Building Maintenance Management: Strategies and Techniques

Are you looking for ways to improve your business's equipment performance, reduce downtime, and lower maintenance costs? Achieving all those goals means working with the right building maintenance strategy.

Building maintenance strategies refer to different approaches that businesses can take to maintain their equipment and prevent equipment failure. There are many different management strategies available, but all can benefit from a robust CMMS system that tracks all aspects of the maintenance process.

Each strategy has its pros and cons, and the right one will depend on your organisation's specific needs and goals. For example, if your equipment failure poses significant risks to personnel, the environment, or production, preventive maintenance might be the right choice.

On the other hand, if you're trying to reduce maintenance costs and a brief period of equipment downtime won't break the bank, reactive maintenance could be a good solution for reducing monthly expenses.

In this article, we'll take a closer look at two popular maintenance strategies, including the pros and cons of each, and situations where they will be most appropriate. By the end of this guide, you'll have a better understanding of each strategy and be able to choose the right one for your business.

5 Steps To Creating a Building Maintenance Plan

However you decide to approach your maintenance strategy, it will all start with a plan. These 5 steps will help you get started.

1. Conduct an Audit

Conduct a comprehensive audit of the building and its systems, including HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems. This helps to identify the different areas, so you don't leave out anything that is critical to productivity.

There are always other employees and third parties involved with the safety and maintenance of facilities, so the audit should also identify items or assets where a 3rd party might have some responsibility. This will ensure you're not duplicating efforts or overlooking crucial maintenance tasks.

2. Develop a Maintenance Plan

Maintenance plans include detailed maintenance schedules including what needs to be done when it needs to be done, who needs to do it, and who is in charge.

3. Use the Right Technology

Incorporating the right technology, like CMMS (Computerised Maintenance Management System) or FMS (Facilities Management Software), into your maintenance strategy is an excellent way to streamline all your maintenance processes and keep employees and contractors in sync. FMS is a commonly used acronym that stands for Facilities Management Software, which is simply another, shorter, way to refer to a CMMS.

4. Staff Training

No matter how good your maintenance plan is, it can all fall over if the staff aren't adequately trained. Keep your team updated with maintenance procedures, health and safety protocols, and emergency response plans.

5. Evaluate and Adjust

Markets change, businesses grow, and equipment gets updated or replaced with alarming regularity. Don't let your maintenance strategy get stuck in the stone age. Use feedback from your team and continuously analyse your data so you don't end up fixing stuff that isn't broken. An up-to-date maintenance strategy is the most effective way to keep your building running smoothly.

Reactive Maintenance

Reactive maintenance, also known as breakdown maintenance, is a type of maintenance strategy where equipment is only repaired or serviced after it has failed.

One of the most significant advantages of reactive maintenance is its cost-effectiveness. You only pay for maintenance when it's needed, and there's no need to allocate resources for preventive or predictive maintenance. Additionally, you don't have to spend as much time planning maintenance schedules or conducting regular inspections, which can free up valuable resources.

Reactive Maintenance Disadvantages

Reactive maintenance can have several disadvantages. One of the most significant drawbacks is the extended equipment downtime that can occur when a piece of equipment fails unexpectedly. Downtime on a piece of critical machinery could mean a significant drop in profits for the month.

There is another disadvantage to reactive maintenance. Equipment that is only repaired after it has already failed often experiences more frequent breakdowns leading to more extensive repairs and even greater losses in productivity.

Lastly, reactive maintenance can be more expensive in the long run. The cost of repairing equipment after it has failed can be much higher than the cost of regular maintenance activities.

Operating to failure may also put equipment under strain beyond normal operational parameters. As such, reactive maintenance could result in equipment that has a shorter lifespan than equipment that is regularly maintained.

Overall, reactive maintenance is appropriate when equipment failure doesn't pose significant risks to personnel, the environment, or production, and cost-effectiveness is a primary concern. However, businesses that rely on critical equipment or are looking to maximise equipment performance should consider other maintenance strategies.

How a CMMS System Can Help with Reactive Maintenance

It may not be immediately clear how a CMMS or FMS system can help a maintenance strategy that waits for equipment failure. However, real-time notifications, work order tracking, asset maintenance, tracking service providers, and scheduling maintenance tasks are all critical tools for giving your maintenance team the edge in keeping machinery running, and faster repair times when it breaks.

Organisations are complex, dynamic entities, so one plan to cover everything is not enough. A maintenance strategy needs to be flexible enough to support separate plans for different assets and individuals within an organisation. A good FMS can easily accommodate this additional level of complexity, whether it’s reactive, programmed, or preventative maintenance.

Preventive Maintenance

Preventive maintenance is a proactive maintenance strategy that schedules maintenance activities to prevent equipment failure. It's best used when equipment failure poses a significant risk to personnel, the environment, or production.

A primary benefit of preventive maintenance is increased equipment reliability. Regular maintenance activities can help identify and address potential issues before they become significant problems.

The maintenance team can also benefit from lower repair costs, as they stay on top of minor issues before they grow into expensive problems.

Machinery that is regularly serviced tends to last much longer than equipment that only gets attention when it fails, which can reduce the frequency and expense of replacements.

Preventive Maintenance Disadvantages

The biggest drawback of preventive maintenance is the cost because the strategy sometimes leads to:

• Higher maintenance costs due to frequently scheduled maintenance activities, labour costs, and spare parts
• Increased equipment downtime despite the machines being perfectly functional
• Unnecessary over-maintenance that wastes time, money, and resources
• Reduced flexibility when a scheduled maintenance service lands on a day when demand is high or your company is under a tight deadline

Fortunately, the benefits of increased equipment reliability and lower repair costs will most often outweigh the potential for increased downtime.

How a CMMS Helps with Preventive Maintenance

A CMMS can be valuable for businesses using preventive maintenance because of its ability to:

• Collect and analyse data from multiple sources
• Provide real-time notifications and alerts that keep everybody in sync
• Schedule and track maintenance tasks

This can help address potential equipment failure before it occurs, reduce the risk of unexpected downtime, and improve equipment reliability.

Regardless of the maintenance strategy used, implementing a CMMS system can help businesses increase the efficiency and effectiveness of their maintenance operations.

Ticked Off offers a powerful and user-friendly maintenance management system with many beneficial features, such as real-time notifications, checklists, performance management, and more.

These features can help businesses optimise their maintenance strategy and maximise equipment performance. Consider contacting Ticked Off today to learn more about how their CMMS system can benefit your business.