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Our Mission and what this means for you
Our Mission answer the questions: Why do we exist as a department? What do we do? How do we do it? And who do we do it for?
“UBC Building Operations proactively and cost-effectively manage the operations and maintenance of all assets on campus—creating enriching and inviting inside and outside spaces.
This enables the university to provide an environment that supports exceptional learning and research outcomes.”
UBC Building Operations proactively and cost effectively manage the operations and maintenance of all assets on campus – creating enriching and inviting inside and outside spaces. This enables the University to provide an environment that supports exceptional learning and research outcomes.
From this mission we have developed mini missions around each our four pillars: Asset Stewardship, Customer Service, Leadership Development and Employee Engagement. These pillars allow us to focus and help ensure that all of our initiatives are aligned. When making a decision about how to do your work these pillar mini missions and our main mission can be incredibly helpful for giving you some clarity on what outcome we are trying to achieve.
You can see our mission and our strategic pillars on our website by following this link https://buildingoperations.ubc.ca/about-us/accountability/strategic-goals/.
Lessons Learned during Planned Shutdown in Pharmacy to Mimic Power Outage
On May 27th, one of our campus high voltage feeders was shut down for maintenance and we took advantage of that to perform some important PM work on the de-energized equipment. We also used the shut down as a chance to simulate a power outage in Pharmacy to see how the “unexpected” loss of power and the return of main building power might affect the building and research equipment. Let’s just say that we learned a lot and it was great we could do this in a controlled setting with staff at the ready to resolve issues, as there were some.
This is an important test to perform under controlled conditions for a few reasons:
- It allows us to monitor exactly how systems do or do not react in a loss of Utility situation.
- Singular points of weakness are identified and upgraded.
- We are able to make action plans based on what we observed and create recommendations to fix deficiencies.
- It allows us to prepare for a real outage such as in a disaster situation.
- The result is more stable building performance.
- We can then apply lessons learned to new building commissioning.
Mechanical Engineering students seek Paint Shop’s craftsmanship for rally car competition
The team in the Paint Shop, led by Sam Agawa, Kevin Morris and Corky Cortusan, assisted UBC Baja — a student engineering team — as they design, build, and test a single-seat, all-terrain vehicle in the annual Baja Rally Race series.
The team designs and builds a vehicle from the ground up that meets the rules and requirements set by Baja SAE. Aesthetics are one of the measures in the competition. The students solicited the Architectural Manager for use of the paint booth and assistance to prepare their self-designed rally car (see pictures), and were ecstatic with the finished product.
An excerpt from the team:
“UBC Baja not only works to create a vehicle that is competitive and well-engineered, but also takes pride in the craftsmanship and presentation that makes our car standout. This year collaboration with the UBC Paint Shop – booth accommodations and staff – enabled us to realize this vision by providing the expertise and facilities needed to create the stunning final product we’re taking to competition. We appreciate those who helped to get the vehicle painted and looking better than it ever has in years past. It’s our hope that the continued collaboration with UBC’s wide array of facilities will not only advance the quality of competition vehicles, but also the UBC community.”
The multi day competition is underway at Pittsburg State University as this note is written.
Thanks to the Paint Shop team!
Sharing our story as campus and asset stewards through the APPA Assessment Report
To celebrate and raise awareness of the great work we do, we’re preparing to submit the APPA FMEP assessment. This report is a chance to share those stories with the university community and validate the excellent and innovative work we’re doing.
Learn more about this report and why it’s important in last week’s newsletter or talk to your supervisor.
We have achieved a great deal in the past couple years, and probably more than any of us realize. Here are a couple examples of initiative and dedication to our work great:
We have created new roles to build strategic and technical capabilities in the trades group so we can:
- build more PM programs that actually help to prevent the reactive frenzy we find ourselves in daily
- make smart fix vs replace decisions for failed and failing assets
- direct the priorities of $40-$50M in routine capital program in a way that has maximum benefits to reducing deferred maintenance liability and mitigates system failures effecting teaching and research
- complete critical PM work while a high voltage maintenance shut downs are underway
- for the first time in a long time, operate the systems in our buildings and not just check the equipment components, this not only provides regulatory compliance but runs systems effectively for longer life and higher reliability
- allow some managers to focus on people and processes to improve engagement and productivity
We have created better handover processes so we can:
- understand what we are inheriting from Infrastructure Development/UBC Properties Trust
- plan training and demos so we can maintain unique systems and equipment for lowest total cost of ownership
- establish contracts and schedule maintenance activities for key equipment and systems
- track and manage construction deficiencies to get best value for the university
Look for more examples in next week’s newsletter.