Establishing a Preventative Maintenance Plan for Fire Life Safety and Security Systems

Fire life safety systems, video surveillance, nurse call, intercoms, and other access control features are comprised of an intricate network of components — some of which get less attention than others — leading to potential vulnerabilities and risk. The last thing you need is a system failure when a crisis occurs. To avoid this costly (and potentially life-threatening) hazard, you must establish a preventive maintenance plan that takes a proactive approach to maintaining and upgrading your fire life safety and security systems.

Urgency of preventive maintenance — pay attention now or payout later

Failure to maintain fire life safety and security systems in commercial and multi-occupancy residential buildings poses significant risks. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) strongly urges business and commercial property owners to establish and maintain schedules for inspection, testing, and maintenance of these critical systems. First responders rely on us to have a full array of working alarms, fire detection, and sprinkler systems to keep people and property safe.

One concern is that many companies are primarily focused on their response to the COVID-19 pandemic and may postpone or deprioritize these systems. The CEO of the NFPA had this to say, “While communities are rightly focused on dealing with the pandemic, we cannot put additional strain to our overburdened emergency response capabilities by not ensuring buildings are protected with the very equipment that saves lives and property,” As the coronavirus continues to impact our lives, property and business owners, and government officials should not ignore these critical tasks and increase the risk of a disaster.

Benefits of preventive maintenance

Fire and life safety systems are rarely used, which can make it virtually impossible to predict every possible malfunction. It’s critical that businesses focus on preventive maintenance to proactively address potential issues before they happen. Some key benefits of preventive maintenance contracts include:

• Lowered repair costs over time. A preventive maintenance agreement is designed to prevent surprises that can cost money — and lives. With routine preventive maintenance you can eliminate those frantic overtime labor rates and crisis calls when a system fails and finally achieve peace of mind.

• Reduced or eliminated system downtime. Downtime is not only costly, it’s dangerous to your facility and the people within it. Proactively testing and identifying issues before they create a problem is the underlying reason for preventive maintenance agreements.

• Increased longevity of the technology system. Preventive maintenance can reduce undue wear and tear on your systems by addressing maintenance needs on a regular basis and ensuring issues are corrected quickly. If left unattended, these issues could not only cause potentially dangerous system outages, they could reduce the life of your equipment.

Regular maintenance of your security and safety equipment ensures it will be there when you need it most. It’s well worth the investment.

Establish a preventive maintenance plan

The best way to keep your systems up and running at peak performance is to focus on prevention. That’s where a preventive maintenance plan and the assistance of expert technicians from TRL Systems can really help! Our process can help you establish an effective workflow for a preventive maintenance schedule.

The first step is to gather internal stakeholders and identify your existing assets and determine your priorities. Next, it’s important to schedule maintenance with a partner like TRL Systems. For example, you may include:

• The goals and objectives of your plan, such as:

  • Reducing downtime and increasing asset reliability

  • Reducing costs

  • Increasing compliance with building codes

• The identification of assets or systems that must be maintained, such as:

  • Fire alarm systems

  • Video surveillance tools

  • Access control systems

  • Nurse call platforms

  • Intercom and paging notification systems

• Asset priorities (e.g., highlight the systems that are crucial for safety, security, and business operations)

• Preventive maintenance schedules that correspond with asset prioritization.

• Performance metrics for your maintenance plans, including:

  • Compliance

  • Equipment performance

  • Mean time between failures

TRL Systems will customize our approach to fit your unique needs. All plans are designed to maximize your assets while reducing your risk of critical equipment failure.