“Making a Performance and Maintenance plan for your facility is about being proactive,” says Mike. Once you’ve identified the solutions you’ll use for your facility, establish a performance and maintenance plan or a “P&M Plan.” This ensures that your facility is maintained to the agreed-upon standard beyond any near-term COVID-19 concerns.
“Even after the COVID-19 scare dies down, you still need to wash your hands,” says Larry. “You still need a UV light system to kill pathogens. You still need an anti-microbial ionized coating to protect the people in your facility.”
Chances are that the fire extinguishers in your facility have a tag hanging on them with the date of the last inspection. You can easily see as you walk by if it’s been inspected within the one-year requirement or if an inspection needs to be done. “The same thing needs to happen with filters,” says Larry. “Every facility should have a tag on your filters that displays the last date it was changed.” An anti-microbial filter is only an effective preventative measure if it’s replaced on a regular schedule.
Water filtration is one of the basic items for your P&M checklist. Some facilities track filter change reminders through Outlook or by creating a maintenance schedule in a spreadsheet. This schedule should take into account the flow and usage rates specific to each building or location.
“The more frequently you check the maintenance of your building, the safer it will be for the people in it,” says Mike. “It’s about keeping the water flowing, it’s about reducing downtime, and taking care of the obvious stuff like touch points and stagnant water.”
“The important thing is that you write the maintenance schedule down, and you get team buy in on it,” says Larry. “Make it easy for your maintenance engineers to maintain the safety of your building.”
Check out the rest of this award-winning series: Best Practices for Antimicrobial Plumbing.