As soon as the spring semester ended in May, Facilities Services had a huge project of turning around 3,500 living spaces properly within only 19 days. This process ensures a quality living space for the next wave of residents by implementing necessary repairs, changes, and accommodations. Theses spaces were located within Cougar Place, Cougar Village 1, Cougar Village 2 and the North Tower of Moody.

The previous process of  make-ready completion involved only one skill-trades group completing all crafts. The original plan of make readies would not be efficient to meet the deadline at hand. The new process lead with the idea of teamwork that incorporated a collaboration of multiple shops working together. The major adjustment was the division of work by crafts which will have the electricians and plumbers walking each unit and completing their respective parts such as lighting, power issues, water leaks, and clogged drains. This leaves the one group of skill-trades completing general maintenance issues and painting, while custodial and final inspections were the last of the crews to complete the new process.

Implementation of this process worked three times as fast because general maintenance was no longer doing everything throughout the space. What previously took general maintenance one hour now only took 20 minutes because of the added support. The crews never overlapped each other while working allowing space for each team to complete their job. What also helped was that all parts, supplies, and paint were ordered ahead of time based on the items purchased in the previous year. These orders were placed by reviewing the amount of items purchased in the previous year. This eliminated a much longer wait time.

There were several meetings every week planning for this new make ready process. It was an amazing team effort and many General Maintenance crew members stepped up to help fill supervisor type responsibilities during this project. General Maintenance Supervisor Jack Enochs’ take on this process is that, “If we can all do this as a team, we can do things that might look impossible”. With such great progress from this process it is expected that this new process will be used in the future.