PM OVERVIEW & BEST PRACTICES

PM OVERVIEW & BEST PRACTICES

Introduction on How to Formulate a PM Plan

In general, all that is required to formulate a recurring/preventive maintenance plan (PM Plan) is to know:
  1. The type of equipment that requires the preventive maintenance, such as HVAC, fire suppression, etc. and where it resides
  2. What maintenance tasks must be done, which might be as simple as changing filters and checking for leaks and damage
  3. How often the maintenance task must be performed
The process of implementing a PM Plan in Landport for a property or building can be broken down into the following categories:
  • Setting up equipment
  • Creating checklists (optional) with instructions/tasks for how to maintain the various models or categories of equipment
  • Creating recurring/preventive instructions (PMs) on each equipment piece or category that will automatically and repeatedly create requests according to a schedule of when the maintenance is supposed to take place, and which may include a checklist of instructions/tasks
Although often helpful, it's not necessary to have complete make, model and serial number data to set up a piece of equipment.  Nor is it always required that a checklist be created and attached to a PM.  Rather, a PM can often be created with just a simple description of the required tasks.  Many PMs (even on complex equipment) involve simple filter changes and visual inspections that can be performed by most Servicers, although we do recommend confirming this with the equipment manufacturer if possible.  A PM can even be scheduled without designating a specific Servicer to perform the work, and then later after the job triggers (which means that it was automatically created by the system), a particular technician can be selected.   

Landport clients have the ability to perform all the items listed above, however, we suggest that for large projects that they first read this document to acquire a basic understanding of the process and capabilities of the system, and then discuss their plans with a Landport representative who is versed in best practices for automating and/or streamlining the setup process.  

NOTE:  To simplify the PM Plan setup and ongoing operation, PMs should preferably be set for a quarterly, semi-annual or longer periodic schedule.  The regular tasks that are performed daily, weekly or monthly and are considered routine by the Servicer should typically NOT be set up on the PM schedule.  This will cause a large volume of PM requests to be generated, requiring time for everyone to process.   

Setting Up Equipment

Best practices for setting up equipment are:
  • If needed, create a Manager account for the person that will be responsible for setting up and handling the PM requests for a particular building or property.  The name on this account can be listed as a particular person, or listed as Equipment Manager if the responsibilities rotate to different people.  This Equipment Manager account can also be configured to handle PM requests on multiple properties.  NOTE:  To better organize and simplify the overall request handling process, the PMs should be set up from a separate Manager account that is handled by the Equipment Manager so that they do not become intermingled with the corrective requests submitted by Requestors such as tenants and office personnel.  The corrective requests should be handled by a different Manager account.  The goal is to streamline the work order handling process so that the Manager of the corrective requests does not have to spend time viewing PM requests and vice versa.  If the Manager of the corrective requests needs to see/process PM requests, account sharing can easily be implemented (Please tap here to view article).
  • Create under each building/property a location called "Equipment", under which the individual pieces will be located.  This "Equipment" location should be configured such that the Equipment Manager is designated as the first point of contact for all PM requests and the person that is responsible for approving and closing them.  The following diagram shows the "Equipment" location underneath a property (Alta) and the appropriate settings to make the Equipment Manager the first point of contact:

NOTE:  If there is a large number of equipment, then more levels of hierarchy under "Equipment" could be setup to better organize the pieces.  For example, categories such as "Air Handler Units", "Circ Pumps", etc. could be setup under "Equipment" as follows: 



Once the "Equipment" location and sub-locations have been set up, then the individual equipment pieces can be created under the appropriate location or sub-location (pressing the '+' icon will expand and show the pieces under each section, and pressing the '-' icon will compress and hide the pieces).   Usually, the pieces should be flagged as NOT visible to the tenants and office personnel that submit requests. 

Tap here for detailed instructions on how to add equipment.

Creating Checklists (optional)

A checklist of instructions/tasks for how to maintain an equipment piece is recommended for a moderate to complex set of instructions/tasks that a technician might not always remember and/or perform on a regular basis.  There are three types of line items that can be found in a checklist:
  1. Checkbox:  where the technician just marks the checkbox when the task is done
  2. Text box:  where the technician can enter a textual description or numerical value
  3. URL:  where the technician can click a link that will jump to another web page that contains more information, such as online PM procedures on a product manufacturer's website. 
A typical checklist is shown as follows:


Best practices for formulating checklists are:
  • A checklist is limited to 25 instructions.  If a longer and/or more complex checklist is required that also contains graphical information, we suggest using a URL item that links to an external web page containing the information.
  • Checklists are reusable, so whenever possible, create a checklist with instructions that are generically applicable to a broad category of equipment.  For example, the periodic maintenance that is required for an FCU (fan coil unit) is often the same, even for devices from different manufacturers, so creating one checklist for FCU periodic maintenance will save time and reduce complexity.
  • Avoid creating checklists with items that are already well known to the servicer and would be considered redundant.  For example, the task of changing filters on HVAC equipment may not need to be listed. 
Tap here for detailed instructions on how to create a checklist.

Creating Recurring/Preventive Instructions (PMs)

A recurring/preventive instruction (PM) is essentially the same as a conventional request for corrective maintenance except for one key difference: a recurring/preventive instruction will trigger (automatically create a request) according to a schedule specified by the Equipment Manager.  A PM will sometimes have an attached checklist with instructions for the Servicer.  A PM can be scheduled to trigger just once on some future date, or to trigger monthly, quarterly, annually, etc..   Also, a PM can be defined to auto-dispatch to a particular Servicer, or it can be set so that the Servicer must be selected after it triggers.  

Best practices for defining PMs are:
  • PMs should be scheduled to trigger on or near the 1st of the month (regardless of frequency), in the early morning (i.e.,  6 or 7 AM), and post "0" days in advance (unless it's one-time only, which should be set to post at least one or more days in advance).  The example below shows the recommended settings:

  • Avoid scheduling daily, weekly and monthly PMs for the regular tasks that are well known and part of the routine duties of the servicer.  This will generate a large volume of essentially redundant online jobs that usually require a significant amount of time for everyone to process.   
  • If a different Servicer might perform the work every time a PM triggers, make sure NOT to choose any of the persons in the preferred Servicer list, but instead go with the default selection as shown below:  

The PM will then trigger on schedule and appear in the Equipment Manager's "New Requests" table, at which point it can be dispatched to the desired Servicer or even to the Equipment Manager, if that person will be doing the work.
Tap here for detailed instructions on how to create a PM.

To see more articles and FAQs related to the above topics, please reference "Recurring & Preventive Maintenance" in the "? Help" portal Knowledge Base, accessible from your Landport manager account.

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