{Dan Roberge:}
Today, we will be talking to Rob Shea from Age Care Communities, who manages over 50 locations across Canada. We will learn how they keep their teams motivated and organized.
Hey Rob, how's it going? Um, how are you doing today?
{Rob Shea:}
So far so good, Dan. It's so bright and early here in Calgary, but it's not raining. So happy about that. I'm also pleased that it's not 35 degrees Celsius here.
{Dan Roberge:}
I know we've had. Have you had some of those big? Has it been pretty hot for you guys at certain points?
{Rob Shea:}
You know, it's been a pretty temperate spring so far. The warm weather is due to start here on Friday. Um, but for us the warm weather is somewhere around 25 to 30 degrees. So that's just perfect pool weather.
{Dan Roberge:}
That's right. Um, we've known each other for a while now. You are a customer of Maintenance Care. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about your background, who you are, and how you've come to be in this role specifically.
{Rob Shea:}
Yeah, Dan, and thank you for that. Um, so yeah, I've been with Age Care now for, uh, actually, about 18 years in total. I did leave the organization for a few years. I got headhunted out, and I went and worked for another organization for about three years, and then I kind of got headhunted back.
So uh, this is kind of my second tour of duty with Age Care. Originally I was uh, in the role of executive director at Age Care, so I was running seniors, ah, care homes, and long-term care. So the first site that I managed, Washington, uh, called the Glenmore here in Calgary.
And after a few years, our owners, we started on an expansion, and um, I ended up at a very large location here in Calgary. It was three buildings. The care center has 300 beds. Phase two of it was rental apartments with about 89 units.
Phase three of it, which was the third building, was a senior, senior-friendly apartment, um, with rate reduction based on what seniors could afford to pay. So, it had just a little bit over 500 residents in total, uh, between the three different buildings.
And uh, uh, I just think that the owners liked the way that I always managed the site as far as uh, the way it looked, the way it felt, uh, you know, along with uh, you know, always seeing, you know, happy employees and happy staff and, and then I, I moved into the corporate offices, uh, you know, basically looking after all food services, housekeeping, laundry, uh, and facilities.
But then Age Care started to expand, so I didn't have the bandwidth to continue looking after all of those. So they dropped out the laundry, the housekeeping, and the food services. And now I just look after the infrastructure, uh, for, uh, all of Canada, which is Ontario, Alberta, and BC.
And I've been doing that now for, uh, about three years in total.
{Dan Roberge:}
Wow. That's, uh. And how many locations do you guys have right now?
{Rob Shea:}
Right now, right across those three provinces, we're at 54 sites currently, and, uh, I. And some new ones are coming. We've got several projects in the ground here in Calgary. I know we've got several sites in Ontario that are getting kind of tired, and those will probably drop off the radar in the next few years and, hopefully, be replaced with some new modern facilities with any luck.
{Dan Roberge:}
That's incredible. And I know that, um, the other day, I was talking to another gentleman who's exclusively running, I think, about five to ten locations using paper. Okay? And I know you're the polar opposite of that because you've utilized not just Maintenance Care, but other tools along with Maintenance Care that have, um.
I've seen some of your reporting, for example, and, you know, it's just kind of, uh, the details and uh, as I mentioned before, the trigger points where you measure success is so interesting to me. So, how did you get into just technology in general? Like, how to do. What's your interest in that?
{Rob Shea:}
I'll be very honest with you, Dan, is, uh, I've always, I guess, been. I wouldn't consider myself exceptionally tech-savvy, but I never like to pay for software programs we don't fully utilize. And to me, I've got a fabulous program with uh, really, uh, great capabilities.
And one of the best capabilities of all is the ability to go and find things, which means that I don't ever need to keep paper around. Now, Dan, I think you've maybe seen my desk before, but you will see here that I really don't have any paper and I try not to keep any paper.
In fact, just a while back, I was digging through, uh, one of our rooms here at the corporate office, and we found, uh, you know, a ton of manuals. Ah, for one of our new properties. Uh, I'll say new property. The property was about eight years old, but there were, you know, seven or eight manuals that were sitting down there.
