Following are descriptions of the five institutional recipients of APPA’s 2003 Effective & Innovative Practices Award. This award recognizes programs and processes that enhance service delivery, lower costs, increase productivity, improve customer service, generate revenue, or otherwise benefit the educational institution. Entries can describe either a new program or significant restructuring of an existing program or process.
Up to five submissions are eligible each year for a cash award of $4,000, which is generously sponsored by Sodexho USA. The Professional Affairs Committee selects the winning entries based on a point system. There were 13 entries this year from 10 schools, and these five successful institutions received special recognition, and a check, at APPA’s Educational Facilities Leadership Forum in Nashville.
The deadline for the 2004 Effective & Innovative Practices Award is January 31, 2004. For more information or to retrieve the award application, please visit www.appa.org/recognition/effectiveandinnovativepractices.cfm.
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY
Safety Alert Program
by Michael Griffin and William G. Suter
Michael Griffin is the capital renewal/deferred maintenance manager at American University, Washington, D.C. This is his first article for Facilities Manager, and he can be reached at mgriffi@american.edu. Willy Suter is AU’s director of physical plant operations and can be reached at wsuter@american.edu.
Institutional Benefits
The purpose of the Safety Alert Program was to enhance awareness and protect American University Physical Plant staff and contractors during the performance of routine, preventive maintenance and emergency tasks in mechanical and electrical rooms. The program supported in-house staff and contractors in four major areas: safety awareness, equipment labeling, training, and information accessibility.
The following are specific benefits:
1. The drawings explained basic safety awareness for each location.
2. The drawings showed the mechanical and electrical equipment in a spatial relationship to the room.
3. The drawings showed specific locations for controlling of electrical and mechanical equipment.
4. Tables of mechanical equipment showing name, type, function, and closest disconnect.
5. The relabeling of all associated equipment (such as the piece of equipment and its electrical disconnect).
6. The new numbering scheme shows the type, location, and sequential number by the floor where the equipment is located.
Innovation, Creativity and Originality
We are not aware of a Safety Alert program anywhere with the purpose of notifying workers of the safety concerns in a mechanical/electrical room and about useful information for that particular room. Prior to the development of our Safety Alert Program, personnel learned to understand mechanical spaces by either word-of-mouth training, browsing through drawings, or the old standby of physically searching the mechanical space for equipment.
We believe that our approach to this effort has resulted in a powerful tool to visually inform in-house staff and contractors about the possible hazards and equipment relationships in the mechanical/electrical rooms.
Portability and Sustainability
The Safety Alert Program can be adapted for use by any institution. The following list shows each of the general steps in the process:
1. Design an equipment-labeling scheme that is consistent for all users.
• Label the equipment with a numbering system that is simple and can be remembered and used by the workforce.
• Show the equipment type, floor location, and sequential number by the floor where it is located.
2. Survey, identify, label, and verify locations of existing equipment disconnects.
• Add new equipment and delete missing equipment from the database.
• Label the motor control centers and local disconnects for each piece of equipment with the same label as the equipment it controls.
3. List safety concerns for each mechanical/electrical room.
• Identify the general hazards and environmental concerns.
• Identify problems that should raise the workers safety awareness. Instituting the following procedures will sustain the integrity and usability of the Safety Alert Program:
• Capture all equipment replacements and projects that include new equipment in mechanical/electrical rooms.
• Check safety alert drawings for correctness during preventive maintenance procedures on equipment.
• Check for new equipment during project closeout procedures.
• Update the Safety Alert drawings with any new information.
Management Commitment and Employee Involvement
The program began by utilizing part-time personnel but the pace of this approach was unacceptable and the project tended to get bumped by things that were perceived to be more urgent. Resources to accomplish what amounted to a complex project were made available through the adjustment of priorities and the rescheduling of other important work. This would not have been possible without strong support from the management of the department.
Due to the large commitment of time for our field staff, we had a mechanical contractor dedicate one HVAC mechanic to verify mechanical equipment for each motor control center and all disconnects plus relabeling of this equipment. We also used an engineering firm to draft our drawings. Both of these tasks were beyond our in-house capabilities, but the in-house staff was deeply connected with this activity.
This project was one part of a broad effort to make American University a safer work environment. During the draft process for each set of drawings, management and building personnel studied the drawings. They were reviewed by the same HVAC mechanic who identified and relabeled our equipment.
