Maintenance Tracking Eases Capital Planning Processes
By: George Skeeters
As a school grows and buildings age, operations professionals are continually challenged with managing additions, new construction, renovation, office expansion, and major repairs on equipment due to ending life cycles. While these items are frequent topics of discussion among Christian school officials, not everyone documents them on a controlled or regular basis.
Tracking this critical facility infrastructure information allows operations officials to identify, prioritize and document the data in a format that makes it much easier to determine the amount of capital funding needed each year, as well as aids in developing a long-term capital plan. The focus on this is just beginning at my school, and our operations department has identified several processes that are aiding in the effort:
Capital Request Form
This form is available for submitting any facilities related upgrade or repair that will cost more than $100 and falls outside the category of general maintenance work. Implementing a controlled process, the capital request form is routed from the requestor to the facilities department for pricing and scope, then to finance for funding consideration, and finally into our work system for proper assessment of status and priority for completion.
Lifecycle Projection Line
All the equipment and facility systems of each of our buildings are placed on a lifecycle scale that enables projection of normal life, replacement cost and yearly routine maintenance cost. Identifying these expected expenditures allows us to project future capital needs for major equipment replacement or repairs. This also helps our school to begin building a capital fund based upon yearly contributions that will cover these projected costs.
Deferred Work Orders
When a maintenance request is initiated as a general work order and later develops into a larger project and expenditure that falls outside the realm of the general operating budget, it is deferred through our work order system and then added to the deferred/capital projects list.
Deferred/Capital Assignment List
Bringing all of the above items together in a spreadsheet, assigning them project ID numbers and prioritizing as necessary allows our operations department to see all projects at a glance. The projected costs and expected date for funding are also needed. The ID number should follow the project throughout its life cycle until completion.
Using an online work management system allows our school to track efficiency through comparative analysis. With this information, our operations department can identify repetitive problems and issues and become more proactive, thereby reducing the overall cost of maintenance while elevating service.
Additionally, we ensure that preventive and predictive maintenance are completed on time by using an online preventive maintenance scheduling tool. This saves my department time and money by prolonging the life expectancy of the equipment, reducing unexpected breakdowns and keeping a cleaner more energy-efficient plant.
Making capital improvements and maintenance work orders much more controlled processes improves efficiency and enables more effective planning during the budgeting and fundraising processes. This also minimizes the possibilities for unexpected capital expenditures, protects your investment in facility infrastructure, and creates a better learning environment for students.
George Skeeters is the director of facilities at Christian Academy in Louisville, Kentucky. The school uses SchoolDude’s Maintenance Direct and PMDirect systems.