Everything from plumbing to, you know, uh, electrical commissioning of the building, blueprints, the whole shooting match. I first thought we had to get rid of these and get them to the site. And, uh, although there was a fair amount of work involved, we were able to utilize somebody on, uh, modified duties to scan, take those documents, and match them up against the appropriate asset within Maintenance Care.
So, needless to say, we took a crap load of paper. We're able to get it back to a, uh, recycling facility. And not to mention the fact that we're able to free up a whole bunch of space here at the corporate office, et cetera. And, uh, you know, the site was actually very thrilled to have those documents as well because every time you need to have some kind of a project going forward, a, uh, major project, the first thing everybody asks for is, well, do you have blueprints?
Do you have, you know, construction designs? All of these kinds of things. And, uh, fortunately, in a lot of cases, especially when we do new builds now, we have all of that documentation from day one, which is so useful.
{Dan Roberge:}
So, how do you deal with it? Because I know one of the biggest obstacles we've seen is that, let's say, you're working with your local fire marshal and inspector, and they want a paper copy. Like they want a signature, they want something that's, uh, you know, that that's not computerized.
How do your facilities deal with that? Uh, one on one?
{Rob Shea:}
Yeah, you know, um, one of the things, of course, that, uh, we're course funded, you know, in all three provinces, um, in part and major part by the province. So, legislation is critical for us in everything that we do, um, even to the point. And again, we're also, uh, accredited.
Our organization is an accredited facility. Uh, and so in a nutshell, you're always having to prove, um, to prove what you do. Um, and so the benefit of Maintenance Care, I think, is a great example. When we have a company come out, and they provide us with sprinkler systems, I think it is a great example.
Um, we require a certificate for that sprinkler system. We require the company to provide the system. They need credentials, insurance, warranties, and absolutely everything around that sprinkler system. We actually, of course, have the sprinkler system in. We would typically enter it in three different sections.
We'd have the fire alarm, we would have the wet system, and if the site has a dry system. So depending on the type of documentation, uh, that we have or what is being certified even to the fire hydrant on the exterior of our building, you, um, can find out whatever detail you want about that fire hydrant just by opening up that asset in Maintenance Care.
And everything you could possibly want is right there. As far as the fire marshal is concerned, sometimes we do take those certificates and post them in the mechanical rooms downstairs. But I do really encourage people to just simply keep them, um, in Maintenance Care against the asset. So anybody at any time, even if somebody's on vacation.
They're just going to go into that asset Maintenance Care, bring it up in a few circumstances, you get an inexperienced user, uh, they'll call me and say, Rob the fire marshals here. What do I do? They're looking for this. I'll bring it up. I'll put it on their screen.
With the team meeting in two minutes, the fire marshal? Says thank you very much and walks out the door, a very happy kind of thing.
{Dan Roberge:}
It's funny because we get those calls, too. How do I print this off? The fire marshals here? Um. So that's amazing. I mean, I'd say out of all of our customer base, you definitely are. One of the reasons I did want to talk to you specifically is you're one of our biggest uh, most super users of the system in that uh, not only do you um, have good processes as far as what your team needs to do on a regular basis to keep the system up, but the way you even organize it to begin with, um, and set them up for success, this is how we do it, this is what you're going to do and so on.
So, how big is your team? How many people on your team help train all these people and get them onboarded, and so on?
{Rob Shea:}
Yeah. So, as good of a user as I am, Dan, you've met Ryan on my team, and he's my regional facility manager for all of Alberta. Uh, and I will tell you, he is absolutely spectacular when it comes to the utilization of the system. Uh, but more importantly, we try to design it anytime something comes up.
Um, and so you will see as. I'll give you an example, Dan, in Maintenance Care; although you wouldn't think asbestos, for example, is an asset, we've actually made asbestos an asset at many of our sites. And the reason we've done that is because we have documents that have maps on our sites to show where asbestos is located.
We've had asbestos reports to say okay, it's in your drywall mud, it's in this floor, all of those kinds of things. So typically, you wouldn't see asbestos as an asset somewhere, but we identify it as an asset. We also identify it, uh, in the dropdown list as documentation only.
So there's no cost associated with it, uh, those kinds of things. So we're always looking I guess for bigger and better ways to utilize it so we can extract information easily. One of the extent that we don't like to do as the infrastructure team is to reach out to a site and say, say can you tell me how many residents you have?
