Planned programme maintenance overview
Adopting a proactive and managed approach to the delivery of improvement programmes is one of the most cost-effective ways of keeping properties in good condition and can significantly reduce the number of day-to-day repairs, achieving as a minimum the government's Decent Homes Standard. All housing organisations have a duty to ensure that their properties are well maintained and in a good lettable condition, establishing procedures that will deliver planned maintenance programmes effectively and responsively, in ways that reflect resident's preferences, wherever possible. Indeed, maintaining their housing stock is a key responsibility of all social landlords, ensuring that the physical life and viability of each dwelling is maximised, thus preserving and extending its value.
In delivering planned improvements to their asset portfolio over a rolling programme, there are a number of challenges and opportunities for a housing organisation to consider:
Planned programme maintenance focuses on the steps necessary to configure the definition of each stock improvement project, whether that be to, say, install new fitted kitchens, bathrooms or double-glazing. Within each definition it is possible to set target dates around the commencement and likely completion of the project, as well as the allocated budget and any professional fees that are likely to be incurred. Once the scope of a programme has been identified, the comprehensive breakdown of the work instruction is captured through the inclusion of one or more Schedule of Rates (SOR) templates, comprising a subset of related SOR codes detailing the individual tasks involved in the stock upgrade. The method by which an end user can then assign the defined improvement programme to the relevant asset records is twofold: (1) The Advanced Statement Builder can be employed to return all matching assets through a custom algorithm, with an option to finalise the list through further manual intervention, or (2) The assets identified for upgrade can be maintained separately in an external file (spreadsheet or delimited text), which is then used to filter all assets relevant to the programme by virtue of the unique reference number correlation, mapped through a data upload. Once the scheduled programme is underway, the chronological status progression is automatically set in line with key milestones, such as the allocation of assets, the generation of work orders, etc. At the end user's discretion, there is also the facility to assign a manual status to the programme, as well as to individual assets contained therein, reflecting any extenuating circumstances or enforced delays.
Separate help articles have been created for each key aspect of planned programme maintenance, including: