How To Make Buildings Sustainable
Sustainability is the topic of the century for professionals of the built environment. The big question is, how are we going to sustain our way of living when we increasingly consume, pollute, and destroy natural resources? As a Facility Manager, you can take an active role in the effort to reduce the consumption of non-renewable resources. You might have heard the term "Net Zero Energy ...
How to Detect Air Leaks In Your Facility
It's that time of year again, at least for us up north. An easy way to minimize heating costs during the winter season is to conduct an air leak audit on your facilities. As much as 40% savings (https://www.airbarrier.org) can be seen by sealing up those elusive leaks. The question is how do you go about locating them? Well, there are a few different methods that will allow you to visual...
What Is BIM Data And Why Is It Important?
BIM or Building Information Modeling, is a way for designers and builders to pass along information regarding newly constructed facilities to facility owners. Most people think BIM is just three dimensional modeling, which is part of it, but what is important is the actual data delivered. BIM data can be used to effectively maintain facilities throughout their life-cycles. BIM's are embe...
Infographic - How To Read Lighting Facts Labels
You can look up LED lighting facts online through the lightingfacts.com website. Here are some other helpful articles: 5 Reasons To Do Preventive Maintenance Why Doesn't Management See The Value Of Preventive Maintenance? Infographic - What Are The Types Of Maintenance?
Why Doesn't Management See The Value Of Preventive Maintenance?
Preventive maintenance is a tough thing to convince management to invest in because you can't see it. Pushing for a budget on something that isn't easily quantifiable is a hard sell in itself, but when you can't even see what you're buying, it's even worse. Fortunately, there are enough reports on the ROI and benefits of doing PM that, with a bit of persuasion, can make it easier to pitc...
Infographic - What Are The Types Of Maintenance?
Here are some other helpful articles: 5 Reasons To Do Preventive Maintenance How To Read A Psychrometric Chart 10 Ways Facility Managers Can Improve the Quality of Work Environments
Choosing The Best Lubrication For Your Equipment
Before we get into how to best choose lubricants, a quick disclaimer. Manufacturer recommendations are going to be your best answer as to what lubrication you should be using for your equipment. This post is meant for those who don't have manufacturer specifications to reference, have older equipment, or equipment that has been repaired with parts that are not original. Let's start with ...
5 Reasons To Do Preventive Maintenance
Preventive maintenance is the core of any maintenance program. Unfortunately, many find it hard to convince others it's worth doing or they can't seem to find the time to stick with it. The truth is, the benefits of PM aren't seen right away and it is hard to quantify its value. However, in the long term, PM proves it's worth because of these five reasons. Reason 1: Extends Equipment Lif...
How To Read A Psychrometric Chart
Psychrometrics is the science of moist air thermodynamics (the effects of heat, work, and energy on a system) in relation to HVAC systems. A phychrometric chart is helpful for determining what combination of heating, cooling, humidifying, and dehumidifying sources should be used to reach optimal environmental conditions in facilities. At the end of this post, I have an example of how to ...
Underground Storage Tanks (USTs) Subject To The SPCC Rule
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) recently announced revisions to the federal Underground Storage Tank (UST) Rule (40 CFR Part 280). Changes include adding secondary containment for new and replaced tanks and piping, adding operator training requirements, and adding operation and maintenance requirements, among others. Click here for a link to the USEPA amendment,...
Computerized Maintenance Management Systems Pay Off
Across all industries, maintenance departments are often viewed as cost centers. When the economy struggles, this department is targeted for cutbacks. While organizations often fail to see the real value that maintenance plays in daily operations, the reality is that maintenance departments keep operations from bottlenecking. They ensure that every physical aspect of a business runs smoo...
Protection Against Legionella - New York State’s Emergency Regulations Concerning Cooling Towers
The recent outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in New York City has been traced to cooling towers, and in response the New York State Department of Health (DOH) has approved emergency regulations requiring any owner of a cooling tower in the state to register, inspect and implement a maintenance program for their tower(s). The regulations were adopted August 17, 2015 and remain in effect f...
Unlocking Your CMMS: Reengineering Facilities Maintenance Processes
"Reengineering strives to break away from the old rules about how we organize and conduct business. It involves recognizing and rejecting some of them and then finding imaginative new ways to accomplish work." - Dr. Michael Hammer (one of the founders of the management theory of Business process reengineering) When most organizations decide to implement a new computerized maintenance man...
