University of Michigan project

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

The campus of the University of Michigan (UM) is constantly in a state of improvement and expansion. UM Plant Operations was in need of a third-party resource that would help them forecast budgets for their new buildings and major renovations at the APPA “Comprehensive Stewardship” Trades Staffing Guideline Level. Being on the forefront of facilities management practices, UM Plant Operations developed an ambitious and progressive scope of work to capture this vision.

 

Through UM’s competitive bidding process, ISES was awarded this work. Various contractual partnerships, such as this project, have existed between UM Plant Operations and ISES over the last decade. Having experienced first-hand the resources, services, and flexibility ISES has to offer, they entrusted ISES with the accomplishment of the following details of their vision.

 

In the spring of 2002, UM kicked off a major construction expansion initiative. This program included 2.5 million square feet in 16 upgraded, expanded, or newly constructed facilities, the majority of which being complex, research-type. The construction was to be completed in less than five years. Starting with bid-set drawings and progressing through substantial completion and post UM department specific occupancy, ISES was charged with the timely delivery of:

 

  • Equipment Inventories – UM standard bar code labels were applied to all Plant-maintained equipment items. Pertinent equipment information was gathered, summarized, and formatted for loading into their Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS).         
  • Preventive Maintenance (PM) Programs – PM procedures were outlined for each specific equipment item and loaded into their CMMS. Annual material and labor costs, along with full-time employee (FTE) requirements, were estimated to achieve APPA’s Comprehensive Stewardship Level of service.         
  • Custodial, Zone Maintenance, Grounds, and Waste Management Needs Estimates – Start-up and annual costs, service contract extensions, and FTE requirements were estimated in order to anticipate increased incremental staffing for these functions and departments.         
  • Capital Renewal and Repair Project Estimates – Tasks were forecasted over twenty years by equipment item. FTE and average annual cost requirements were estimated accordingly.         
  • Peer Department Support Needs Estimates – Administrative, Work Control, and Utilities & Engineering Department support costs were estimated for their budgetary impacts. Other start-up costs including those for field staff such as tools, testing equipment, and specialty contracted services required to support the building expansion were also estimated.

 

With this information, UM Plant Operations has been able to anticipate building-specific operational requirements. Preventive maintenance programs were initiated “just in time” with building activation. An internal department forum was created for the various UM Shops, Trades, and Engineering Management teams to galvanize themselves in their mission to provide superior service to their customers. ISES Corporation was given an opportunity to develop their fledgling Operations and Maintenance Programming (OMP) service.

 

The first phase of this partnership has been such a success, UM has brought ISES on to perform a second phase of building reports. The building reports are now targeted to their most complex or unique buildings under development. These reports are now requested by upper administrative financial analysis staff for operational forecasting. In addition, various schools and colleges interested in understanding all of their operational costs incurred in daily Plant support are requesting the reports to estimate set-asides that include sinking funds for future building replacement or renovations.

 

Industry partnerships and new developments in financial practices, such as this program, are one of many that helped the University of Michigan achieve the APPA Award for Excellence in 2006.