Organizing What Supplies Needed

Hello I am new to apartment maintenance and I have been taking care of a small 56 unit complex but I feel like I have been making excess trips to home depot for small fixes. The complex I am taking care of is only a year old so its mostly been small simple repairs but what would be a good list of things I should keep on hand? Also does anyone know of any good reading materials for a new maintenance guy, I am 20 years old and grew up doing handyman work and so far everything has been going great but I'm trying to find ways to keep everything organized here. When I was hired on this complex pretty much handed me the keys and said here you go so everything is still new to me, not the repair aspect but the organization aspect of handling work orders and turning units. To make matters worse my manager is pretty new at this and the company managing the property is pretty new so I don't have much guidance, but on the flip side the manager has been awesome and the regional manager has been good. Its just I don't have say a maintenance supervisor or anyone helping me and giving me insider tips. On the flip side I love it because I can try new things and am always looking for better ways to do things. Also looking for good ways to track failure rates on things, you gotta remember I'm juggling this place and class so I keep busy doing one thing or another so its easy for me to become very disorganized.

Congrats on your new position, Jon. I am not a Maintenance person, but I manage and have managed many. I am happy to see you are asking about reading books - I would suggest looking into any of the online training courses your company offers (The Training Factor/Grace Hill) and getting your EPA certification. That's as far as my knowledge goes there.

Organizing a shop though is dfferent. Have lots of bins labeled that fit on shelves in your Shop. Divide area into: Plumbing, Electrical, HVAC, Painting/Prep, Tools (nice to have hanging pegboards on the wall over a tool bench), Windows (balances, blinds, etc., and a couple of Buckets ready where you keep all the stuff you need when you are going on a service call or when you are working in a turn unit. Because I believe in inventory lists, in each "department" you can keep a list of stock. As you use items, you can cross off so you always know at a glance when to place orders. In another area, you will keep chemicals. You need a notebook that contains the Safety Sheets (MSDS but they stopped calling them that.) These safety sheets list all the chemicals in a product, what to do if swallowed or gets in your eye and has to be a certain way according to OSHA. If you are not familiar with this, you need to get trained. This area contains your PPE gear (eyewear, gloves, masks, etc.)
There will also be a place to store rakes, ladders, snow blowers, your golf cart and all that.
You probably have a lock station with key machine and everything that goes along with that.
You should have a computer with the software to log in completed work orders. Then there are file cabinets - every Shop is different in what they keep there versus the Leasing Office in the way of warranties and manuals.

I find that a lot of maintenance techs and supervisors are really the ones to educate the Managers and Leasing teams on the turnover/make ready completion process. I thank God for them everyday. So, you may need to gently help your other team members.

Hello Jon,

I think it is great that you have it all and so you can make it the model for others to immulate! Mindy gave you great information and she is a sharp lady. I have not seen her give any bad advice!

What I want to add is to ensure all things that would carry a warranty that you have an in service date on them, so you can take adantage of any warranty issues. Most places I have been I have seen where this was not taken advantage of.

Track all items as to which units any inventory parts went into. This normally is a ledger and what it does is it tracks not only into what unit the items went into, but incase you are ever questioned, you want to keep track of what your maintenance personnel are using, or it may show where there is a problem in a certain unit that would now be readily identified.

The other thing is if you want to save on your maintenance costs is look at companies that can save you on your MRO. There is one small company that I know which is on the rise and is very reasonable and they have great support. eSuppy Systems is their name. You would need to talk to your managers and management company about them as it is not something you can enter into on your own, but I have seen them save properties lots of money! They work with Wilmar, HD Supply, Supply Headquarters, Graiger, In the Swim, Sherwin WIlliams, and many other companies and they use these large purchasing powers to pass on savings as well as they have a program where you can order from the comfort of your office and there is real time tracking of spend which managers and owners love!

OK, that is my two cents worth! Good luck and you have a carreer field that is very rewarding. You have a direct impact on occupancy.

Hi Jon,

I cant help you much with the supplies other than keep daily notes of every single supply item used. Soon you will start to see a trend of what you should keep stocked for your facility. From what Christen Johnson has explained to me over at www.mobile-shop.com this is how they decided what to include in their PM maintenance cart (someday I will supply these carts for my team)

I have also purchased quite a few used property management books like PM 101 and PM 102 on Amazon. The RS Means Cost Planning & Estimating for Facilities Maintenance is a MUST HAVE and on Amazon offers the "click to look inside" option. The RS Means Facilities Maintenance and Repair Costs Data is also good to have around but a more difficult read. Mostly we use it for benchmarking on unknown costs.

Good luck in your PM career.

www.mobile-shop.com

I think you should relax and keep records of items purchased. after 6 months to a year you will see a trend. There are somethings you have to have all the time, like spare toilets, fill valves, flappers, etc but somethings you may only need once or twice a year, like a disposer.

It will become clear to you in time.