I am a facilities manager for a retail chain. Probably one of my biggests challenges is quality control for HVAC preventive maintenance. I'm not sure there is such a thing without having someone go on the roof with the contractor and making sure the filters are changed and they are not pulling wires off the condenser fan motors and reporting them as defective.
Would like to hear from other retail facility managers on this subject.
I have been a Facilities, Maintenance and Repair Manager for 4 different chains with full responsibility for up to 500 stores at once. I left that side of the business five years ago and went to work for one of the larger HVAC and maintenance providers. I have since left that line of work and am consulting on intelligent automation including lighting and and HVAC energy controls.
I have seen circumstances, and heard bragging stories from my old competitors at trade shows and I am amazed at the dishonesty of the repair trades in general, and the silliness of the FM's trying to control them. Drive by PM's are so often the rule that it makes me laugh. Some FM's that gave seminars on controlling contractors and costs were the ones the sales guys would laugh and joke about and tell stories on how bad they were ripping them off!
Showing a dated filter to a store manager inside the store is a waste of time. They just date a filter and never go on the roof. An all inclusive contract is a sure way to have second hand or low quality parts installed, or even parts stolen off of your neighbors units.
Most of the companies out there that manage a group of sub-conrtactors simply mark-up the invoices and pass that cost along to you.
I have seen giant companies that allow these brokers to white out contractors names, and on repairs, place almost no detail on the bill. "Repair HVAC" is NOT acceptable on an invoice. Every part should be listed with part number, each repair should be listed, and should have a time associated with it. Every unit should have the serial number, Manufacturer, and unit model on every invoice. You wouldn't believe how many places don't have that info correct. You should negotiate exactly how much these people are allowed to mark up the repair techs bill. They should attach their invoice with the techs invoice for backup. No one should hide who the tech is. No one should white out invoices. This is a RED FLAG. if they are worried about you stealing their techs, there should be a clause in your contract preventing that.
Demanding a low PM price is just asking for inflated repair costs and drive-by PM's.The company has to make a certain amount of money and that money will come from you. NOTHING is ever free. If you were an HVAC tech or mechanic, would you work for free? That guy in the field has to be paid, and he will be paid by you, one way or another. I can't count the number of times the PM price was the deciding factor in a purchasing decision! That is usually when a purchasing agent and not a facilities manager is conducting the RFP.... STUPID
I have seen companies advertize in CAL that there are never emergency fees or OT. Are you telling me the tech isn't going to be paid extra for that? Do you think labor laws will allow it? HAH
There are companies that can tell you the following information:
1. Who was on the roof and when. The repair company should call the store to tell them who is coming and when. The tech should check in from the location to check in. The work is done, and the tech checks out with the store manager and calls in that he is leaving. The company then calls the store to make sure everything is now working. They should also call back in 48 to 72 hours to make sure all repairs are still working, as most call backs happen within that time. The number of managers that have told me it stopped working after the tech left, but they didn't have time to call is astronomical, and costs you money. If you are one of those comanies that says"My managers cannot get these calls, they are too busy", don't fool yourselves. I came up through the ranks, that is inaccurate. They have time to go outside and smoke, or chat with friends on the phone, or devise new ways to steal!
Your repair company should be able to tell you exactly how many of each item you purchased from them and what you paid. They should be able to tell you the belt and filter size of every unit, or if it is direct drive, and what you paid per belt and filter. They should be able to look back and tell you every part, and the part number and cost of everything ever installed on that unit, That info should be available within 24 hours (Except during heat waves and the middle of summer).
You should understand the mark-up you are paying for parts. 40% is a good number, you are probably paying 40-250% or more now. Once a month or so, grab an invoice, pick up the phone, call the supply house local to that area, and ask for the sale and list price of a part you were charged for. This is a real eye opener.
My old company had a team that went around and did spot checks on rooftops. The gave very little notice, and only told techs to have someone available, not which sites they would check. The visit started with checking Make, Model and serial numbers recorded, if that was wrong, the visit would often go downhill from there. The team had a copy of all invoices submitted on that site and would look to see if the repair was actually done on the unit. Then they would look at the parts and try to ascertain if the parts charged were actually replaced.
I could go on for 10 pages or more on this stuff, but i won't. If you want to pick my brain, contact me. Contractors, I already know that I am hurting your sweet deal. You don't need to e-mail to tell me.
HVAC is you most costly line item in retail FM. You need to know what they are doing out there, and HOW they are shafting you, because many of them are, not all, but enough that your budget is paying the price.
I KNOW
People only do what you inspect, not what you expect.
I've got about 60 custodians, spread out across 13 locations who do our filter changes, belt changes, and other minor PM tasks. I inspect a percentage every month and take the custodians who are supposed to be doing the work up on the roof with me. Same goes for greasing pump bearings, or anything else that they're supposed to be doing. I sometimes leave something tiny sitting on a grease fitting or stick a piece of paper on top of an access cover. This is so I can see if somebody's put a grease gun on the fitting or opened the door.
You might be able to do the same, have X number of on management inspections with the contractor written into the contract and call at the last minute to schedule a surprise visit for each site. Go over the equipment with the service manager or owner. If they know that a random 10% is going to be checked, they'll be more likely to make sure all 100% are done right.
If I open an RTU and find filters that are clogged and somebody signed off that the filter was changed 2 weeks ago, the guy who signed is standing next to me and they're going to hear about it.
Some other things that work:
Have the people doing filter changes sign and date the exposed edge of the filter. Makes your inspection easier.
Have a PM sign-off sheet attached to each piece of equipment and require signatures and dates at the equipment. If somebody has to actually open the door on the equipment to initial and date the sheet, it's more likely that actual work will be done.
Unless you have someone on-site who can evaluate if the repairs being done are necessary, having the contractor save parts for your evaluation is a poor option but maybe the best you can do.
Larger service companies will offer service contracts with all maintenance and repairs including parts covered under a lump sum contract price. With a contract like this, you can be sure the contractor isn't doing unessecary repairs and your maintenance costs are known in advance. But you can also be sure you aren't getting any repairs until they're absolutely necessary and you'll pay a premium to cover the contractor's risk.
The absolute best solution, in my opinion, is to develop a long term relationship with a contractor you can trust and then trust them. You have to go through several before you find the one but it's nice once it happens. You'll still need to verify that the work's being done but after a year or two of finding them doing things right every time, you don't have to worry any more.
Retail unfortunately has the reputation for beating contractors up on price and rapid contractor turn over. If this is the case, a solution won't be found in better oversight and control.
20 years fixing, building, and managing facilitiesPreventive Maintenance
Judy,
I think Ryan provided you with some great pieces of advice. I have two comments regarding his feedback:
1. I kind of cringed when I read the part about putting something on grease fittings to see if they have been greased between your checking. Lubrication in general often is not done correctly. Maintenance technicians that don't understand proper lubrication practices will often apply the wrong grease, apply too much grease (especially in electric motors) or don't keep grease fittings clean. Exposed grease fittings often collect dirt or particles that get pushed down into the bearing if not properly cleaned before putting the grease gun in place. When dirt is forced into the bearing space we actually cause defects in the bearings that could have been avoided. Dust caps on grease fittings and color coding grease guns and grease fittings help, but nothing beats a well trained technican.
2. Towards the end of his feedback Ryan made the best point of all. Find a good maintenance contractor that you can develop a trust-based relationship with; don't nickel and dime them and you'll be better off. It is much harder to keep equipment running reliably when you don't have a good working relationship. Keep in mind that you, or your staff's time, costs money too. How much time you spend following the maintenance contractor around to assure a good job is a function of the level of trust with that contractor.
Best regards,
Tom
Thanks Tom and Ryan. Both very good suggestions. I like the idea of writing in a certain percentage of inspections to be done through out the year. I agree you have to inspect what you expect.
What I have done is asked a number of HVAC shops to submit the quailifcations of the techs on their staffs and see what training and experience they have. As stated by my fellow Facility Mamgers training of the tech is key to proper maintenance, look for trade school or an apprentienceship training, the American Society of Power Engineers has a very good certification program as does National Association of Power Engineers.
I have found union apprentenanceships training and trade school personnel to have the required knowledge to perform excellent service and don't nickel and dime the operation poor maintenance will come back to haunt you at the worst time possible.
