The Effectiveness of Proactive HVAC Maintenance for Retail Stores

The Effectiveness of Proactive HVAC Maintenance for Retail Stores

Preventive Maintenance and a CapEx Approach are Critical for Retail Facility Maintenance Budgeting Success

In retail facility maintenance, HVAC services spend is either the largest or second largest expenditure for nearly every facilities manager, exhausting a large portion of their annual FM budget. As facility management teams are annually tasked at keeping costs under control — and even reducing maintenance costs year-over-year — the vital nature of a strong HVAC services program can have a dynamic impact on every facility maintenance budget.

Retailers maintain HVAC equipment in myriad ways, depending upon their preferences and their business’ facility maintenance budgets. Here are five elements that cause total variation in the way HVAC equipment is serviced and its subsequent impact on budgeting.

1. HVAC Preventive Maintenance Strategy — Some completely lack a preventive maintenance (PM) program, while others conduct six to eight PMs annually. The majority of retailers are required to perform three to four PMs annually in order to be compliant with leases.
2. Proactive or Reactive with Key HVAC Elements — Are annual belt changes built into the PM program or done reactively for four to six times the cost? Are condenser coil chemical cleanings built into the PM program or done reactively for two to four times the cost? That upfront
3. CapEx HVAC Replacement or Break/Fix — Are proactive HVAC CapEx plans in place to replace a certain percentage of your HVAC units annually, prior to their end of life? Alternatively, is there no budget to replace HVAC units proactively and the retailer instead  waits until end-of-life equipment breakdown to change out the unit?
4. Full HVAC Asset Management — Is the facility manager — or better yet, their HVAC partner — building a very detailed HVAC equipment asset list so that warranties, equipment age, equipment condition, repair history, and unit information at each store location are tracked adroitly.
5. Year-Over-Year Spend Analyses — Is the retailer closely studying year-over-year HVAC costs to review HVAC maintenance RM-to-PM spend ratio? Is the facility manager analyzing cost breakdowns of HVAC spend on temporary heating/cooling, compressor replacements, heat exchanger replacement, and detailed spend breakdown of specific HVAC services?

Everyone has their own approach, their own budget, their own strategy for HVAC program success. What’s important is the synthesis of the retail facility manager’s goals and the retailer’s actual facility maintenance budget. A facility management team may want to thrive to be more proactive with their HVAC services program, but oftentimes a retailer’s budget limitations may not allow them to do that.

In order to maximize proactive HVAC maintenance for retail stores, a facility maintenance team must formulate a true partnership with their vendor by transparently outlining their goals, their budgetary needs, and even their limitations. By doing so, the two sides can work together to formulate a plan that works best for each retailer’s individual needs. The facility maintenance company that leads with “this is the way we’ve always done it” is not empowering that facilities team to outline their company’s budgetary needs and guidelines for what may support a great HVAC program partnership.

Look at the five elements listed above to make sure you are clearly defining what your needs are for each element. While budgets vary for everyone, the ability to outline a customized program is the key to mutual success in a proactive HVAC maintenance program for retail stores.

More is Coming on Proactive HVAC Maintenance for Retail Stores — Stay Tuned

In our next blog, we’ll detail a case study that demonstrates how one industry-leading retailer has maximized their HVAC program and fostered long-term success by being proactive with their spend and data collection.