Preventative Maintenance

CASE STUDY

A retailer has a structured schedule monthly preventive maintenance (PM) program in place that require up to six visit per year per location. The scope of work consist primary of carpentry, painting, and janitorial services.

Scope
The scope of work needed to meet this client’s needs includes:

1. Visit and assess each store that is scheduled for PM services in each specified month. The scope of work for these PM’s are generated by our inspections, with recommendations on the severity of each issue.
   
2. Propose all repairs in a proper format that allows for easy approval by client.
3. Review all approved scopes after they are received from client then schedule scope completion within specified time frame.
4. Inform mall and store and of our scheduled work one week prior to the start of work, ensuring mall has all current insurance information.
5. Audit the work completed the day after it was done.

Challenges
The constraints of this structured work include:

1. All work needs to be completed overnight.
2. Surveying the store becomes much more difficult as foot traffic increases in the store.
3. Scheduling overnight work to accommodate other vendors, including third party security guards for both the store and the mall.

Solution
We understood that all surveying and PM services had to be completed in the designated time frame to coincide with the clients fiscal months due to meet their budgets. Since all work was to be completed overnight it was imperative that all work needed to be fully completed prior to the store opening the next morning. Proper communication between the store management and mall personal was important as to not “surprise” any parties upon are arrival.

1. Plan all store visits, trying to visit them times when they are generally slower.
2. Utilize technology to speed up the surveying process.
3. Build our schedule, with consideration given to clients other projects and floor-set/inventory schedule.
4. We established procedures that required our home office to contact each store three times during the whole PM cycle. A phone call is placed 1 week prior to work commencing, another phone call is placed the day of scheduled work, and the third and final call is placed the morning after the work. This ensured that store is constantly aware of what is happening at the store and gives them a opportunity to relay any concerns with the upcoming or completed work. The mall receives similar reminders.
5. Schedule crew to arrive before the store closes to ensure that the security is on-site or in transit. This enables our after hours personnel sufficient time to find a replacement guard to help keep the projects on schedule.
6. Establish training procedures for common items at our training facility, where these items can be perfected.
7. Create a tracking system that internally rates our performance, helping us learn how to improve.
8. Update our project managers daily with any new or emergency items that our client has relayed to us since the approved scope was given to us.

Summary
Turning work into a repeatable process fosters consistent performance. Establishing the correct training of the processes helps us deliver a consistently high level of service to this client.