Three ways manufacturers impact facility maintenance speed and success

The 1986 movie “Top Gun,” features Pete “Maverick” Mitchell saying, “I feel the need, the need for speed,” while flying an F-14 Tomcat. This phrase is cemented into pop culture and is used to illustrate the need for expediency in virtually any situation – including facility maintenance.

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Maintainers often have more tasks to complete than time in the day, and they can be hard pressed to disinfect restrooms, refill dispensers, change batteries, scrub floors, and perform routine maintenance within the allotted hours. The last thing they have time for is an empty supply closet, a lengthy maintenance manual, or hours of customer service hold music.

Below are three capabilities facility managers can look for in their dispenser manufacturer partner to help keep maintainers efficient and effective.

Uninterrupted product supply

COVID taught the world a number of critical lessons, one of which was the importance of a future-proofed supply chain. It doesn’t matter how fast a maintainer works if he or she is unable to perform even their most basic tasks of replacing toilet paper, paper towels, hand soap, or dispenser batteries because supplies aren’t available.

The only way to prevent a maintainer from encountering an empty supply closet is to partner with a manufacturer that has the infrastructure to ensure that doesn’t happen.

Facility managers might ask some pointed questions of their preferred manufacturer or distribution partner to determine if they consistently invest in manufacturing and logistics automation, if they have a business continuity or recovery process in place, and if they have a dedicated transportation fleet. The correct answers to these questions are “yes” and “let me show you.”

On-demand video troubleshooting

According to a recent survey, 79 per cent of maintainers interviewed prefer in-person hands-on training when learning how to work with new equipment. Unfortunately, in-person facility maintenance product training is time-intensive and often inefficient and impractical when maintainers need to hit the ground running from day one.

For this reason, more manufacturers are simplifying their equipment designs, removing complexity, and delivering equipment with visual, often colour-coded, cues to intuitively guide maintainers through simple tasks such as loading product or changing the battery. For situations that require on-the-spot troubleshooting, QR codes within dispensers provide maintainers with immediate access to easy-to-follow video tutorials they can view – and view again and again if necessary – from their cell phones.

With 100 per cent of facility maintenance staff in the survey indicating they carry a cell phone with them while they work, QR codes are a valuable tool to help maintainers do their jobs efficiently and effectively.

Live customer support

Undoubtedly, situations will arise when a maintainer needs to make direct contact with a manufacturer’s customer support representative. In those instances, the representative has the ability to showcase how easy (or difficult) that manufacturer is to work with.

This isn’t just about the representative answering the call after one ring or having a friendly tone of voice; it’s how knowledgeable the representative is on the products and how they work, as well as the tools they have available to help diagnose and resolve the problem at hand.

Just as facility managers should ask questions of manufacturers and distributors about supply chain capabilities, they might also ask about live customer support resources. For example, have representatives gone through product training? Is real-time call transcription used so representatives can focus on the customer rather than on taking notes? Do representatives leverage visual remote assistance technology so they can gain visual access to products during calls?

Facilities and dispenser manufacturers should have similar goals – to keep maintainers productive and the facility properly functioning. Getting educated on how different manufacturers operate and pursue product design can provide facility managers with the confidence to know they actually are aligned and have what it takes to get the job done right, the first time, every time.

Ronnie Phillips, who has a Ph.D. in Chemistry from the Georgia Institute of Technology, is senior director of Washroom Innovation at GP PRO, the away-from-home division of Georgia-Pacific, and an adjunct faculty member in Georgia State University-Perimeter College’s Chemistry Department. GP PRO is a recognized leader in designing innovative restroom solutions that meet the needs of both restroom users and maintainers. To learn more, visit www.gppro.com. 

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