Follow these four steps to keep your maintenance department’s budget in the black.
Ordering the proper parts and supplies for maintenance projects can be a real challenge. Today’s tough economy means companies will be even more vigilant about eliminating unnecessary supply orders.
Below are four tips for creating a cost-effective and time-efficient ordering strategy to guarantee the best bang for your buck.
Before ordering anything, take inventory of current stocked parts and materials to determine which items (and how many) you have on hand. This is the best time to gather information about an item’s brand, size, model, serial number, and any other special characteristics to avoid ordering the wrong parts. Maintenance teams should check their community’s current stocks every three months to ensure they have the proper equipment.
Next, create a master list of all of the supplies currently in use. For communities that already have a list in place, the list should be updated once a year to add any new equipment. If a community does not already have such a list in place, it may require several maintenance technicians to determine the type of equipment, appliances and fixtures used around the building.
Once it has been updated, place the list where authorized employees can access it when ordering. This master list should contain all of the information necessary to order supplies, including the item’s specifications and the supplier’s name and contact information. It is best to order supplies according to a set weekly, bi-weekly or monthly schedule to avoid making small orders that can create additional processing time and lower productivity.
When ordering supplies, it is very important to know how much to order. If the order quantities are too large, products will sit on the shelves for a long period of time, causing unnecessary expense. If quantities ordered are insufficient, a resident’s needs may go unmet for too long or a part may be purchased in a hurry at a higher price.
Worse still, technicians at some communities may take an item from a vacant unit to replace a faulty part in an occupied unit. While taking a faucet from a vacant unit to replace a leaky one in use might seem like a quick, inexpensive fix, the repair will cost more in the long run because the technician will have to buy and install a new faucet in the vacant unit, doubling the work he could have completed in one trip.
To ensure you’re ordering the correct amount of supplies, check historical data and determine how much was used during the same time period the previous year. Then add an additional 10 percent to the current budget (if possible) to compensate for building and equipment deterioration and price hikes over the last 12 months.
Determine which parts are needed on a regular basis that could be standardized for use in one (or more than one) community. Maintenance employees at the same community or company often use different parts from different brands and different suppliers. Standardizing brands, models and specifications across the board can save time during repairs, as every maintenance technician will become familiar with the same product.
Items such as door locks, plumbing fixtures, light fixtures, ceiling fans, smoke detectors, paint, carpet and appliances all can be standardized. Buying one type of product also increases a community’s buying power. The higher the volume of purchasing, the better pricing a supplier can provide, so standardization will allow maintenance managers to negotiate prices and score discounts that could create great savings in operating expenses.
Maintenance technicians should know exactly which materials and parts they need before performing a task. For example, when preparing to complete a make-ready in a vacant apartment, technicians should walk the apartment first and make a list of all of the supplies needed to complete the job. They should then order everything they need at once.
When preparing to complete a work order in an occupied apartment, technicians must read the work order ahead of time and gather any supplies they think they will need to finish the task successfully. In many communities, maintenance technicians use a golf cart to travel from the maintenance shop to the unit in need of repair. It’s a good idea to have these golf carts well-organized with all of the small supply items stored in a safe container. This can be a box built with plywood or any other durable material and should always be locked.
The goal is to avoid trips back and forth to the shop and increase productivity.
Pablo Paz, CAMT, is NAA Education Institute’s National Maintenance and Safety Instructor. He may be reached at pablo@naahq.org.