I work for a large HVAC service provider in Florida and understand your frustration. Besides hiring a second opinion contractor, there are a couple ways to ensure you're getting what your paying when it comes to HVAC maintenance. One is to simply monitor what your service calls are for. For example, if your're getting service calls for water leaks, your HVAC company may not doing their job and cleaning condensate pans, drain lines and providing some type of pan treatment. Also, monitor your electric usage for each store. If a store has a unusualy high electric bill, there may be an issue with the HVAC systems such as dirty condenser coils or stuck contactor (again, items that should be caught by your HVAC contractor on a scheduled PM visit) Of, course if your PM program only includes a filter change and a hand wave over the condenser fan it makes it more difficult to monitor.
I'd didnt join this group to solicit work but my company specializes in retail store HVAC systems and we would be happy to help you with your concerns here in Florida or Geoegia.
AC Joe
just like Ryan i have PM sign off sheet at all of the equipment and the engineers have sign off that they inspected the equipment and that it is in good working order. the same for the contracts.
Judy:Ryan did indeed have some good suggestions. Please allow me to add a few from another contractor's perspective.
I too would stay away from the full maintenance contract Ryan mentioned. As one of my competitors once put it, "we have a contract where they send me money that I put in my bank account. Can you believe they then expect me to spend my money to fix their air conditioners?". As he implied, once he gets it it's his and he gets to keep anything he doesn't spend on you. Also, since most of these contracts are bid annually, you can expect that repair parts will either used parts from another site or the cheapest and least efficient available. Unless you specify otherwise and inspect regularly, he will not be considering long term performance because he does not know if he will have the contract after the next bid cycle.
In a maintenance contract that provides filter changes and inspections with repairs on a T&M basis, keep in mind that the low bidder may be bidding low to get his foot in the door with the intention of making up the difference on repairs. Be willing to pay enough for the filter changes and inspections to provide a minimal profit to the contractor. Keep in mind, however, that the prices should be slightly lower than the contractor's hourly rate and standard parts markup. From the contractor's perspective, PM's that can be somewhat flexible in their scheduling are great for filling in the slow periods and keeping the tech's busy.
Another thing to try to learn about your contractor is whether or not they pay their techs incentives to condemn parts and equipment that have not failed. I would estimate that in the residential service market about 80% of the contractors in our area have such an incentive program. Many commercial only contractors are catching on as well. One way to investigate this is to look at the help wanted adds the contractor places in their local paper or on line. If an add for techs mentions commissions, find another contractor. The only reason to offer techs a commission is to encourage them to sell something they would not otherwise recommend replacing.
Also look at the average ticket the contractor bills. If they have a $500.00 per call maximum before they have to call for approval and all of their tickets come in over $450.00, you can assume that they are fudging the numbers. Unfortunately it is not uncommon to find a contractor that requires its mechanics to bill $X.00 per truck per day or $X.00 per call, regardless of whether it is justified or not.
Another tell tale sign of a contractor you do not want is an invoice for a part that is under the manufacturer's extended warranty. Most commercial equipment manufacturers warrant the original compressors for 5 years and heat exchangers for 10 or more. If you receive a bill for replacing a 4 year old compressor and it includes the cost of the compressor, the contractor is most likely billing you for the part and turning it in to the manufacturer under warranty for a credit. In the trade they call this double dipping.
As other respondents have suggested, there are honest contractors out there but you will likely go through a few dishonest ones before you find them. Keep a watchful eye open for some of these indicators and have your people do a visual inspection whenever possible. The facilities managers at one of our national chains visit the roof from time to time, check for the dates on the filters as mentioned by others, and walk around the units listening for problems. It may also be worthwhile to have your facilities managers attend a basic air conditioning seminar. It will not make them mechanics, but it will give them an edge up.
Look back through your records and if most of the contractors pass these test you can breathe a little easier. If some do not, investigate further or have one of the others provide second opinions or follow behind them on some of the most questionable tickets. Keep in mind that most contractors like to criticize their competitors whether justified or not. Make it clear that you simply want an honest opinion.
Jeff
One of the things we do as a contractor to assure the customer is getting what they pay for in terms of a maintenance/inspection is to provide a report showing actual values measured during the time of the inspection (temperatures, pressures, voltage, amperage). It is pretty meaningless to have a checklist with OK checked for everything. If you are not receiving meaningful inspection reports that contain verifyable data, it is difficult to know what is really being done when the contractor is on the roof. I guess you could install webcams on the roof and watch them ;o)
Ask your contractor what process they have in place for hiring technicians. The quality of people hired to perform the work has a direct bearing on the quality of work delivered. We used to test only for technical skills. We now test for other factors as well. Interviews are best handled by teams and not one individual.