Documentation, Analysis, Benchmarking, and Customer Input
There have been no major accidents in our mechanical/ electrical rooms since the inception of the Safety Alert Program and we are confident that the overall university safety program and the Safety Alert Program were responsible for our excellent record and our accident free environment.
The final product for each mechanical space was a drawing showing the general layout of each mechanical/electrical room. In the final analysis:
• The drawings showed equipment locations in relation to other equipment and identified their new CMMS numbers and any associated motor control centers or disconnects.
• The drawings depicted the motor control centers with the labels for each piece of equipment shown on the front of the motor control center panels.
• The drawings identified all general hazards in each room, such as electrical or asbestos.
• We began with three nonintegrated numbering schemes and ended with one numbering scheme that included 100 percent of all the equipment in our mechanical spaces.
• We labeled a total of 2,621 pieces of equipment.
• With the information collected in the survey we added over 300 pieces of equipment to our inventory and removed over 75 pieces of equipment, no longer in service.
Finishing this project established the baseline and benchmark of having all of our equipment identified properly in our CMMS and BAS systems.
The ultimate customer was the in-house staff and contractors working in our mechanical/electrical rooms. This broad customer base was involved in the design of the drawings, the development of the equipment-labeling scheme and the collection of information about the equipment and layouts in the drawings. As we moved through the first couple of buildings, we learned what the right mix of external contract resource and in-house resources would be. This allowed in-house staff to complete routine operation and maintenance activities and still have their input.
EMORY UNIVERSITY
Using Emory University’s Building Acceptance–Occupancy Approval Checklist to Improve Turnover of Buildings from Construction to Maintenance and Operations at Occupancy
by Robert S. Hascall
Bob Hascall is the senior vice president for facilities management at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia; he can be reached at bhascal@fmd.emory.edu. This is his first article for Facilities Manager.
Institutional Benefits
The focus of the Checklist is to improve the quality of new buildings or major renovations and the transition of those spaces from construction to building occupancy and maintenance.
Specific benefits to the institution include the following.
• The maintenance/operations staff visit the project multiple times during construction and become familiar with the building and its utility systems before they are concealed with finishes.
• By spending time with the maintenance/operations staff during construction, the project management staff gain experience in issues that improve serviceability of building systems.
• Maintenance/operations staff become more familiar with the building which enables them to resolve building problems more quickly
• Construction is inspected from a maintenance and operations perspective leading to improvements in accessibility of equipment, valves, filters, balancing dampers, etc.
• Maintenance/operations staff are trained on the building systems and their operation months before building occupancy occurs.
• Operations and maintenance manuals and preliminary as-built drawings are received before the buildings are occupied.
• Building problems are avoided during construction that might otherwise lead to difficulty maintaining the facility.
• The architect, contractors, subcontractors, and owner’s project team understand what is required of them in the construction closeout process and when it is required so that systematic completion is achieved and accountability for that outcome is in place.
Innovation, Creativity, and Originality
Many institutions have developed building closeout checklists. However, none that we reviewed were as comprehensive as the Emory Checklist. We believe our Checklist is innovative in its comprehensive nature and creative in that it provides requirements for when each task is to begin and who is responsible to participate in it. Many tasks, such as periodic inspections by the maintenance/operations staff, are ongoing throughout the construction process.
All capital projects’ Request for Proposals as well as associated contracts for design and construction services include the Checklist as a requirement. Examples of items that differentiate the Emory Checklist from others include the following:
• The master Checklist identifies 129 separate checkpoints for the FM Project Manager to coordinate activities. It includes involvement from eight separate departments within maintenance and operations. Other Emory departments involved and listed included Emory police, fire safety, environmental health and safety, network communications, risk management, and resource planning.
• The Checklist is complimented by a definitions document that provides explanation and insight into each requirement.
• The checklist provides the contractor, architect, and owner a clear picture of what will be expected of each party in the turnover process.
Portability and Sustainability
The Building Occupancy and Closeout Checklist is both portable and sustainable as it can be easily adapted and used by other institutions.
• The Checklist is a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that is adaptable to individual institutional needs with minimal technical effort.
• The Checklist is complimented by a detailed summary of definitions developed in Microsoft Word, which provides more detailed background information on each Checklist item.
• The Checklist and definitions documents are available to anyone as PDF files on Emory University’s Facilities Management website as shown below. Copies of the Excel and Word document files can be obtained by making a request to the Senior Associate Vice President for Facilities Management at Emory University.
