Month: December 2017

In the first part of this series, we introduced how proper employee training on building automation can maximize both ROI and performance. You’ve finished your training, but the process isn’t over, as the reflection and evaluation periods afterwards are likely some of the most important stages to analyze current situations, instill proper actions, and make plans.

Stage Three – After Training

What happens when training is over? Like a follow-through on a golfer’s swing, a good follow-through after absorbing new knowledge is imperative. Just because training is over does not mean that everyone simply resumes their everyday work routines. Management can only hope employees take what they learned during training and apply it, so it is important to analyze and plan a next course of action. A good training session is one that is an ongoing project.

Management helped to identify employees’ development needs and organizational goals and how they fit with the company and operations. Now that training is over, management should now be able to compare the employee’s work with their identified needs and the company’s goals. By doing this, management can assess the effectiveness of the training and what efficiencies can be improved. Additionally, this also helps management decide on any future training by getting feedback on how effective the training sessions were to their employees and what topics are still unclear or can be further developed and put into practice.

Best Practices for Evaluations

Any management and/or trainers should ask these questions. This will help all higher-ups properly evaluate just how effective training was and to find areas of improvement on future sessions:

• Was the training done on-time and within the allotted time frame?
• How effective was the trainer at engaging the audience?
• Did the training properly meet all legal, regulatory, and safety requirements?
• How did the training affect employee morale and performance? Did it affect it positively?
• What common questions came up during training that can be addressed next time?
• Were solutions to those common questions properly put into use afterwards?
• Were all goals and weaknesses addressed?

By now, employees should understand that building automation increases efficiency and delivers results when properly applied. With proper training, employees understand their role better in the overall scheme of operations, and better work and productivity can follow. Contact us to learn more about facility management, training, and building automation.

You may think you can’t afford to spend money increasing the efficiency of your current facility, but the truth often is you can’t afford not to. Piecemeal attempts at energy efficiency may save money or improve operations temporarily, but to really reap the benefits of energy cost reductions, you need a strategic energy and maintenance program that takes an overall look at your unique facility. Every aspect of building operations should be considered, from the small individual changes (which can sum up to large savings) to the overall intelligence system of your operation that controls energy. Your systems should be up-to-date, offering transparency and providing crucial real-time data to analyze and take action on improving your system.

Critical examination of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems is vital. Inefficiencies such as air leaks are common. Many times, mechanical components are outdated and need replacement, and those replacements can improve efficiency from a functionality and systems perspective.

A building intelligence platform can coordinate all energy consumption in your facility from one central location to alert you to any deviations in energy use, by monitoring, analyzing, and reporting in real time the fluctuations in consumption. Perhaps you have older equipment, such as cooling towers or exchangers, not operating at full efficiency. Minor changes in computer practices, such as turning monitors off when not in use, can make surprisingly significant differences. Is your lighting the most efficient? What are your water use practices? Do you have low-flow toilets and faucets? Are electronics that use power cut off when not needed?

After a complete, professional energy audit, it is often found that upgrades improve the bottom lines of any entity. The changes pay for themselves in both the short and long runs, along with lightening the company’s footprint on the environment.

A comprehensive plan can be your greatest asset, where developing a plan can save thousands on costs and energy consumption, while restoring greater control to the organization. We use our energy knowledge to help give you that control by designing a comprehensive plan to maximize both your economic and environmental efficiency. For more information, contact us today.

One of the costs of doing business is that utility bill that comes at the end of the month to run your building operations. There’s no getting around it; you need to have power to keep your facility running. But do you need to consume as much power as you are? And if you don’t, what areas can you trim usage, reduce waste, and minimize costs?

Work Smarter, Not Harder

The problem with reducing waste consumption comes if you take on the challenge without a plan. You could spend a lot more money and resources than your savings will recuperate, or worse, you could take cost-saving measures that don’t cut down waste and forces more money expenditures, which could compound the problems. To avoid this, evaluate your operations and collect data to make sure the solutions you’re examining will actually have an impact on your problem areas.

Perform the necessary evaluations to get your business back on track. Energy audits and strategizing will make you look at all parts of building operations, from how much electricity lights use, to how much energy your appliances draw, to where inefficiencies are with HVAC systems, and more. All important aspects should be tallied and accounted for. Once you have hard data and numbers, it is important to analyze and create a plan that will work with your existing systems, giving you immediate savings with minimum amount of replacement and other overhead costs. Your goal is to be better and understand the tools and equipment with which you work and use them more efficiently.

For more information on Performance Solutions, and how we can help you reduce your resource consumption, decrease building operation expenditures, and find new cost saving opportunities, contact us today!

Equipment breaks down; no matter how much it’s combated, eventually a failure will occur with a seemingly endless list of reasons. In this case, defense will win the game. Preemptive and preventative measures are often the most reliable way to increase the lifespan and performance of your equipment. There are several important aspects to achieving success in preventative equipment care.

Know Your Equipment

Knowing the ins and outs of your equipment is a great place to start. Understanding how it works, what its weak points are, and the most likely causes of failure allows you to begin planning and preparing for inevitable fixes. Manufacturers often offer equipment information in some form, or your maintenance technicians can fill you in. When drawing up plans for a project, consider the equipment and include preventative measures in your plan. Knowledge is power and will give you the edge on equipment decay.

Keep Staff Well-Trained

Keeping your support staff informed is crucial for success. User error is a huge cause of equipment failure, so your best practice is to have your staff informed on the proper use of equipment and aware of warning signs of equipment failure. What this looks like for your business can vary, but consider spending a short meeting discussing some of the key features of the equipment or having documentation available. We all can have a lapse of judgement from time to time, so having information accessible allows staff to seek it early and save time.

Run Routine Inspections

Having equipment inspected regularly can prevent huge costs later on. Equipment may have intricate part systems or delicate pieces that need to be maintained and checked properly, or else it can cause huge, expensive failures. Having these parts checked on a schedule can save you expensive repair or replacement costs and can keep your business operations running smoothly and on schedule.

Ultimately, repair costs can be unpredictable and often are tough to stomach. Taking the time to plan and prepare can save you money, time, and relationships caused by production delays. The system and flow of your business will benefit greatly from properly functioning equipment. We offer consultation and planning to help you prevent these issues. For more information and to learn more about receiving consultation, contact us.