New Year + Old Assets = Increased Risk
For many organizations, budget planning is well underway and may have already been completed. Facility management is undoubtedly a significant piece of that financial picture. Looking back over the previous year, it’s common to see these budgets experience unexpected increases — forcing companies to reactively rethink the budget mid-year or go over budget entirely.
This is typically due to unexpected asset failures, such as HVAC or refrigeration systems needing unplanned maintenance or breaking down beyond the point of financially viable repair. The result? Companies end up allocating additional money to hedge against issues that may arise in the new year. In situations like these, companies would be far better served by leveraging proactive facility management services.
It’s a simple concept: don’t wait for something to become a problem before you fix it. Here, we’ll explore a few key ways that proactive facility management services do exactly that — and more.
Summer or winter, heat or cold, being proactive with HVAC/R systems means more peace of mind for you and stronger performance.
1. Asset List Creation and Prioritization
Straight up: do you have a centralized list of every HVAC/R asset across your footprint? Multiple spreadsheets and docs definitely don’t count. If a manager at one of your locations called in to report a problem, would you know where to find the model and serial number, its age, and related maintenance costs tied to that asset? If not, this is where proactive facility management services can help.
Benefits of being proactive:
- Allows full analyses of HVAC equipment ages, prioritizations, and building of CapEx planning
- Lists are accessible online 24/7/365
- Enables more focused maintenance prioritization
2. Ongoing Preventive Maintenance
Every asset experiences wear and tear over time. Proactive facility management services thus must include a preventive maintenance solution so that assets are visited by skilled, qualified technicians on a predetermined basis to make adjustments, clean components, change filters or consumables, and identify other potential issues before they become costly, time-consuming problems.
Benefits of being proactive:
- Consistent changing of HVAC filters to ensure stronger air quality, unit performance, and greater energy efficiency
- Prevents delays due to reactive scheduling
- Keeps assets running smoothly, consistently
- Identifies repairs needed ahead of time
- Mitigates larger, unexpected costs
3. Upfront Estimating and Program Design
On the financial side, understanding all of the details of proactive facility management services upfront ensures that there are no surprises down the road. Unexpected costs can throw budgets out of balance and even damage relationships, leading facility managers to have to source new partners (which only further adds to maintenance delays). Better to work with a partner that outlines all of this information upfront so you know what to expect.
Benefits of being proactive:
- Estimates and NTEs are established up front
- Creates stronger, more trusting relationships
- Prevents surprises and delays due to costs
4. CapEx Unit Replacement
To maximize your proactive facility management services, consider a CapEx unit replacement program. Operationally, you don’t want an unexpected HVAC replacement ($10,000 or more) throwing your budget off unexpectedly. With a proactive approach, older or underperforming units — that can more easily be identified thanks to a thorough, prioritized asset list — can be replaced before they break down completely or add even more drain to your facility management budget.
Benefits of being proactive:
- Addresses likely asset failures in one program
- Prevents time delays due to supply chain issues
- Upgrade to new HVAC units with strong warranties to reduce short-term repairs
- Eliminate units with R-22 refrigerant to foster better environmental impact and reduce reactive refrigerant costs
Work with CLS for Truly Proactive Facility Management Services
As one of the leading facility management companies nationwide, CLS Facility Services works with every client proactively to make the most out of its asset maintenance strategy. We’re not just overseers of asset maintenance work — we pull up a chair at your budget planning table and work with you to implement solutions that prevent unexpected costs, maximize utility rebates, and prevent your assets from impacting your day-to-day operations.