• Web links to the Checklist and definitions documents are as follows:
Checklist Link - http://www.emory.edu/FMD/web/emory-std/frontend/building_closeout_checklist.pdf
Definitions Link -
• http://www.emory.edu/FMD/web/emory-std/frontend/ building_closeout_definitions.pdf
• Modifications to the Checklist are encouraged and expected as this is viewed as a living document that will change over time. Changes to the list are easy to make, and are critical to making the tool work optimally.
Management Commitment and Employee Involvement
Demonstration of Management Commitment:
• The Senior Associate Vice President for Facilities Management requires that the Checklist be used on all major
capital projects. The Directors of Maintenance/Operations and Project Management and Construction are held accountable for ensuring that the Checklist is integrated into these projects accordingly.
• The Checklist is included in Emory’s Design Guidelines.
• The Checklist is included in all requests for proposals and contracts for design and construction of capital projects.
Demonstration of Employee Involvement:
• The master Checklist involves 129 separate checkpoints for activities that the Facilities Management Project Manager needs to coordinate within Emory and FM. It includes involvement from eight separate departments within PO. Other Emory departments involved and listed included Emory police, environmental health and safety, network communications, risk management and resource planning.
• During construction visits by management & operations personnel, other Emory units assist in identifying and correcting construction related issues. This feedback is documented to identify actions taken thus promoting and encouraging involvement at future stages and on future projects. Personnel are aware that their input has meaning and improves the process.
Documentation, Analysis, Customer Input, and Benchmarking
Facilities Management has been using the Checklist for two years. During this time we have completed three major capital construction projects using the checklist. Improvements based on lessons learned have been incorporated into each project. The process of building turnover and acceptance is improving with each project as our experience base grows and our staff learn more about the processes. The project manager for the last project that used the Checklist consults the project manager for the next project for improvements. Training of the maintenance/operations staff occurs before building occupancy or the contractor continues to maintain the facility after occupancy. This provides incentive for the contractor to complete training early.
The maintenance & operations manuals are required to be finished before occupancy. This requirement has been substantially met on projects using the Checklist thus far. Contractors now provide a progress set of as-built drawings at building occupancy while the final as-built drawings are being completed. Since implementing the Checklist, as-built drawings has been typically received within 60 days of building occupancy.
SLIPPERY ROCK UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Stockless Custodial Supply Chain
by Michael Kukawa
Mike Kukawa is the director of campus services at Slippery Rock University, Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, and he can be reached at michael.kukawa@sru.edu. This is his first article for Facilities Manager.
The facilities & planning department of Slippery Rock University implemented a stocklesss supply chain sytem for all operation custodial supplies. Through a Request for Proposal process, run through the university purchasing department, a single vendor was selected to provide our custodial supplies. In addition, the vendor would deliver these supplies directly to the point of use. Existing university inventory was bought back by the selected vendor. Each order/delivery would be specific to an individual office or academic building. the supplies are ordered and delivered on a biweekly schedule. Custodial supplies were removed from our general inventory.
The replenishment process for custodial supplies was significantly streamlined and simplified. The number of staff hours assigned to the process was reduced. The number of department involved in the process was reduced. The inventory value was reduced. The number of purchase orders processed decreased, and the number of vendors was reduced while available warehouse space was increased. Cutodial products were standardized across campus.
This process contained three distinct sub-processes with a total of 43 steps. The new process has been streamlined into a single seven-step process. A processs that once involved four separate university departments now involves only one.
Our previous process contained three distinct sub-processes with a total of 43 steps. the new process has been streamlined into a single seven-step process. A process that once involved four separate university departments now involves only one.
One hundred two custodial items were removed from general inventory at a value of $21,285. This increased the available warehouse space 1,500 square feet.
Our process enabled the custodial department to standardize its operational supplies. The total number of custodial products used in fiscal year 2001 totaled 149. The current number of custodial products being used is 107.
The number of purchase orders for custodial supplies has been reduced from 53 in fiscal year 2001 to two blanket orders for fiscal year 2002. Ten spearate vendors were used in fiscal year 2001 for custodial supplies; one vendor is now used.
The number of orders generated by the custodians for replenishment of their supplies decreased. In fiscal year 2001, 762 orders were sent to Central Stores. For fiscal year 2002, we are on pace to send only 474 orders to our vendor for stockless replenishment.
