Shopping center: HVAC maintenance with a contractor
Example: Riverside Commons, a four-level shopping center with an office tower and a logistics warehouse. The operator's facilities team runs the building; the chillers and air handling units are under a service contract with an HVAC contractor, Summit Mechanical. The companies and people are fictional.
| Who | Job and assignments |
|---|---|
| Riverside Commons Management (Inventory Owner) | Operates the shopping center, the office tower and the warehouse |
| Director of facilities | Organization Admin |
| Two technicians | Technician at the shopping center; one manages HVAC, the other Electrical and Plumbing |
| Shift supervisor | Location Manager at the shopping center |
| Summit Mechanical (Expert Organization, does the work) | Chiller and air handling unit maintenance contract |
1. Inventory and team
The shopping center is a location with the systems HVAC — Central Plant, Electrical, Fire and Life Safety, Vertical Transportation (elevators and escalators) and Plumbing. The technicians are inventory managers of the systems they look after; the shift supervisor opens and assigns the center's work orders.
→ Locations, Inventory managers
2. The contractor
- The director invites Summit Mechanical with Expert Organization Invitation (not as a consultant); Summit accepts in Incoming Invitations.
- A System permission Service Contractor — System Maintenance (sees the inventory, opens, works on and forwards work orders, reports and resolves issues, adds files) is given to Summit on the HVAC system with Assign.
- Summit now sees only the HVAC system — not the other systems, not the operator's staff.
→ Working with an expert company as an owner
3. Monthly chiller maintenance
A recurring rule creates Chiller 1 monthly maintenance every month with the chiller checklist, assigned to Summit. Summit's service manager forwards it to a technician, who fills in the readings on site, pauses when the work continues the next day and completes it when done. The facilities team sees the progress and the comments as they happen.
4. "The food court is too warm"
The shift supervisor reports it as feedback on the food court's air handling unit. The director turns it into a High priority work order for Summit with Create a work order; Summit's technician reads the original report on the work order's feedback card.
The result
All maintenance at the center — the in-house team's and the contractor's — is in one list and one calendar; the contractor manages this customer's work together with its other customers in Incoming Work Orders. For a complete walk-through with screenshots, see the hotel scenario, which works the same way.