School districts have the same dilemma every year: balancing increasingly tight budgets by deciding how and where to cut costs. School facility managers are often an essential part of the equation. Their experience with inventories and their knowledge of the building’s operation and maintenance practices help identify opportunities to change processes and save money.
For example, lighting and air conditioning systems are largely responsible for energy consumption, and optimizing their usage can decrease energy costs. You can preserve assets like equipment and tools through preventive maintenance. And thus, opportunities for saving money are created for the entire school district.
By setting goals and developing a plan with the desired objectives and results, you can streamline maintenance processes and identify ways to improve and simplify.
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Implement a CMMS
Forget the paperwork: school facility managers are turning to Computerized Maintenance Management Systems (CMMS), which are online and digital platforms that streamline the process of tracking assets and organizing maintenance operations.
A computerized maintenance management software like FMX allows you to centralize all information about your facilities, processes, assets, and employees. It helps to optimize processes, allowing your team to receive and distribute work orders easily.
The system also collects data on the performance of the entire structure, pointing out your operation’s strengths and weaknesses. Implementing a CMMS can be challenging at first, especially if your team is transitioning from physical to digital tracking methods. The entire team must be well-trained to adapt and make the most of this software, but it can revolutionize the way your department is run.
Decrease Work Order Response Time
Long-pending work orders are frustrating for both those who report the issues and those meant to fix them who simply have too much on their plates. Increasing your team’s agility in administering work orders represents less accumulation of jobs and fewer interruptions because of out-of-order equipment or facilities.
Decreasing the amount of time it takes your team to respond to a work order will keep teachers and administrators in your school happy and create a better learning environment. This also indicates that your team is running smoothly, which is a good sign for your entire department.
Track Your Assets
School districts have hundreds and even thousands of assets to track, from big pieces of equipment to smaller but equally important tools. Even the most experienced school facility manager can have trouble keeping up-to-date on the condition of everything.
Many CMMS systems include asset tracking programs, which help monitor your school’s equipment through its maintenance history and inventory management. You can easily identify all the equipment or machinery and the status of the spare parts inventory.
Increase Your Preventive Maintenance
Keeping track of your assets will also help you to know when they are no longer performing as well as they could. Using this data, you can create a preventive maintenance schedule to avoid major failures (and consequently higher repair costs).
If you implement preventive maintenance accordingly, you can get ahead of issues and fix equipment before that decrease in performance has a noticeable effect. Remember that routine maintenance is much faster and cheaper than serious emergency fixes—which can also cause facilities to close for an indefinite period.
Reduce Energy Use
According to Forbes, schools in the United States spend $8 billion a year on energy alone. Reducing this number is good for the environment and your district’s budget. There are several opportunities to save energy, and you can start by putting the following strategies into practice:
- Automate the lights in buildings and on athletic fields according to a timer.
- Program your HVAC system on a meter so that it turns on only when necessary to keep your building within a certain temperature range instead of running constantly.
- Ensure an efficient schedule for shutdown procedures on weekends and vacation periods.
- Improve or update equipment and structures that are already out of date with newer, more energy-efficient models.
Pass All Inspections and Meet All Safety Criteria
School facilities are subject to stringent standards for health and safety. You must ensure that your facility follows all compliance and safety standards, both to avoid fines and delays and to maintain your school’s reputation and your community’s wellbeing.
Be sure you know the appropriate deadlines and dates for all inspections and certifications. If you regularly pass inspections without worry or the need for last-minute fixes, it’s a sign that your facility is consistently well-maintained.
Maintenance Goals That Deserves an A
Setting goals is essential to achieving success in any area of business, and school maintenance is no different. Well-defined maintenance goals guarantee a safer and more nourishing school environment, and as long as they are realistic and viable targets for your department, you are sure to meet them.
Remember that by working toward these goals, you’re not only saving your school money—you’re helping allocate funds toward bettering the school’s primary objective: education.
