Better Organize Your Facility Maintenance Effort
Every club, no matter the number of amenities it has, requires ongoing maintenance of its structures, vehicles, equipment, interiors, fixtures, and furnishings.
Most clubs have some sort of facility manager or maintenance supervisor position, as well as maintenance workers. Yet often their work seems haphazard and hard to monitor and measure. Often the best (or maybe I should say worst) indication of a weak maintenance effort is the sheer numbers of broken, damaged, and inoperative items in and around the club.
Yet organizing one’s maintenance department is no different than organizing any other area of the club. Here are some tips to get a better handle on the maintenance effort:
- Implement a preventive maintenance program. Well-maintained equipment lasts longer, has fewer inconvenient breakdowns, and often uses less electricity.
- Establish a work order system with designated priorities (1 – Emergency, 2 – Priority, 3 – Routine, and 4 – Project Work). Define what each term means and require all Department Heads to submit written work orders to the maintenance department.
- Require the maintenance supervisor to touch base weekly with each department head to assess needs and priorities.
- Require documented periodic inspections of all areas of the club. Some need to be daily, others weekly, monthly, or quarterly.
- Ensure that the maintenance supervisor has Operation and Maintenance manuals on all major systems and pieces of equipment. These manuals specify maintenance requirements and service schedules.
- Develop a preventive maintenance schedule. Those items of PM that are beyond the capabilities of your maintenance staff should be set up on maintenance schedules with outside contractors.
- Require the maintenance supervisor to devise and maintain repair and maintenance benchmarks, such as the number of work orders (by priority, department, type of equipment, and man hours involved). These benchmarks will allow the General Manager to better monitor the facility maintenance function of the club.
Repair and maintenance efforts are often poorly handled, particularly in small, standalone operations. Implementing these initiatives will help management get a better handle on maintenance needs, budget, and staffing.
