create a ton of data every day. With the aid of advanced systems, maintenance staff can speedily measure and track facility health with the click of a mouse.

Having the real-time status of every piece of equipment at your fingertips is a powerful tool. Your facility’s HVAC system information is no different. But it’s important to know how to assess the information it provides you.

Diagnosing Trouble

It’s important to do a daily review all of the alerts in your facility’s BAS and carefully review the summary pages of vital building systems for danger signs. Depending on the sensitivity of the relevant sensors, there are many conditions that may present as poor HVAC performance without triggering an alert.

Establishing a detailed diagnostic plan can take a long time, but it is vital to solving problems rapidly. The longer you have been working with a facility’s particular systems, the better and easier this task will be.

Logging Problems

One simple tool that can help facility managers and staff with the HVAC problems they have is a diagnostic history log.

Using diagnostic tools gives you a central place for all common HVAC problems, which should include detailed notes about specific work performed. This allows new operations employees the ability to instantly get up-to-speed by simply looking over the historical record of work performed on any of your facility’s HVAC components.

Want to know more about diagnosing Energy waste? Call MaintenX today!

For facility managers who want to lower costs, energy information systems (EIS) might be the answer. EIS is an old concept. It began with spreadsheets developed after the energy crisis in the 1970s. In the end, those initial efforts at collating energy information became computerized. The technology continued developing into the energy information systems of the present.  

EIS goes by many names. Facility managers are usually acquainted with utility tracking systems and energy accounting systems; all of these are types of energy information systems.

What is Energy Information Systems?

Energy Information Systems (EIS) is the collective term for the software, data acquisition hardware, and communication systems used to store, log, and display a facility’s energy records.

Metering data is very important to EIS. An energy information system gives facility managers and business owners daily, hourly or sub-hourly meter data, complete with graphical and analytical stats. The data is chiefly attained from a facility’s electricity and gas meters, but it can also use system-level data.

Benefits of Energy Information Systems

Energy Information Systems offers facility managers many benefits. Perhaps the most significant one is the ability to record how and where energy and resources are being used.

The benefits most frequently reported about Energy Information Systems:

• Recognizing efficiency opportunities
• Tracking performance
• Managing demand charges
• Authenticating utility bills
• Measuring project-specific savings
• Collecting and storing short and long-term data to create and track energy goals

An Energy Information System can help facility managers save their organization money and energy by simplifying facility processes.

Once winter is gone, it’s time for you to go out and look for signs of seasonal damage. As the weather starts to warm up, it’s vital check for damage and to make a plan to get your yard ready for springtime.

Trees and Shrubs

Trees and shrubs bear the brunt of snowfall damage. Look around your property for any branches that are broken or damaged. Prune these damaged parts or have them removed by a professional service.

Care for the Lawn

To reinvigorate soil, give your lawn a deep daily watering. Check for brown patches in your lawn. Winter snowfall can kill grass. Check to see if there is any green tissue beginning to emerge. If you find green tissue, that’s a sign that the brown area will probably recuperate. If not, and other areas of the lawn are doing much better, it’s time to make a lawn repair action plan. To repair the damaged area, rake up as much of the dead grass as you can. Adding a light layer of topsoil will help increase the chances of success when your new seedlings begin to grow.

Investing time in a full inspection of potential weather harm created by the unforgiving conditions of winter can locate small trouble areas and give you some remedies to stave off bigger problems later. Your lawn care and landscape professional can also help you make sure the trouble areas are fixed before you are ready for summer fun.

Spring is finally here! The flowers are blooming, the birds are chirping, and the weather is slowly but surely getting warmer. It’s time for spring cleaning. Spring cleaning isn’t just for houses, though; it’s for business owners and facility staff too.

For commercial facilities, spring cleaning is done in places in your facility which don’t require regular cleaning but do occasionally need special attention.

The tips below will help freshen up your facility:

Dusting

Get out the ladders and dust areas like warehouse beams, light fixtures, ceiling corners and air vents. Cleaning these neglected areas can help lower allergen counts that can cause illness.

