Category: Maintenance and Operations

Manual pallet jack in the middle of a cluttered warehouse

Messes Matter: Importance of Clearing Out the Clutter

What did you see when you walked into your facility this morning? Were there cords snaking across the floor, remnants of a spill from a couple of days ago, or overflowing trash cans? Or did you observe a strong sense of order, with clear walkways, properly stored tools, well-lit and clearly marked stairways, and hazardous […]

Cleaning equipment with cart on the floor in office building

Considerations for Reopening Your Facility After COVID-19

With the number of COVID-19 cases beginning to level off in some areas, employers that have ceased operations or shifted to remote work may be considering when, and how, they might be able to bring people back to their facilities. While businesses are understandably eager to resume operations, the potential for missteps is high. Returning […]

Cleaning equipment with cart on the floor in office building

Infographic: Clean Facilities are Valuable Facilities

As a facility manager, you’ve heard it plenty of times: a clean facility saves you money. How? Surfaces within facilities tend to collect bacteria throughout the day, from a wide variety of sources. Be it employees returning to work from an illness,  someone forgetting to wash their hands after using a facility’s restroom, or someone […]

Businessman Smoking Outside Facility

What’s the Tobacco Policy at Your Facility?

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says that approximately 20% of working adults use some sort of tobacco products, with almost 5% of these folks using two or more tobacco products “every day” or “some days.”

Father with daughter on his back while decorating a tree

Holiday Hazards: Back and Shoulder Injuries

You may not think of carrying holiday dishes, decorations and gifts as “manual materials handling,” but that’s what it amounts to. The amount of lifting, carrying, hanging, and hauling that your workers do during the holidays may well exceed what they do at other times of the year. All that lifting and carrying puts them […]

Christmas lights resting on metal ladder

Holiday Hazards: Electrocution

34-year-old James Byrnes of North Beach, Maryland, was working from a ladder, hanging Christmas lights at his neighbor’s home in December 2013, when he came into contact with an overhead power line and was electrocuted. That same month, 13-year-old Georgia Marshall of Barry, South Wales, United Kingdom, was electrocuted while helping her father retrieve Christmas […]

Office lobby decorated for Christmas

Holiday Hazards: Fires

By itself, winter carries a heightened risk of fire, because it involves more of the things that create warmth and light—fireplaces, space heaters, candles, cozy blankets. During the holidays, even more light, heat, and potentially flammable decorations are added to that mix.

Old, poorly lit office space

Top 5 Things Making You Sick in the Workplace

While many workplaces have a come a long way in happier, healthier, more human designs, WELL is a newer performance-based system gaining popularity for taking the guesswork out of healthier spaces and uncovering common design pitfalls that may be disrupting sleep, slashing productivity, stunting cognitive functioning, and leaving employees isolated. While WELL provides a robust […]