The Preventative Maintenance Shop

The Saint John’s PM Shop is a one-person operation (Bob Pogatschnik).   The shop has gotten smaller since its inception in the 1980’s, though we occasionally get part-time student assistance when available.  The entire rationale of a PM Shop is to avoid or catch problems before they become major and debilitating.

The occupants of our facilities make most maintenance requests.  But no one occupies the mechanical rooms and tunnels where very expensive and complex equipment resides to control the environment in our buildings.  The PM program provides that “mechanical room and tunnel” occupant to perform routine maintenance and to observe conditions.  Every mechanical room is visited every two weeks.  Filters on air handling units are changed, belts are tightened, and equipment is lubricated – all done in an attempt to prolong the life of the equipment and to keep it reliable.  The PM technician listens to the “normal” sound of the mechanical room, to better gauge when a bearing is about to go out or a drive shaft is getting out of balance.

We have a comprehensive routine of PM operations which are computer generated on a weekly, biweekly, monthly, bimonthly, quarterly, annually, or biannually basis  --  providing the PM technician with a checklist of activities to be performed, some of which are inspected on a periodic basis by our insurance carrier.  These latter relate primarily to fire pump maintenance and testing of alarm and sprinkler systems.

Our PM technician is experienced and committed to doing a good job.  He is cost conscious and understands the importance of preventative or predictive maintenance.