Workhours spent on picking and delivering custodial supplies out of inventory has been eliminated. Central Stores spend 199 hours in fiscal year 2001 picking custodial orders. This department now spends zero hours for this task. Central stores and the labor crew spent 264.5 staff-hours in fiscal year 2001 delivering custodial supplies. These departments now spend zero hours for this task.
We have benchmarked our initiative through a survey of 35 APPA-affiliated institutions throughout Pennsylvania. Our survey results indicated that only one institution has adopted a similar initiative.
Our current vendor has 8,500 total customers, 825 of which are in education. No other client of theirs is using a stockless re-supply system for custodial supplies. The lever of innovation, creativity, and originality is best demonstrated by the fact that our vendor is now using our initiative as a marketing tool.
The true mark of protability and sustainability likes in the simplicity of the initiative. There are only two basic requirements for our initiative:
1. A group willing to commit the time for the design and evaluation process.
2. A responsive vendor willing and able to deliver supplies in the preferred units of measure to individual locations providing overall savings to the university.
This initiative has only one cost-the hours invested in the design, evaluation, implementation process. Our initiative showed a positive impact on price and labor savings. Another institution undertaking this initiative may not demonstrate a dramatic price savings. Any institution will save on workhours by transferring the labor-intensive supply chain process to a vendor.
Various levels of management and staff were involved in all phases of our initiative. Custodians, first-line supervisors, directors, and vice presidents all had a hand in developing our process.
The facilities & planning department determines the success of a new process or initiative by the alignment of the initiative with the following University Strategic Goal.
University Strategic Goal/Initiative
Stewardship: Identify, assess, and continuously improve those procedures, services, and best practices which will optimize the University's environment and productivity through the most efficient use and development of its resources.
We monitor our initiative by budget review by management to ensure we are maintaining our custom savings; custodial meetings to pass along to management any information regarding product or service; and by weekly status meetings held with the vendor representative. We also monitor service issues, such as fill rates, product quality, and delivery routing, while constantly investigating and evaluating new products.
The facilities & planning department has charged a team with the administration of our initiative. This team meets regularly to evaluate products, pricing, vendor performance, and suggestions or proposals from stakeholders. In an effort to continuously improve our initiative, any stakeholder may propose new products or practices. The team meets to analyze pricing, performance, and impact to our initiative. This team also handles feedback from stakeholders on performance issues. The success of our initiative is driven by the design of our Request for Proposal. This team is responsible for alterations and improvements of future Request for
Proposal documents at contract renewal time. These improvements to the Request for Proposal will be driven by the team’s successful efforts to analyze pricing, to incorporate stakeholder feedback/suggestions, to analyze vendor performance, and to guarantee stakeholder participation.
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
T.O.P.G.U.N. Customer Service
by Jean M. Sweitzer
Jean Sweitzer is the coordinator, management analysis, in the physical plant division at the University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida. This is her first article for Facilities Manager, and she can be reached at jsweitz@ufl.edu.
Institutional Benefits of T.O.P.G.U.N. Customer Service Training
The University of Florida Physical Plant Division (PPD) is keenly aware that faculty, staff, and students have expectations for service delivery that we are responsible for meeting. Customer service is one of our most
important responsibilities on campus. Data obtained from annual customer surveys was used to identify gaps in service and to develop corresponding service standards and training. Each employee at PPD attended a two-hour basic training (ground school) and a one-hour refresher training (preflight check-off/takeoff). Both classes are highly interactive, focused on improving customer service skills. Institutional benefits include:
1) Improved customer satisfaction levels and loyalty measures;
2) Increased employee commitment to customer service delivery;
3) Increased empowerment of employees through improvement in customer service skills;
4) High employee satisfaction with training;
5) Improved service levels recognized by customers;
6) Increased willingness to assist other team members in meeting customer needs, as well as a greater inclination to work directly with the customers;
7) Focused training on specific areas identified by customers, and tailored to facilities maintenance topics;
8) Avoided cost of $68,310 through in-house design and
delivery.
What Makes the T.O.P.G.U.N. Customer Service Training Innovative, Creative, and Original?
T.O.P.G.U.N. was created through a team effort. The T.O.P.G.U.N. acronym represents aspects of customer service that are most important in accomplishing our mission of creating and maintaining university facilities. The letters stand for Team, Own, Prompt, Greet, Understand, and No-no’s. While original in its application to our organization’s customers, it incorporates general customer service information that could be used in any organization. The fun, innovative design of T.O.P.G.U.N. training is unique and includes:
1) Video snippets that used PPD employees to demonstrate good and poor examples of customer service.
