Maintenance room organization

We have 12 communities, all with different size maintenance rooms, mostly organized by different maintenance staff so no two setups are the same.
The result is wasted time trying to find stuff when unfamiliar staff enters a new maintenance room.

Any suggestions as to where how to setup so that is is cookie cutter?

thanks

I know that HD Supply does this..... I even think that this is actually part of the job description for their field account managers; but don't hold me to that.

We as a company do that for free.(except for shelving) It is called "Maintenance Shop Program"whereby, our full time maintenance re-hab team will help you create an efficient work space that will enable you to find materials quickly and allow for ordering system to be implemented. Consolidate your materials (Dispose of obsolete products and eliminate wasted space.) Easily Identify products with pictures label.

Where do I get more information about this program?

thanks,

Century did that for me YEARS ago (lol) and it was sooo perfect...in theory. The maint guys have to stay on top of keeping it organized and sometimes they are in such a hurry to get things done, they forget that things are in order to make it easier for them! I totally reccomend it still!

I do remember that our HD Supply rep spent a whole day with our maintenance manager organizing his shop AND schedules a couple of hours every quarter to help tidy it up. All you need to do is ask. He even helped him put together a tool bin for his golf cart and helped to install shelving in a 'janitor's closet'.

Something else he did is download and create a binder (both electronic for the office and paper for the shop) of MSDS sheets for everything that he was using.

Your maintenance supply distributor can help with the set-up and also provide color coded bin box labels. While every shop is different due to size, the labels will help create a consistency.

The real challenge isn't getting it set-up...it's keeping it that way.

Here are a few suggestions and a couple of random thoughts:
- create a monthly or quarterly bonus for the maintenance team that keeps the shop the nicest. Establish a grading sheet to communicate expectations.
- the maintenance staff needs to assist in cleaning/set-up. They must have some ownership otherwise it will revert to a mess quickly
- to start, throw out everything that hasn't been used in a long time. Shops are limited in space and any "dusty parts" are using up your valuable real estate.
- throw out any old chemicals. They are hazardous. Also, it's a good time to make sure that you have all the MSDS safety sheets.
- put the maintenance shop on the property tour and ask your prospective residents to request looking at the shop of your competition. An organized shop means a well maintained apartment.

Hope that helps a little.

If you DO throw out old chemicals; make sure that they are done safely. Check with your city and find out when or where they do hazardous materials collections. HD Supply may be able to help with this.

When I order chemicals from HD Supply for the first time, I download the MSDS form they have on their website. It is easy to do so when you know HDSupply's SKU. I print it for the maintenance folder and save a copy if I need to reprint it for any reason.

We are going to do this with several of our properties as a test case.
We also want to have pride in our maint shops as well as the techs who help keep them that way.
These will be on the property tour in the future. We will keep everyone posted on the progress.
Al