It’s no secret that a successful facility maintenance plan is essential to the success of any business. This is especially true for businesses that deal with machinery or equipment at their workplace. Without a successful facility maintenance plan, you’ll be wasting time, money, and resources on repairs and replacements. So, how do you develop a successful facility maintenance plan?
An effective facility maintenance plan has several key parts that, when left behind, will affect the functionality of the plan. We are here to help you develop a successful facility maintenance plan by pointing out its integral parts.
Essential parts of a successful facility maintenance plan
Different businesses have different maintenance plans because of the varying operations that they undertake. A hospital, for instance, will have a different maintenance schedule compared to that of a school. However, there are crucial parts that are standard across all facility maintenance plans. These include:
The facility maintenance plan goal
Every maintenance plan must have a purpose! The goal of your maintenance plan must be clear and concise so that it drives the entire process. Without a goal, you’ll be aimlessly planning for facility maintenance without any specific purpose.
For example, for a school that has various electrical appliances and equipment like air conditioners, fans, and lights, the goal of your maintenance plan can be to prioritize maintenance over repairs. Such a goal will keep these appliances in good condition. This way, you can avoid any future replacements or repairs that may cost a lot of money. Other goals of a facility maintenance plan can include:
- Coming up with energy conservation programs
- To reduce the need for extensive repairs and replacements
- Maximize the productivity of each system within the building
Identifying your goal will help you plan a more efficient and effective maintenance plan.
Staff involved in the facility maintenance
Your facility maintenance plan will only be as good as the people who work on it. For this reason, you should carefully choose the staff that will be involved in your maintenance plan. The maintenance staff includes:
- Maintenance managers
- Maintenance technicians
- Facility supervisor
- Lead mechanics
When coming up with your maintenance plan, you need at least one industrial mechanic and a technician on every 5,000 square feet space. The exact number of mechanics and technicians you will list in your maintenance plan depends on the size of your facility.
Maintenance technicians should be able to carry out tasks like fault diagnostics, equipment repair, and troubleshooting. On the other hand, industrial mechanics should carry out preventive maintenance, machinery repair, and replacement.
Getting to know the staff involved in your facility maintenance will help you know the total number of employees involved in the maintenance of your facility. Such information will help your human resource department in planning the required number of staff for your facility.
Maintenance priorities
Once you have a well-defined goal and the right people involved in your facility maintenance plan, you now need to prioritize the maintenance activities. Your priorities will depend on what you want to achieve with your maintenance plan. For instance, if you want to reduce energy consumption in your building, then the priority of your facility manager should be on the energy system.
If your concern is the productivity and safety of your employees, your priority should be given to systems, assets, or pieces of equipment that affect productivity and the health and safety of your staff.
Different organizations set varying priorities in their maintenance plans. This is because each organization has its own goals, which will dictate its priorities.
Maintenance approaches
Facility maintenance plans should also include how you will perform these activities. Some of the maintenance approaches include:
- Preventive maintenance: It is the best way to reduce problems in your facility. You can avoid breakdowns and extend the life of equipment through regular inspections and maintenance services when needed.
- Corrective maintenance: This is necessary when your equipment breaks down. You need to determine which parts of your facility are not working properly. However, you can also do this after a regular maintenance inspection exercise has yielded some issues with the company’s machinery or equipment.
- Replacement of parts: It’s necessary when your equipment breaks down due to worn-out parts. You need to determine which part of your facility is not working properly. You can replace the worn-out part of your equipment with a new one so that it becomes functional again.
A maintenance schedule
A successful facility maintenance plan must include an effective schedule and timeline for all the tasks to be performed. This schedule will help your maintenance team effectively and efficiently carry out the different tasks that need to be done regularly for a successful plan.
A well-planned maintenance schedule will help your organization avoid any downtime that may result from not completing a task on time. Such downtime can affect your productivity significantly.
The main purpose of your maintenance schedule is to ensure that all the tasks are completed on time. Your schedule should include important dates and deadlines that you must meet.
Final word
A successful facility maintenance plan should help you accomplish your goals and meet the needs of your organization. A successful facility maintenance plan includes a goal, the staff involved, maintenance priorities, and maintenance approaches.
Story by Gary Kristen
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