Buildings maintenance

Buildings maintenance needs to be undertaken regularly if the organisation is to retain the full value of its asset. This applies to all areas be they air conditioning, building maintenance, electrical, heating and ventilating and general facilities maintenance. Companies use planned maintenance to make sure the asset retains their value, even though it has weaknesses. Surveys are undertaken infrequently, sometimes annually to determine what actions are needed now and what can be scheduled for latter in the year. This normally forms the basis of the building maintenance budget or last years budget is increased by a arbitrary rate to cover inflation or forecast cost increases.The result of both methods is that too much is budgeted for building maintenance and unnecessary expenditures are undertaken to meet unexpected costs. From time to time some items will fail or they will need to be replaced sooner then planned. In broad terms we plan to spend too much on building maintenance and then from time to time we make matters worse by making unexpected expenditures.As an example, a pump may cost £3,200 installed, the planned maintenance schedule suggests that it needs to be serviced ever 3 months at a cost of £2,800 per year. Using predictive maintenance this cost can be reduced to £2,000, giving a saving of £800 per year or almost 30%!Rather than taking the pump out of service, greasing, inspecting and then replacing we can reduce costs by inspecting the pump online. EMS can find out areas of weakness within the pump systems. If there aren't any, then the inspector moves on to the next item to inspect. If there is an undue noise or a hot spot, then the pump is replaced, there and then. If the correct pump is not available then it will be treated as an imminent failure, the inspector would return urgently with a replacement. With sealed pump units the service interval can normally be longer but in this illustration it is assumed that the customer requires an inspection every three months. Even more importantly, down time is minimised as well as the chances of major failure reduced, by inspecting much more thoroughly and more frequently using modern technology.If we apply the same rules to all areas then costs can be reduced whilst also reducing the chances of catastrophic failure

For more information on Buildings maintenance talk to Environmental Maintenance Services Ltd