Maintenance
Explore our range of services designed to help you move forward with confidence, wherever you're headed.
Our Scope
A sound asset management program relies on cyclical maintenace. So what are the challenges and postives of gettign it right.
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Most of our clients simply don’t have the expertise internally to develop a quality cyclical maintenance program. In most instances the focus is on the immediate ‘fixing’ of something. We work with your maintenance staff to support them and by doing so design a maintenance program that supports your asset management strategy.
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Hiring full-time maintenance staff can be a double edged sword. Yes you have someone on the ground every day to address breakages, but is it cost effective when they don’t have the skill to support your really important assets? We work with clients to find the balance. And when that balance is found engaging external specialists on a scheduled basis can prove more cost effective.
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If in-house maintenance teams don’t have the skills then executives are not being briefed on both critical infrastructure needs and compliance obligations. Planning and addressing risk relies on communication. That’s where we come in. We communicate what needs addressing and clearly explain the ‘why’. We can then cost out various models and provide you the detail to make logical informed decisions.
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Every organisation requires some for of maintenance program - how you do that is your call. But it doesn’t need to be complicated. In fact, when we get involved our key goals are really simple: limit risk, save you money and, reduce the complexity in doing so.
The Process
Aged Care - Real life example
To show you how we go about it, allow us to provide a real life, real time example of how we meld maintenance programs with an asset management strategy within leading residential aged care providers.
Specific Outcomes
Management
We can’t do what we do without bringing executives, middle management and clinical teams along with us. Getting your asset management strategy right gives those on the ground - especially your clients / residents - confidence. Whilst we often do what we do quietly, it is a team effort.
Auditing
We see it all the time: maintenance staff become complacent and don’t assess let alone address risk. Moreover, vendors will supply brand new items without auditing placement and overarching services connecting to new equipment: they often don’t care. But doing so can pose a huge risk.
Recently we had a major vendor looking to sell over $110k of new commercial kitchen appliances to a residential aged care facility without questioning the electrical footprint.
We stepped in. Slowed down the process and rebuilt switchboards to cater for the new equipment. Doing so made the kitchen safe and proved to maintenance teams that the ongoing cleaning and maintenance of critical infrastructure saves not only money, but lives.
Maintenance Team
If you have an existing maintenance team we ensure they are on-board and part of the solution. In most instances we can reduce your maintenance team (fixed employment) and deliver a superior outcome whilst ensuring those who remain in the team focus on the everyday lower level items.
Holding contractors accountable
We had an instance where the aged care provider was being charged a 40% premium on split cycle air conditioners across the entire facility. The ongoing and unnecessary maintenance costs were almost offensive. We took over and sacked the company. We took the price per unit from $3,100 to $1,800 by delivering a better product, service and outcome. We then transitioned key maintenance elements - cleaning filters - to in-house maintenance staff, saving the client thousands of dollars.
Emergency and Fire Block Plans
When we recently took over a residential aged care facility we experienced two fire emergencies in six-weeks. One was a full evacuation of the facility.
Whilst the facility staff were amazingly professional, the systems supporting an evacuation were outdated. We worked with contractors and Fire and Rescue to redesign all emergency and fire block plans to ensure the plans linked seamlessly with the recently installed - $60K - electronic fire panel. We assumed this had been completed, as part of the commissioning process, but the fire emergencies proved it hadn’t been done.
Whilst you may not view this as a ‘maintenance’ issue it is indeed a maintenance issue. Ensuring block plans are up-to-date is part of your cyclical maintenance strategy. Once up-to-date, organisations can then effectively train staff and run routine quarterly moch evaluation training drills. Getting the basics right is so important.
Key Messages
Let’s Work Together
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