I think another thing that would help is to break down the work into geographical areas rather than contracting with one company on a national basis. Working with local contractors, while more labor intensive for the property manager, allows a lot more control over the quality.
Consider looking into a conditioned based maintenance program. With this type of program you can lay out required test results for systems. One of the suggestions was to take volt and amp readings. For this, you would need to have a base-line reading taken from a clean system and then compare and do trending. There are a lot of possibilities with CBM. One company that deals with this type of program is Maintenance Strategies, Inc (MSI) out of King of Prussia, PA. Jeff Evans is the VP there and may be able to answer some of your questions and even help you set up a program of your own. He can be reached at (610) 717-1853. I'll be happy to answer any questions I can at (717) 554-3255.
I also work for a retail chain and deal with this same issue. As many of the other respondents noted, getting accurate back up paperwork noting equipment information and readings is critical, but I also look for filters to be dated, equipment to be rated quarterly and periodic digital photos. Most mall's in the country will work with you if you ask for the Ops Manager to verify the date on filters next time they're on the roof when you want to spot check the HVAC company. If the information is not consistent with the HVAC companies PM paperwork, I would contact them seeking an explanation. As far as equipment ratings go, I use this as leverage with the HVAC contractor. If the equipment continually gets good ratings during quarterly PM's and I then experience equipment failure or expensive repairs, I have 3 + years back up to track each technician's assessment of the equipment and can challenge the contractor on past assessments and cause for failure / repairs. This also helps with budgeting for future repairs or equipment replacement. If equipment gets poor ratings I might get a second opinion depending upon the age of the equipment and what the digital photos show. I also require that the PM contractor check in with the store prior to servicing equipment and upon completion so I see amount of time spent servicing the unit -- not fool proof at all, but a gauge of how much time is spent servicing the unit/s. I also monitor the locations with the highest number of no heat / no cooling calls and evaluate if the number falls within the acceptable range or above average. Any store with an above average number of complaints sets off a trigger to get photo documentation and potentially a second opinion so I can evaluate if a change in contractors is required.
May cost some money, but a building management system can let you know when there are issues with hvac systems and you can have an idea upfront on what may be wrong with your equipment before you call for service. Building management systems will save you money in the long run. There are all kinds of controls that can be used to reduce energy consumption which means equipment is running less or at lower outputs. These systems can also be used to control hvac in multiple locations which would be beneficial to you.
I agree with what one of the other gentlemen said, a good tracking system is having history sheets hanging in the equipment so you can check on what work has been done to a unit allowing you to monitor the services that have been performed. Also, definately stay away from full service contracts.
Judy:Kensbest put it very well. He has obviously been down this road. A couple of points if I may:
The dates marked on the filters should be for the benefit of those making spot inspections on the roof, not for someone to bring to the manager. Also make sure your person looks past the last filter. We were in a federal building in DC the other day and the only clean filter in the air handler we inspected was the first one you come to when you open the filter access panel. This was in a building with a full time maintenance contractor on site and building managers in the same building. There is nothing some techs and some companies won't do.
I would add that you also do not rely on the local government inspectors for quality control of your unit replacements. If your contractor's reply to any question about quality is that it passed inspection, get someone you trust to take another look. By the time the inspector gets there, many of the problems are hidden and his only concern is whether it meets code or not. Quality is not his issue and he has probably been doing this long enough that poor workmanship does not even raise an eyebrow.
If you use a contractor that manages subcontractors, make sure they conduct random inspections as Kensbest mentioned his old company provided. For example, when your contractor sees a proposal for multiple heat exchangers on a single roof it should raise a red flag that indicates a site inspection is justified. Some contractors simply see it as one more large invoice they can mark up.
A quick note to Kensbest. I know you didn't want to hear from contractors, but this one will tell you to go get them. I have to compete with these companies and the sooner their schemes are out in the open the better it is for the rest of us and the professional facilities managers.
Thank you Jeff and Kenbest! I have gotten quite a few responses to this thread so I guess I hit a nerve! If you don't mind, I will be contacting you to network further. Thanks!
Judy