How an EH&S Oriented Facilities Maintenance Program can Save Your Organization Money

AES_Small_OWS_Cleaning_2_copyFire extinguishers. Fume hoods. Storm drains. Chip Tanks. Safety Showers. All these things relate to the environment, health, or safety and they all require regular inspections or maintenance. Despite these commonalities, most organizations treat these types of equipment as completely independent items often leading to complications, confusion and extra spending.

By managing all equipment requiring regular inspections and maintenance in a single program EH&S departments can save time and money and rest easy knowing their program is 100% in compliance. Here are some steps that can be taken to implement such a program along with details on how it will benefit you.

Get Organized

Before implementing a facilities maintenance program, it’s good to know what you’re working with. Getting organized before plan implementation will help in creating a plan that is optimized for your facilities. First, you should do an inventory of all items that require regular inspections or maintenance at your facility. From there, determine the required inspections or maintenance schedule for each. After doing this, you can move forward and create a calendar. This will help you in completing inspections, documenting results and scheduling any needed follow-up maintenance.

Having this plan and schedule will reduce the number of employees/vendors responsible for these items. A plan will consolidate responsibility and oversight at a single point and reduce costs associated with having more than one vendor/employee responsible for such tasks.With this approach there will be fewer equipment failures because items were overlooked or forgotten.

Manage your Budget

By making the consolidation as mentioned in the previous section, you are affording yourself the opportunity to format how you’re going to pay your one contractor. By bundling, you can set up a monthly retainer payment format to level the budget month to month and decrease volatility. Fewer bumps in this area of the budget means greater resources for things that actually require large one time payments such as capital improvements. 

Save Time

As you probably already know, time is money. A complete facilities maintenance program will save you just that. Being organized means less time spent coordinating inspections and maintenance on a one-time basis. In addition, you have fewer vendors to stay on top of, fewer work orders to schedule, fewer invoices to pay. By consolidating down into one overarching maintenance program, you’re cutting down necessary interaction and saving yourself time.

Stay in Compliance and Avoid Fines

Compliance can be a huge driver in trying to keep your facilities properly maintained. An unorganized, segmented system can leave gaps and open you up to scrutiny from regulatory bodies. A complete program will ensure that you have things in order. Part of your program should include the completing and documenting of inspections. This is essential for avoiding fines with regards to a range of equipment. There are regulations regarding fire extinguishers, spill prevention, lab safety and more. 

For more information on how a holistic facilities maintenance program can benefit your facility, come to our webinar on optimizing your preventative maintenance practices.