Need-to-have building maintenance supplies no matter your industry
Your whole building matters, and that means it is not just hygiene that is a cause for concern. In fact, the building maintenance process also involves technical work to keep your facility in good shape. Once your team has been assembled, you will need to find out what your ongoing needs are in terms of cleaning tools and supplies.
Identifying your needs often depends on the industry that you are in, so take that into consideration when assembling your “tools and supplies” list. Here are some common items that you may want to consider adding to that list.
- Tools and Equipment: automatic floor scrubber, power drill, insulated hand tools, wet-dry vac, multiple use snips, infrared leak detector for both moisture and energy detection.
- Cleaning supplies: chemicals and cleaning products, cleaning equipment, janitorial supplies, toiletries, linens, uniforms, recycling and waste equipment
- Cleaning compounds and dispensers: non-motorized cleaning equipment and trash receptacles, paper products, motorized floor cleaning equipment and accessories
- Real property inventory: a system that maintains an inventory of your company’s assets and how to manage those assets.
- Computer aided facility management: using information technology to help streamline the facility management process, including adding computerized systems, software, and training to your list.
- O&M Manual: Creating your own O&M manual is critical for establishing quality practices within your teams and facility.
Your job as a business owner is to understand that building maintenance and sanitation requires infrastructure that needs to be governed by a set of rules and processes and managed by a competent team with clearly defined roles.
This means mapping out exactly what you need in terms of staffing, equipment, and ongoing consumables on a monthly basis. These are all tied into your processes and how you choose to maintain your facility.
A restaurant, for example, would clean and thoroughly rinse their kitchen floor and have processes in place to guarantee daily kitchen hygiene and front-of-house hygiene. The facility maintenance team will also make sure that all chairs are stable and that the environment in the dining room is safe and tidy.