2) Sneak preview and an Academy Awards program for all video actors to recognize their contribution to our customer service efforts.
3) Refresher training, a one-hour game show format patterned after the TV show Jeopardy, in which teams of employees compete for fun and prizes.
4) Use of employee and equipment photos from PPD throughout the training to demonstrate examples of customer service, equipment upkeep, etc. TOPGUN themed music, scrolling photos of fellow employees, and a lively atmosphere complete the setting.
5) Ground school participants complete homework to reinforce the application of customer service standards to their specific area. Follow-up and prizes are used to promote participation.
How T.O.P.G.U.N. Training Can Be Used by Others
T.O.P.G.U.N. is based on commonly accepted customer service philosophies (consistency, timeliness, accuracy, follow-up, reliability, and professionalism) ensuring that it is applicable in many settings and industries. It can be tailored to suit the service standards of any facilities management organization.
Any organization interested in using the T.O.P.G.U.N. program would first evaluate their own customers’ needs and use those to develop service standards or to personalize the existing standards. For instance, the four-hour response time to an urgent work order might be reduced in a smaller
organization.
Much of the material is directly transferable. Training materials geared toward customer interactions will be the same at most service organizations. Therefore, sections on body language, tone of voice, appearance, etc., can be used as developed.
Materials were constructed in Microsoft Word and can be easily updated to accommodate changes in service standards or be altered to fit the needs of other organizations. The game show used in preflight checkoff/takeoff training uses GameShow Pro 3 software and is easily modifiable.
Through the Interinstitutional Committee of Physical Plant Directors, the University of Florida has made this program available to all of the other universities in Florida’s State University System.
Management Commitment and Employee Involvement
PPD’s executive team set a goal in 2001-02 of achieving a continuous customer service focus. A team of four employees from management identified appropriate service standards and designed the corresponding training/recognition. An employee focus group was used to ensure applicability and frontline support during the development process. Training was pilot tested with the Executive Council to ensure
support.
Over 900 PPD employees have attended ground school and preflight check-off/takeoff training. New hires preview T.O.P.G.U.N. in orientation and are scheduled into one of the quarterly offerings. Employee response to the training has been overwhelmingly positive.
Support from PPD management has continued with an updated goal of “Build Momentum toward Enhanced Customer Service” in 2002-03. A T.O.P.G.U.N. bonus program rewards employees who provide excellent customer service. An additional recognition program to reward teams is currently under development.
Documentation, Analysis, Customer Input, and Benchmarking
The T.O.P.G.U.N. Customer Service Program is in its third year and continues with quarterly offerings to new hires and an ongoing bonus program for employees who receive unsolicited customer feedback that demonstrates their application of the service standards.
The reaction of PPD employees to the T.O.P.G.U.N. training was evaluated using end-of-training surveys. Ratings of the training consistently exceeded 4.0 on a 6-point scale. Participant’s knowledge of customer service standards and their applicability to their work was evaluated through the use of the homework book given out following ground school training. The overall effect of the T.O.P.G.U.N. Customer Service Initiative is evident in improved customer satisfaction levels, as well as the receipt this year of the Florida 2002 Davis Productivity Award for the program.
The T.O.P.G.U.N. Customer Service Initiative was presented to the Interinstitutional Committee of Physical Plant Directors, which represents facilities leaders from all the state universities in Florida. Discussions following the presentation revealed that although several schools were involved in measuring customer satisfaction, they were doing little in the way of formal training, etc., to attempt to improve such
levels.
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI
How the Reengineered Solid Waste Operation Produces $400,000 in Annual Savings
by Leonard Nash
Leonard Nash is a freelance writer based in Hollywood, Florida; he can be reached at ldn@leonardnash.com. This is his first article for Facilities Manager.
Institutional Benefits
Described by former president Tad Foote as a “Campus in a Tropical Garden,” the University of Miami’s meticulously maintained Coral Gables campus consists of over 100 buildings on 260 acres. An enhancement to that vision has been our unique in-house trash collection program. Implemented in October 1992, this program produces $400,000 in annual savings while providing numerous aesthetic and management benefits.
Unlike 35-ton commercial garbage trucks, our employee-operated customized flatbed truck weighs only 6.2 tons when fully loaded with three custom-made containers being hauled to one of several compactors located in convenient but secluded perimeter locations. Consequently, our commercial hauler can now charge by actual weight, rather than potential volume, so costs reflect monthly fluctuations in trash output.
