Top Tips For Reducing Building Maintenance Costs
33% of building maintenance professionals have stated that defending maintenance budget cuts was their biggest challenge. The result was understandable given the backdrop of sustained and extreme inflationary pressure affecting energy, labour and parts prices.
Fortunately, there are a few steps budget holders can take to manage their maintenance budget during periods of high inflation. As well as keeping up with all of the legal requirements, sector‑specific regulations, and various tasks necessary for efficient upkeep. Below, we discuss these steps in further detail.
1. Identifying Assets
The first step to reduce maintenance costs is by understanding what assets you need to maintain, i.e. having an accurate and up‑to‑date register of all your assets. When asked by experts at SFG20, 80% of building maintenance professionals explained they had a medium‑low level of confidence in understanding their asset register.
2. Legal Requirement And Maintenance Planning
In a recent survey, SFG20 identified 47% either didn’t know or only had some understanding of their legal obligations.
This is extremely concerning as mismanagement of assets can lead to heavy fines and even imprisonment. For example, a UK company was fined over £200,000 for mismanagement of the maintenance of a tank line, which resulted in an employee sustaining over 37% burns and the loss of their lives.
Using maintenance management software can help you identify and maintain all of your assets and update to reflect legislation changes and current best practices.
3. Preventative Maintenance
Preventative maintenance entails regularly checking vital components within equipment and replacing parts when necessary. It also includes cleaning and lubricating components, testing operations of machinery, inspecting safety devices, calibrating instruments, and more.
Scheduling these checks at regular intervals also helps keep track of when components need replacing or repairing to keep equipment running smoothly without interruption. Preventative maintenance reduces the risk of unplanned downtime due to the failure of equipment by catching any potential issues before they arise. Downtime can be both costly and disruptive.
4. Upskilling Your Employees
It’s important to invest in the skills of your employees. Training them in effective and efficient methods for maintaining equipment and facilities can help you reduce the need to rely on external contractors at short notice, saving you money in the long run. This will ensure that your employees are better equipped to handle issues that arise with your equipment and facilities.
5. Conduct Regular Reviews Of Maintenance Expenditure
Regular reviews can help you identify areas where costs can be reduced or managed more efficiently. This will allow you to optimise your budget while still ensuring that all necessary maintenance is completed correctly. Costing up your maintenance plan empowers facility managers to demonstrate the costs required to maintain their buildings to a safe and compliant standard and to defend budget cuts.
By applying a risk based approach to those tasks that are not legally required, you can choose to delay or omit certain tasks based upon your own situation and level of risk posed to the business if that asset were to fail, resulting in a slimmed down maintenance plan and budget.
