Does Your Commercial or Industrial Facility Maintenance Plan Include Reliable Documentation?

It’s a worst night­mare sce­nario for build­ing oper­a­tions man­agers: a leaky roof dam­ages an oth­er­wise spot­less paint job, caus­ing you to halt work and call for repairs to the roof, the ceil­ing, and dam­aged equip­ment. Come to find out, it was called in to main­te­nance weeks ago and the whole thing could have been pre­vent­ed. This is just one of many prob­lems you could face if your oth­er­wise com­pre­hen­sive facil­i­ty main­te­nance plan has poor doc­u­men­ta­tion systems.

What to Know About Main­te­nance Documentation

What Might Cause Poor Main­te­nance Documentation?

There are a num­ber of things that could be prob­lem­at­ic when it comes to your main­te­nance doc­u­men­ta­tion sys­tem, from the mun­dane to the tech­ni­cal (or lack there­of). In tak­ing time to eval­u­ate how you do things on your busi­ness or indus­tri­al site, you may discover:

• Employ­ees and oth­er team mem­bers don’t notice or report issues right away: No one would inten­tion­al­ly neglect an obvi­ous main­te­nance issue. But some­times issues are lurk­ing below the sur­face, or are not as notice­able to peo­ple who aren’t trained in their detec­tion. It’s also pos­si­ble that employ­ees will notice some­thing amiss, but for­get to report it amidst their reg­u­lar dai­ly responsibilities.
• Your doc­u­men­ta­tion sys­tem is out­dat­ed: If your main­te­nance doc­u­men­ta­tion sys­tem isn’t boost­ed by ade­quate tech­nol­o­gy (or any tech­nol­o­gy at all) an inor­di­nate amount of time may be wast­ed mak­ing requests and track­ing their completion.
• Your team falls into a ​“set it and for­get it” mind­set: After com­plet­ing a paint­ing main­te­nance project or equip­ment repair, it’s nat­ur­al to think that the job is done and the prob­lem solved – and then go about your busi­ness. This is true espe­cial­ly when you have a lot of sup­port tick­ets to get through. But the truth is, facil­i­ty main­te­nance needs ongo­ing atten­tion in order to pre­vent more com­plex prob­lems, health and safe­ty haz­ards, and equip­ment dam­age over time.
• Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is over­com­pli­cat­ed: This is the oppo­site prob­lem to under-report­ing issues. You may have mul­ti­ple con­trac­tors (or a large num­ber of employ­ees) mov­ing in and out of your busi­ness or indus­tri­al site through­out the day, Maybe some have access to your in-house main­te­nance sys­tem and some don’t. Maybe you have dif­fer­ent point peo­ple for indus­tri­al floor­ing upkeep than you do for on-site clean­ing jobs. What­ev­er the case, find­ing where the com­mu­ni­ca­tion breaks down in your main­te­nance doc­u­men­ta­tion process is essen­tial to solv­ing the prob­lem permanently.

Rec­om­men­da­tions for Improved Facil­i­ty Main­te­nance Documentation

If you’re look­ing for ways to lev­el up your facil­i­ty main­te­nance doc­u­men­ta­tion, here’s what we suggest:

• Con­sid­er tech­nol­o­gy as a way to stream­line the process: What you choose depends on your indus­try, your bud­get, and your exist­ing com­pa­ny struc­ture. But there are ways to inte­grate your main­te­nance doc­u­men­ta­tion into your busi­ness IT. You could also use a dig­i­tal request man­age­ment tool.
• Encour­age employ­ees and team mem­bers to check for issues in their work area: Doing week­ly checks (and sub­mit­ting tick­ets for any main­te­nance requests after the checks are done) may be a good way to keep main­te­nance con­cerns front-of-mind.
• Sched­ule reg­u­lar walk­throughs: Sched­ul­ing peri­od­ic walk­throughs where every­thing on your plan is checked is a great way to stay ahead of the curve. Make sure that these checks are sched­uled at inter­vals that are appro­pri­ate for your indus­try and your man­u­fac­tur­ing process.
• Be selec­tive with your con­trac­tors: When it’s time to work with a con­trac­tor, choose some­one who can meet as many of your facil­i­ty main­te­nance needs as pos­si­ble. Keep­ing the num­ber of ​“cooks in the kitchen” to the min­i­mum nec­es­sary to get the job done right also decreas­es the pos­si­bil­i­ty of poor com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Who­ev­er you decide to work with, be sure to share your com­plete facil­i­ty main­te­nance plan with them so they can help you stay on track with reg­u­lar clean­ings, walk­throughs, and equip­ment checks.

Work­ing with Kaloutas means stream­lin­ing your facil­i­ty main­te­nance and com­mu­ni­cat­ing clear­ly with your con­trac­tors. We can help you update your facil­i­ty main­te­nance to reflect your new doc­u­men­ta­tion strategies.

At Kaloutas, we’ll keep your busi­ness or man­u­fac­tur­ing safe and indus­try-com­pli­ant by mak­ing sure you nev­er miss a clean­ing or walk­through. And we can do it all with a no-work-stop­page guar­an­tee so that your pro­duc­tiv­i­ty nev­er takes a hit. Ready to get things done? Request your main­te­nance eval­u­a­tion today.

Kaloutas is New Eng­land’s pre­mier con­trac­tor for com­mer­cial & indus­tri­al paint­ing, floor­ing, and relat­ed ser­vices. Estab­lished in 1987, Kaloutas has become a trust­ed resource for gen­er­al con­trac­tors, facil­i­ties man­agers, and build­ing own­ers from Con­necti­cut to Maine. Our team prides itself on high qual­i­ty work­man­ship, jobs done on time & bud­get, and tack­ling com­plex projects that oth­er con­trac­tors don’t have the expe­ri­ence or resources to han­dle. Con­tact us today for a paint­ing or floor­ing esti­mate, or give us a call at 978−532−1414 to learn more.