Maintaining schools is vital both in terms of ensuring that all
students and teachers have a comfortable environment conducive to
learning as well as in financial terms. School facilities maintenance
strategies play an important role in the school's overall effectiveness,
safety, and financial well-being. With much at stake, school facilities
maintenance should never be left to chance. But where should you begin?
Facilities Maintenance Strategy Development
If your school lacks a maintenance strategy, start by developing one. Preventative maintenance can extend the useful life of buildings, heating and air conditioning systems, electrical systems, playground equipment, and more, making it important to adopt a proactive approach to facilities maintenance. Not only should your team be equipped and empowered to respond promptly to issues, they should also be empowered to do so proactively.
As you develop your strategy, you may find yourself, or others on your team, questioning the need for prioritising preventative building maintenance. Keep these key points in mind and stress them as often as necessary:
Identify and include stakeholders in the process.
In addition to developing a facilities maintenance strategy that stresses preventative maintenance and supports the school's goal of providing a safe, comfortable environment for students and staff, it's smart to invest in a building maintenance program me. Software is commonly used to automate essential tasks in virtually every other field. Today, specialized software does the same for facilities maintenance. Using a building maintenance programme, you can schedule work, assign work, track assets, manage inventory, document service, and much more.
Using your maintenance strategy as a framework, you can configure your building maintenance programme to support your efforts. For example, if you've identified best practices for maintaining your school's HVAC system, configure your software to support those best practices. This may mean setting up an automatic schedule of preventative maintenance or requiring technicians to follow a specific checklist when performing an inspection or repair. You can do something similar for each asset under your care.
In addition to automating preventative maintenance, your building maintenance programme can also help you to quantify the value that your maintenance strategy brings to the school. For example, when it's time to purchase new equipment, you could run reliability reports and calculate the total cost of ownership for equipment the school has owned in the past to help make a smarter buying decision.
If you're responsible for a school's facilities maintenance, you play an important role in the school's long-term success. Create a proactive maintenance plan and use a building maintenance programme to make that plan a reality.
Facilities Maintenance Strategy Development
If your school lacks a maintenance strategy, start by developing one. Preventative maintenance can extend the useful life of buildings, heating and air conditioning systems, electrical systems, playground equipment, and more, making it important to adopt a proactive approach to facilities maintenance. Not only should your team be equipped and empowered to respond promptly to issues, they should also be empowered to do so proactively.
As you develop your strategy, you may find yourself, or others on your team, questioning the need for prioritising preventative building maintenance. Keep these key points in mind and stress them as often as necessary:
- Facilities maintenance saves money.
- Well maintained equipment and buildings last longer; thus, replacement costs decrease over time.
- Increased system efficiency reduces energy costs.
- Fewer large-scale repairs are required which means lower renovation costs over time.
- A proactive response means fewer unexpected problems.
- A proactive facilities maintenance program supports the school's goals of providing a clean, comfortable, and safe environment.
Identify and include stakeholders in the process.
- Conduct a school facilities audit so that you know exactly what you have under your care.
- Identify needs.
- Set priorities and milestones.
- Create a budget
- Train your staff.
- Implement your plan.
- Document your work.
- Review and revise your plan annually.
In addition to developing a facilities maintenance strategy that stresses preventative maintenance and supports the school's goal of providing a safe, comfortable environment for students and staff, it's smart to invest in a building maintenance program me. Software is commonly used to automate essential tasks in virtually every other field. Today, specialized software does the same for facilities maintenance. Using a building maintenance programme, you can schedule work, assign work, track assets, manage inventory, document service, and much more.
Using your maintenance strategy as a framework, you can configure your building maintenance programme to support your efforts. For example, if you've identified best practices for maintaining your school's HVAC system, configure your software to support those best practices. This may mean setting up an automatic schedule of preventative maintenance or requiring technicians to follow a specific checklist when performing an inspection or repair. You can do something similar for each asset under your care.
In addition to automating preventative maintenance, your building maintenance programme can also help you to quantify the value that your maintenance strategy brings to the school. For example, when it's time to purchase new equipment, you could run reliability reports and calculate the total cost of ownership for equipment the school has owned in the past to help make a smarter buying decision.
If you're responsible for a school's facilities maintenance, you play an important role in the school's long-term success. Create a proactive maintenance plan and use a building maintenance programme to make that plan a reality.
Martin Beckett
is an experienced freelance business writer and maintenance manager
based in London. He has worked with many facilities maintenance
companies but found the building maintenance software by eMaint EU was much more practical for his company. For more questions, feel free to connect with him over at Google+.
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