Maintenance By Any Other Name

9/18/2024

What’s in a name? Or a job title, for that matter? 

The professionals responsible for ensuring the safety, reliability and sustainability of institutional and commercial facilities go by various titles. Most include director, manager or supervisor, though leader and coordinator show up occasionally. 

What exactly are these people managing, supervising, directing, leading and coordinating? The names of their departments usually include engineering, maintenance, operations and facilities, often lengthened with some combination of buildings, grounds, and general services. 

These titles and department names are part of a slow evolution. For decades, professionals with these titles have moved up, moved over, gathered responsibilities and left others behind, and their organizations have been satisfied to refer to them with slightly modified titles and department names that follow long-established patterns. They are traditional. 

For a change, let’s think non-traditional. 

I came across the thought of renaming maintenance and engineering departments at ASHE’s recent Health Care Facilities Innovation conference in Anaheim. Participants in a vigorous roundtable discussion of deferred maintenance in healthcare facilities commiserated over the lack of recognition and respect they and their departments receive within their organizations. 

One manager offered a new-generation name for his maintenance department: Critical Mission Support. 

Greater respect and recognition for the achievements of maintenance engineering departments are not likely to come from elsewhere in an organization — at least not without prompting. Managers (or directors or leaders) who want people to think differently about their departments and the essential role they play in the organization’s success might want to give serious thought to a department name that more accurately reflects that role. 

What would you call your department if your department didn’t have a name? 

Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.