Windows

Windows have a huge effect on your facility’s appearance. Give them all a streak-free shine.

Floors

Regular floor maintenance takes care of visible flooring, but spring cleaning is the time to move away furniture to remove built-up dirt and dust from the entire floor surface. Cleaning these areas will give your whole facility a fresh, clean smell and a good-as-new appearance.

Pressure Washer

Sidewalks, parking lots, and other outdoor spaces can look pretty rough after a long, harsh winter. A buildup of dirt, sand and debris also can take away your facility’s shiny professional image. Pressure washing your sidewalks, walkways and walls will give your whole facility a new and upgraded appearance. First impressions are an important thing for a business. Ensure the outside of your facility is as spotless as the inside.

It’s important to keep your car battery working at peak performance. Below we’ll give you some tips to keep you from being stranded on the side of the road with a dead battery.

Battery Check

You can avoid a pricey service or tow charge by carrying out a simple 10-minute battery check.

You’ll need the following:

• A set of wrenches
• A post cleaner or side terminal
• A hydrometer
• A cable puller
• Clean, distilled water (if necessary)
• A clean shop rag

All of these are readily available at any auto parts store. You can also skip this battery service check if your mechanic performs it during your cars regular servicing.

Step 1: Clean the Cables

Clean any built-up corrosion from the top of the battery. After this, then clean any corrosion around the battery cables. Then disconnect the cables, starting with the negative one.

Next, loosen the battery cable clamp bolts and gently twist them.

WARNING: Never pry on battery posts.

With the cables detached, now clean off any remaining corrosion on the auto battery terminals and cables.

Step 2: Check Electrolyte Levels

If the battery requires water, use only clean, distilled water and be careful not to overfill the cells.

Gently pry off the covers of the battery cells. The water/acid mixture in the battery should be about 1/2 inch deep. If you find any cracks, you’ll need to replace the battery. If adding water, let the water mix with the electrolyte for a few hours.

Higher performing HVAC systems should be given special attention, they can have a huge effect on your facility and your bottom line.

More and more facility managers are looking for an environment that is cheap to operate, is more productive, and is more impervious to weather and IT security threats. HVAC systems have a big effect on the operating costs of a facility, its productivity, and its ability to keep operating during disastrous events.

Costs

Cost is a chief concern. Facility managers and business owners work hard to stay within budget. Professional engineering lowers costs and increases the life of facility assets.

With a higher efficiency HVAC system, you can make the size of the unit smaller. A smaller, more efficient unit naturally costs less than a larger one.

A filtration enhancement system reduces the amount of needed air. The size of the pumps can also be reduced, adding to the financial gain from reduced HVAC operating costs. A well-designed filtration system can give your facility better performance than older and bulkier systems. Spending more on high-performance equipment, high-performance filtration updates, and a well-designed HVAC layout can be a very cost-effective strategy for your facility.

Want to know more about high-performance HVAC systems? Call the experts at MaintenX today!

If you’re starting your CMMS conversion, these steps will help you to identify what it is that you need your CMMS software to do for you. Below are the things you’ll need to consider when choosing a CMMS program.

Goals

The first step when considering CMMS software for your facility is to spell out what you need it to do for your organization:

• Do you need preventive maintenance?
• Do you need it to keep up with your work orders?
• Is parts inventory management important to your organization?
• Do you need fleet management?
• What information do you need it to track?
• Do you have existing IT infrastructure for CMMS?

CMMS Team

Now that you know what is most important to you in a CMMS, get help from those in your team who are familiar with your facility’s existing maintenance processes. This will give you a better idea of your overall CMMS needs.

Consider Preventive Maintenance Needs

Ensure that your CMMS supports Preventive Maintenance. Can it handle inspections? Does it take measurements and then automatically generate corrective maintenance work orders?

Purchase Order Needs

The perfect CMMS solution for your facility should also be able to create purchase orders. Consider your purchase order processes and what you’ll need out of them.

Test the Software

When you have two or three CMMS systems you’re considering, ask for a demonstration from each of them. That way, you can test each one so you can find out which of them is a good fit for your organization.