Body
Purpose and Scope
To formalize a departmental policy regarding the use, management and monitoring of time and material (T&M) contractors for maintenance activities
Policy and Procedures
Overview: A T&M contractor should be managed as an extension of our own workforce and should only be used when Miami University staff cannot complete the work in the timeframe required. A T&M CONTRACTOR SHOULD NEVER BE USED ONLY AS A MATTER OF CONVENIENCE.
Appropriate Use of a T&M Contractor
- Needed expertise where it has been decided Miami University will not staff in-house expertise.
- However, at all times, Miami University must maintain a base level of expertise to effectively manage and oversee all time and material contractors. AT NO TIME SHOULD OUR CONTRACTORS BE OUR SOLE SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE ABOUT MIAMI UNIVERSITY SYSTEMS.
- Staffing shortages due to vacancies
- Temporary increases in work volume
Appropriate Work Assignments for a T&M Contractor:
- Where in-house expertise exists, Miami University staff should be prioritized for urgent and emergency work. T&M Contractors should be prioritized for planned and scheduled work
- A work plan must be created for the T&M Contractor except when:
- Planner position is vacant for the given trade and/or
- Miami staff does not have expertise to create a plan
- A scope of work must be created instead
Required Documentation:
- For all work orders, either on the work order itself or as an attachment::
- An estimate created in advance of the work
- May be created by Miami University or the T&M Contractor
- If created by a T&M Contractor, must be approved by Miami University with approval documented in the work order
- For estimates over $1000, if a T&M Contractor will exceed an estimate by more than 20%, must get Miami approval with documentation of approval in work order
- Detailed comments
- From the supervisor stating whether a physical check of the quality of the work was completed and, if so, the results of the quality inspection
- From the supervisor summarizing work performed and any customer interactions
- Technician time sheet completed in its entirety
- Hours on the work order must match technician hours on the timesheet
- % complete must be completed
- Detailed technician comments on work performed
- Labor rate
- Contractor Invoice including any other receipts
- All non-urgent/emergency work completed by a T&M Contractor must have the following:
- A detailed work plan created by Miami University in advance of the work
Distribution of Work:
- Where more than one T&M Contractor is available for a given trade or area of expertise, effort should be made to split work equally among the available contractors, while appropriately considering hourly rates, workloads and expertise of each.
Work Quality Verfication:
- A minimum of 10% of all work orders completed by a T&M Contractor per work unit per trade per month must be PHYSICALLY reviewed for quality by Miami University.
- Work failing a quality review must be escalated to the Director of the work unit
Work Order Audits:
- Monthly work order audits will occur to insure compliance with this SOP
- AUDITED WORK ORDERS MUST BE AT RANDOM
- A minimum of 5% of T&M work orders per contractor per month will be audited for SOP compliance. Each work order will be audited in the following areas:
- Appropriate use of T&M Contractors for urgent/emergency work orders
- There is a detailed plan or scope of work for all non-urgent/emergency work
- An estimate exists on the work order for all work
- If created by T&M Contractor, Miami University approval on work order
- Detailed technician comments on the work performed
- A quality/appropriateness review of the work was physically conducted and any issues appropriately escalated, with detailed comments
- The results of the audit are reported monthly to the most senior manager in the work unit (the Director or Senior Director) and the Associate Vice President of Physical Facilities
- Audits are conducted using the provided standard template
Billing Error Log:
- When the Physical Facilities Program Associate reviews work orders for payment, if a work order cannot be paid due to missing information from the contractor, the Program Associate will record this in the provided template.
- The Physical Facilities Program Associate will report this information no less than monthly to the Associate Director of Non-Capital Projects, the Director of Maintenance, the Director of PAE, the Senior Director of Operations and the Associate Vice President of Physical Facilities
Data Reporting:
- Data will be compiled monthly on each T&M Contractor, as follows:
- Month
- Year
- Contractor name
- Number of work orders completed
- Number of hours charged to work orders
- Dollar spend
- This data will be compiled for all T&M work orders - including non-capital projects
- This data will be reported to the Associate Director of Non-Capital Projects, the Director of Planning Architecture and Engineering, the Senior Director of Operations as well as the Associate Vice President of Physical Facilities
Roles and Responsibilities:
- Although all work units must comply with this SOP, Maintenance, Utilities, FBS IT and IT Services are the primary work units who use T&M Contractors for maintenance activities. Roles and responsibilities for these work units are as follows:
- Responsible Party: The supervisor (Maintenance, UEA) or system subject matter expert (FBS IT, IT Services) of the work unit
- Appropriate use of a T&M contractor
- Authorizing an estimate to be exceeded
- Technician provides detailed comments on the work performed
- Supervisor comments on work performed
- Quality and appropriateness review of work with work order comments
- Responsible Party: The planner (Maintenance, UEA) or system subject matter expert (FBS IT, IT Services) of the work unit
- Creating a detailed work plan or scope of work
- Creating or approving an initial estimate
- Responsible Party: The program associate in Physical Facilities
- Technician time sheet completed and attached to work order, including labor rate
- Technician comment sheet
- Contractor invoice attached to work order, including additional receipts
- Billing error log
- Responsible Party: The director (Maintenance, UEA) or associate director (FBS IT, IT Services) of the work unit
- Responsible Party: The Director of Maintenance
- Data reporting
- Addressing reoccurring issues with the T&M Contractor identified in the Billing Error Log
Revision History