Maintenance & Alterations unit splits

It may be just the start of a new biennium for most of the campus, but for more than 360 employees in the Facilities Services Maintenance and Alterations Department, it’s a new world.

As of July 1, the department will become two—Campus Maintenance and Campus Alterations—with revised procedures, staff assignments and organization.

Creating two separate departments will enable staff to focus on a single function and to improve efficiency, according to Rick Cheney, director of Maintenance and Alterations. Campus Maintenance will be devoted to maintenance only while Campus Alterations will be a self-sustaining, internal construction company for remodeling projects with construction costs below $25,000, the statutory limitation.

Maintenance services will be delivered in zones, created to accommodate geographical arrangements, client characteristics and operational needs. The zones are the central campus, southwest campus, northeast campus, health sciences and outside (consisting of grounds, building exteriors and heavy equipment work). A manager will be assigned to each zone and be responsible for the stewardship of facilities in that area. Zone managers and staff will know the facilities and the people in their area and be able to respond more effectively.

Campus alterations will have offices located in south campus and in upper campus. Its organization will focus on thorough pre-project planning with a single point of contact for the client in order to improve communication and understanding of what the project will entail.

Alterations project managers, once they have worked in partnership with the client to plan a project that satisfies the client needs and budget, will remain involved as the shops bring the project into reality. Best of all, trades people will not be pulled away from a project to deal with emergency maintenance problems, a situation that can occur under the current organization.

“The end goal is improved responsiveness to client needs and better stewardship of the physical plant,” said Jerri McCray, assistant vice president for Facilities Services.

Planning for the re-organization began more than two years ago to improve timeliness, efficiency and cost accountability for alterations projects and in recognition that support services at universities across the nation are being pressed for more efficient performance, continually asked to do more with less. Consultants Peat Marwick KPMG conducted an organization assessment, interviewing employees, management and clients. The quality of work done by Maintenance and Alterations staff was consistently praised, but there was dissatisfaction with service delivery and costs.

Maintenance and Alterations management and employees formed into workgroups and explored possible improvements, and then designed new structures and re-constructed process to streamline procedures. ¶