A successful preventive maintenance program depends on the collaboration of the pastor, business manager, facilities manager, and maintenance staff. The team agrees upon a systematic approach to building operations that aims to predict and prevent catastrophic equipment failure. This means that planned maintenance is performed while the equipment still works so that it does not break down unexpectedly. The facilities staff conducts routine inspections, maintenance, and repairs on equipment to ensure they work as the manufacturer intended. This allows the organization to focus less on reactive maintenance and more on upcoming maintenance tasks or time-sensitive work orders.
The following list features a few ways facilities teams can stay on top of preventive maintenance:
- Schedule and perform regular inspections of equipment
- Conduct regular cleaning of buildings, grounds and assets
- Lubricate moving parts to reduce wear-and-tear
- Adjust controls for optimal performance and energy efficiency
- Repair and replace any defective equipment parts
Here are some benefits of a properly operated preventive maintenance program:
- Decreased downtime for equipment resulting in a reduction in major repairs
- Better conservation of assets and increased life expectancy of assets, thereby eliminating premature replacements
- Reduced overtime costs and more economical use of maintenance workers due to working on a scheduled basis instead of a crash basis to repair breakdowns
- Fewer unexpected issues by promoting optimal performance and safety of equipment
Preventive maintenance has a complex nature with many moving parts. Some parishes opt for electronic tools to help them schedule, prioritize, and track the numerous tasks comprising a well-structured, detailed plan. You may want to explore the range of computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) on the market, such as:
The implementation of a preventive maintenance program can be time consuming and costly, and organizations frequently debate whether the results merit the efforts. Will all the hours and money invested in the program outweigh emergency repairs? Through our extensive hands-on experience with many parishes, we respond with a resounding Yes. A properly implemented program yields benefits that do exceed the costs.
Pastors: We encourage you to explore the resources in the Property Management, particularly the overview and checklists from Hoffmann Architects.
