Facilities Workflow Glossary

Purpose:  The purpose of this glossary is to clarify work flow terms, as used by the Facilities department in the management of work flow.

  • DISCRETIONARY:  This is work of choice that is driven by needs different than maintenance and operation of the college systems. In this category of work the planner may opt to implement the work, part of it, or not to implement the work at all.  Discretionary work may be important, but it is not mandatory. Discretionary work may be prioritized by subjective merit rather than urgency.

Examples:

    • Painting offices to change the color as requested by an employee
    • Replacing outdated, but in good condition furniture
    • Changing the room layout in a building, or portion of it, to meet new programmatic needs
    • A modernization project

 

  • NON-DISCRETIONARY: This is work that Facilities must perform to operate or maintain College assets assigned to the Facilities Department.  It is, to a certain extent, mandatory.  The priority of the work is categorized by the implied deadline to complete the work as follows:
    • EMERGENCY: Work requested is an emergency only when the work must be performed immediately to protect life, to guard against loss of expensive assets, or to avoid disrupting a College event that cannot be stopped and re-scheduled.

Examples:

      • Chemical spill on the street or in a laboratory
      • Walkway ice melting or removal
      • Roof leak dripping or fire protection, sprinkler leak on valuable equipment
      • Campus building reporting no electricity
      • Electric power failure during an important event like Commencement
      • Receptacles not working in a classroom needed to teach a class
    • URGENT:  Work is urgent (not an emergency) when the work can be performed within the next 48 hours without major impact on the college operation. The timeliness is more important than the quality of the work.

 Examples:

      • Urinal that is running continuously
      • Window glass with spider crack
      • No hot water in a restroom lavatory
      • Unusual noise coming from a cooling tower
      • Air-conditioning not working in a Lounge Room
      • Too cold in Room 55
    • ROUTINE:  Work is categorized as routine work when the work can be scheduled to be performed within the next two weeks, to meet a firm deadline of more than two weeks, to meet a flexible deadline, or to occur in time cycles. This is not out of the ordinary work. This work may follow a regular sequence of steps or standard procedure; as in preventive maintenance routines.

Examples:

      • Preventive maintenance lubrication of equipment or belt replacement
      • Lawn mowing
      • Maintenance repairs such as fixing an air handling unit that is out of service, replacing deteriorated pipe
      • insulation and repairing damaged doors or damaged furniture
      • Regular cleaning of building spaces
    • NON-ROUTINE:  Non-routine work is work you would not do at all regularly. Non-routine work may come up suddenly or unexpectedly. It is work out of the ordinary. However, non-routine work may require substantial planning, as in the case of construction projects.

Examples:

      • EMERGENCY work and URGENT work are both good examples of non-routine work
        Planned design and construction project work is non-routine work regardless of the value of the project