Widening the Spotlight on Maintenance and Engineeringtest

By Dan Hounsell, Editor-in-Chief

September 2016

One challenging aspect of recognizing the achievements of maintenance and engineering departments is realizing that many worthwhile and innovative accomplishments go overlooked.

Unfortunately, it happens. For every recipient of a 2016 Facilities Maintenance Decisions Achievement Award, more than a few entrants do not get their time in the spotlight, even though they accomplished something impressive. So let’s remedy that by widening the spotlight of recognition a bit to include four noteworthy entrants:

CBRE Raintree Corporate Center, Scottsdale, Ariz. An LED retrofit resulted in energy savings of about $1,014 per fixture. The project replaced 370 lamps, going from a 175 watt (W) metal halide lamp to a 45 W LED, and it produced a return on investment of 2.89 months.

Houston Methodist Hospital. The facilities management department sought to meet stringent compliance requirements for testing and maintenance of emergency power and backup systems and improve the intensive testing process. The department connected eight generators, 66 automatic transfer switches and 15 meters into a systemwide, secure network to allow real-time visibility and control, provide remote testing and monitoring, and help streamline compliance reporting.

School District of Osceola County, Fla. Facing rising fuel costs, the maintenance department reallocated workloads and realigned service zones to minimize travel distance. The result was two-year savings of $200,000.

Stearns County, Minn. The 28-person facilities management department served as general contractor for construction of a new county service center and awarded much of the work to in-house staff. The successfully completed project opened the door for similarly managed ventures, including construction of a new county hazardous waste facility.

Check out all of the 2016 entries at www.facilitiesnet.com/fmd/fmdaa/results.aspx

Review the 2016 award recipients at facilitiesnet.com/fmd/fmdaa.

Dan Hounsell is the Editor-in-Chief of Facility Maintenance Decisions. Email him at dan.hounsell@tradepressmedia.com