What to Expect from an EPA SPCC Inspection
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged with ensuring facilities that store or handle oil comply with the Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations set forth in 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 112. Inspections may be announced or unannounced, and can be triggered by: national enforcement initiatives, referrals from state or loca...
5 Hidden Rules to Improve Steam System Efficiency
If you want to optimize the energy usage of your steam plant, consider these five general rules of thumb to improve steam system efficiency. 1. Lower boiler exhaust flue temperatures For every 40°F you lower the boiler exhaust flue temperature, you can expect about 1% combustion efficiency gain. Utilizing an economizer in the exhaust stack will reduce flue temperatures and transfer that ...
Top 7 Reasons Facility Management Software Adoption Fails
If your company is looking to purchase a new Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), you probably already know the benefits of implementing a CMMS. Some of the benefits, such as increased productivity and reduced maintenance costs might be necessary for your business to succeed in today’s marketplace. While you should plan for success, part of the planning process should consi...
5 Steps to Know When to Replace a Roof
Here is your situation. You suspect your facilities roof is nearing the end of its serviceable life, maybe it's pooling,cracking, or starting to leak in some areas, how do you determine when to replace a roof or to restore it? To find the answer, a thorough investigation of the current condition of the roof must be done. Here is a five step process you can use to determine if your roof i...
2014 U.S. Energy Consumption Report - Infographic
To download the PDF version - Click Here Here are some other helpful articles: Why You Should Reconsider Buying Enterprise Level Maintenance Software Customizable Maintenance Software vs. Canned Maintenance Software How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Maintenance Programs
4 Steps to Developing a Sustainability Plan For Facilities
In today's market place, it's easy for organizations to lose sight of sustainability in lieu of cost cutting and trying to do more with less. The fact is, sustainable practices CAN save organizations money while preserving our environment for future generations. Facility maintenance departments have opportunities to make real differences by being champions for sustainable work environmen...
Why You Should Reconsider Buying Enterprise Level Maintenance Software
Have you ever been a part of a team that is using a complex enterprise software system and thought, “This is too much software”? If you have, you’re not the only one. Having worked with several enterprise systems over the years, I have come to a common conclusion - that something simpler would have been better. Large organizations usually require enterprise level software because of thei...
How to Start a Preventive Maintenance Program From Scratch
The point of any preventive maintenance program is to identify equipment failures in their early stages so you, as a maintenance activity can coordinate the man hours and logistics required to prevent breakdowns. Figuring out the best scheduling intervals for different PM tasks can be difficult if you don't have OEM manuals to get you started. Luckily, there have been studies on this top...
Customizable Maintenance Software vs. Canned Maintenance Software
Are you still relying on paper, Excel, email, Access, or other unorganized homegrown systems to keep track of your work histories and equipment? If you have been thinking about making the jump into maintenance software from what you are currently using, you may be wondering about the impact on your team when making the switch. If you are in this situation, you would be one of many that a...
How to Measure the Effectiveness of Your Maintenance Programs
An effective maintenance program starts with identifying benchmark criteria. You might think that the best metric for bench marking would be the reliability and life cycle cost of the equipment. Well, you would be right but, that is just one piece of the puzzle. Expanding maintenance programs to encompass other responsibilities such as sustainability and utilization optimization makes th...
Why Should I Choose a Web Based CMMS Application vs. On Premise?
If you're in the market for a maintenance management solution, but are unsure of the benefits and drawbacks of different delivery options, this post will help you to clear the water as to why you should consider a web-based CMMS versus an on-premise solution. First things first, we have to define what each of these terms mean. A web-based CMMS application is sold as a Software as a Servi...
2014 CMMS Software Buyers' Trends
The metrics are out! Software Advice, an online service that helps people find the right software for their organization, has released the newest statistics on CMMS buyers trends for 2014. The graphs provided give insight into the demographics of today's prospective maintenance departments and what they are looking for in a CMMS. Last years research study focused on current users which c...
Preventive Maintenance Checklist Worksheet - Free Download
Do you need help starting or managing your PM program? Here is a preventive maintenance checklist worksheet that you can use to help improve your current process. Maintenance managers can enter equipment names, locations, and required tools along with step by step procedures for completing PM work. Using this preventive maintenance checklist worksheet not only makes it easy for technicia...
10 Ways Facility Managers Can Improve the Quality of Work Environments
A Facility Manager's main responsibility is to protect and extend the value of facilities. They also play a big part in improving the work environment and keeping employees comfortable. If your organization is planning to expand their main facility, start a green initiative, retrofit, or they're just plain concerned about making the work place better, here a some good points you can take...
