Effective maintenance scheduling
Despite the diversity of the subject, maintenance scheduling has just two objectives which involve the consultant:
- Staff comfort
- Elimination of risk through failed plant
The most effective ongoing situations are those which have been the subject of the finest preparation. This is certainly so with maintenance scheduling, for if the client's needs have been correctly interpreted, the plant has been professionally assessed, and the contractor carefully chosen, the ongoing maintenance of any building should be highly effective.
With premises being equipped with ever increasing degrees of technology, it is understandable that owners or users are unlikely to be able to execute - unaided - a true optimisation of the life cycle costs of their building. It is therefore essential that a consultant such as us is brought on board at the earliest stage of a building's development, to provide:
- A good base of operational staff who have maintained buildings in the past.
- Expertise to establish the sensitivities of the client and understand the true impact of life cycle optimisation of costs.
- An ability to produce specifications which clearly identify every single item requiring maintenance.
We will then assist and guide a client at an level of input, throughout the life of the building if necessary. Having established clients' budgets and assessed the priorities from a maintenance point of view, we will prepare the maintenance, which should be three-fold:
- Creation of an asset register
- Identification of tasks for the preparation of the tender
- Itemisation of contractor's duties and responsibilities
Before any maintenance contract can be put out to tender it is necessary for the full extent of the plant which is to be maintained to be known. We must therefore carry out an asset register, and it is surprising how many building owners do not know what they own!
Once this critical information is known in its entirety the tender documents are prepared, in which the key to the long-term objective of optimisation, is the identification of the tasks to be executed and their frequency. Then it is usual for us to have a substantial input into the appointment of the contractor to ensure a value-for-money agreement is reached.
From this point onwards the success of the project will depend on the contract conditions drawn up to protect the client in his commercial dealings with the contractor. This should embrace the contractor's entire duties and responsibilities, including behaviour on site, position within the maintenance team, and even termination of contract for whatever reason. In some instances we recommend that a performance-related clause is written into the contract whereby all items of plant are prioritised. In the event of a fault, repair or replacement must be carried out within the time specified under the priority scheme. Failure to do so will incur financial penalties - a condition which puts the onus onto the contractor to stock the appropriate replacement components.
Once the contract is up and running, we make regular visits to the buildings in which we are involved, we chair the monthly contractors meetings and carry out technical and financial audits of the contractor.
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