Additionally, the removal of commercial trash trucks from internal campus areas reduces wear and tear on campus roads, eliminates the windswept material, glass particles, and offensive odors generated by on-site trash transfer, and allows for flexible pickup schedules tailored to each campus facility, virtually eliminating customer complaints with regard to trash collection. Additionally, much of the $4 million in cumulative savings created by this process reengineering has been reinvested into plazas, major landscape features, and other campus beautification projects.
Innovation, Creativity, and Originality
Before 1992, a typical 6-yard container was picked up three times weekly, but only half-full in terms of potential volume. Therefore, we paid to haul 18 cubic yards of trash when actual quantity averaged 9 cubic yards of uncompressed material. Today, our driver/operator transfers loaded containers to one of our convenient but secluded compactors. Our commercial hauler transfers the loaded
compactors to the landfill, charges by weight, and provides monthly bills that we monitor for accuracy and
reasonableness.
Startup costs of $145,000 included concrete pads, fencing, and electrical hookups at the two new compactor sites; purchase and modification of a new Ford F-350 stake body truck; modification of an existing truck for backup use; purchase and modification of two previously-leased compactors; and 70 custom containers which are easily camouflaged by landscaping and architectural features. We depreciated these items over five years, although they will all still be functional 11 years into the program.
At each location, the university-employed driver/operator removes the loaded container using the truck’s remote-operated hydraulic winch, sweeps up loose debris, and installs an empty container. After every third pickup, he empties the containers at the closer of our two compactor sites.
Portability and Sustainability
After studying the quantitative and anecdotal data from your existing trash collection system, you need to tailor your in-house collection program to account for the unique layout of your campus. Proper research and data analysis will help convince administration officials to approve the necessary startup costs. Concurrently, you will need to forge a creative partnership with your trash hauler, who will continue to realize a reasonable profit from the sale and maintenance of compactors and containers, in addition to hauling and landfill fees.
On a flat, contiguous campus, the use of a “train system” utilizing containers equipped with axles and tires, and pulled by a suitable truck, might simplify the process even further. Because our hauling pattern traverses several city streets, code restrictions prevented this configuration at the University of Miami, although we remain convinced of the viability and benefits of such a plan, as it eliminates the step of loading containers on and off the truck.
Whenever possible, perform preventive equipment maintenance on Sundays and train a full-time employee from the grounds maintenance operation to serve as a substitute driver/operator. To accommodate campus additions, simply add additional containers, compactors, trucks, and driver/
operators.
Management Commitment and Employee Involvement
Our detailed audit of the old trash collection system convinced our administration to approve startup funding for this process reengineering. Considering the durability of the necessary equipment, including the aforementioned Ford truck, we agreed to purchase, rather than lease, the necessary equipment, including our existing 40-yard compactors, which were almost fully depreciated but still perfectly functional.
Our trash hauler introduced us to their source of custom-made containers and compactors and assisted our mechanics in the design and customization of our trucks. Ongoing communication between the driver/operator, the mechanics, and management helps keep this equipment in excellent operating condition.
The planning stage offered the greatest challenges and the greatest risks because our search revealed no comparable programs to use as a model. Primarily, we questioned whether one worker could handle the operation alone, but 11 years later, the program remains a smooth and seamless process, with only one change in primary driver/operators. And the process is so simple, quiet, and efficient, that many campus visitors have commented that they had not noticed any evidence of our trash collection operation.
Documentation, Analysis, Customer Input, and Benchmarking
Every year we benchmark our success against the previous five years. For example, in September 1998, we had 104 tons of trash, and in September 2002, we had 148 tons of trash. Therefore, in the five-year period that included 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002, our actual weight of trash increased by 42 percent, but our inflation-adjusted cost remained less than it was in 1991. We study and maintain our monthly waste hauling bills, which include cumulative campus-wide tonnage, landfill charges, franchise fees, and the number of pickups since the program’s inception. This data allows us to regulate pickup schedules, thereby avoiding unnecessary pickup fees.
However, we cannot benchmark our program against other in-house trash extraction programs because no other facilities operation that we know of has instituted such procedures. Nonetheless, this effort has resulted in a cumulative savings of over $4 million since October 1992, all with no additional customer responsibilities. Year after year, this initiative continues to be a win-win situation for all stakeholders and we encourage our counterparts to develop and implement comparable programs.