6 Ways to Keep Track of Your Maintenance Tools at Work
It can be tough to keep track of where maintenance tools are, especially when you have to share them with, not so organized, co-workers. A lot of time can be wasted looking for misplaced tools that you need to do your job. Not to mention it comes with a certain level of aggravation that tends to affect how nice you feel like being for the rest of the day. So to help, we've compiled a few...
ISO 55000 Asset Management Standardization: How CMMS Software Can Help
As organizations grow, so will the need for standardization and process improvement. Without these elements, the culture of "fighting fires" will continue to be the norm for maintenance departments. Standardized asset management programs such as those outlined by the International Standards Organization (ISO), establish benchmarks for asset quality control leading to fewer down times, lo...
CMMS Data - Obtain Accuracy By Ensuring 100% Work Order Entry
Lets start with the obvious fact that computerized maintenance management system (CMMS) software was created to manage maintenance issues. It was also created to give maintenance managers insight into their operations and how effective the team is at satisfactorily providing maintenance services. How well that insight reflects their actual operation depends on the accuracy of the data be...
5 Things You Need to Do to Find the Best CMMS Software
Before you go about finding the best CMMS software for your organization, it must be said that there are hundreds of vendors, each with their own idea of what is important to maintenance professionals. No one CMMS is best for all. Going through these five steps will help you determine exactly what you should be be looking for. 1. Create Maintenance Goals To find the best CMMS software so...
10 Reasons to Start Using Your CMMS Software More Effectively
1. Long Equipment Downtimes Depending on the industry you serve, the effects of down equipment can range from inconvenience to extensive profit loss. Your organization can turn into a black hole of inefficiency without a way to track and improve the repair time of failed equipment. Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) software can track repair efficiency through status chang...
Why Using Youtube as a Preventive Maintenance Training Tool is Key
One of the most important qualities a maintenance professional needs to have is resourcefulness. As newer generations start to fill maintenance positions, it will be up to the managers to oversee training and to make sure inexperienced employees have the resources to complete different types of corrective and preventive maintenance tasks. Utilizing Youtube will help you facilitate this p...
Preventive Maintenance Batching - PM Scheduling the Efficient Way
Does your normal preventive maintenance routine have your team doing laps around the facility? Going from area to area inspecting one thing then going around again to inspect another. Seems like a waste of time doesn't it? You might need to take a look at how you're scheduling PM's. PM batching is a more efficient way of scheduling your work because it groups together like inspections by...
How CMMS Software Can Help Train New Generations of Maintenance Professionals
Historically, maintenance and facility professionals started their careers without formal education on how to do their jobs. Most likely they started as apprentices or hired hands. As time has passed and the roles of today's maintainers has expanded, it's more difficult and costly for organizations to train the next generation if they rely solely on on-the-job training. According to a re...
CMMS Work Order Software Is Not Just For Maintenance Departments!
Perhaps the reason you are searching for work order software is to help your particular department, facilities or maintenance. What a lot of facility and maintenance managers are finding out is that it is difficult to express the value of CMMS software to everyone else when it only directly benefits their department. I’m here to tell you that there are highly customizable and flexible wo...
Why Work Order Software is Critical to Optimizing Your Preventive Maintenance to Corrective Maintenance Ratio
Are you a facility manager that is constantly trying to put out maintenance fires or inversely, doing so many unneeded preventive maintenance procedures that you can’t find time to do corrective actions? You might have found yourself stuck in an inefficient preventive maintenance (PM) to corrective maintenance (CM) ratio. While both are natural functions of any activity, most facilities ...
Que Centre Version 2.0.78 Release Notes
The newest version of the Que Centre platform is finished and slated for release Saturday, January 18th. If you experience any issues with your software instance after the release, please email our support team at support@quecentre.com. Preventive Maintenance Module Added a Work History tab to the edit page for Equipment. This shows all work orders ever performed against the piece of Equ...
How Preventive Maintenance Of Airport Escalators, Elevators And Moving Walkways Can Mitigate Risk
You wouldn’t think injuries due to escalators, elevators or moving walkways would be all too common, but if your airport has at least five or more mechanical transports you are likely to experience at least one passenger injury per year according to a paper written by Cameron Nicolson for the Calgary Airport Authority. The majority of these injuries are due to human error while only a sm...