What is the square footage of your room? When is your fire, uh, system due for inspection? It's just all there in Maintenance Care. And when we also go out uh, and our regional field teams go out to the sites and they do a couple of different uh, inspections on an annual basis and one of them is a compliance risk inspection.
And we actually do go in and search. Ah, documentation within Maintenance Care. So very often we will get tasks that are closed. But we'd open up the task and see there's no supporting documentation as an example. So when we go out and we do these inspections at sites, we go in with the team.
So the executive director would be there, the regional or, sorry, the facility manager would be there and ultimately we would go and check and see. Well, this document's not here, or this document's not here. And again, we don't do it from a fault-finding perspective, Dan. It's simply a fact-finding perspective. And so if it's not there, we basically give them a timeline.
Very often we create a task and another task to get that task done. That way, we can also monitor it on a weekly or a 14-day or a uh, 30, 60, 90-day report to ensure that it is done. That also reminded me, Dan, that you asked about the size of my team.
So we do have, um, uh, just one regional facility manager in Ontario, one in Alberta, and one in British Columbia, supported by myself. We also have Jackie, who works out of our Toronto office. And for all major projects Jackie puts together, you know, does the debrief, does the quotation, uh, review those kinds of things before we work on major projects.
Uh, so it's a small team, but it's very, very efficient.
{Dan Roberge:}
Yeah, I've noticed that. I mean, it's uh, like I said, you've got, and also you motivate your team. You know, that wasn't the only. It's not just about applying this kind of regulation to make sure that everybody's doing the same thing. We've talked before about how, well, you don't just want to tell them what to do, you want to get their buy-in, and you do that by encouraging, showing their progress, and giving them goals to achieve that they feel happy that they're achieving.
So that's definitely been part of your success. Uh, has that been on purpose? What's been your plan around that?
{Rob Shea:}
Yeah, I think, Dan, that's, uh, uh, prior to joining the healthcare industry, I worked in a different industry that I would suggest Washington was very competitive, but it's important to know that it was competitive in a very friendly way. One of the things that we found with Maintenance Care is that it really is simple to give people data that they can look at.
They're not threatened by it in any manner. Uh, but the people that are already doing good can see clearly where they are as far as even something like the number of tasks being done, uh, in a day, a week, a month. However, we also divide those tasks by the number of maintenance personnel at the site.
That way, you will have a fair playing field, etc. Um, and of course now with 54 sites, you know, um, there's a number of teams that, you know, sort of in that top ten that are always trying to outdo somebody else and even the people that are at the bottom.
It's really important, Dan, that we never ever send it out from a shaming perspective. But nobody ever likes to see themselves at the bottom. The interesting thing is, because we have so many measurables from Maintenance Care, even the sites that are at the top in a lot of areas aren't necessarily at the top in every area, and even some of the sites that are at the bottom, uh, maybe that they're low in getting tasks completed, but they're high in other areas, for example. And so we will share that in different methodologies, in different ways and different sorts, if you will.
Uh, so that way there's a bit more of a balance. Again, we always emphasize that this is not fault-finding; it is fact-finding. Even when we found some sites that were, um, getting more tasks going into the system than were being completed, they felt, you know what?
I just keep falling further and further behind. We designed that spreadsheet that I think I shared with you, Dan, in a way that basically said, you know, if you actually did, you know, just one more task a day, you would actually, at the end of the year, be ahead.
And I was really amazed, uh, that when we did that, about 90% of our sites went from being negative to being positive just by bringing it up in that perspective. Like, we had some sites that only needed to do, uh, you know, one more task a week, and that would make them positive.
And then before you know it, every single one of our sites, Dan, was on the positive side, meaning that we're now at a point where we have sites where we run out of tasks to do and, you know, and some people will say, well, maybe you've got too many maintenance personnel there.
So, I don't necessarily share that kind of detail too broadly. Uh, but really, what we were trying to do was just to make sure that sites were not falling behind because you fall behind 100 over the course of a year. Well, after two years, three years, four years, now, you're going to be 400 behind, 500 behind, and you're just going to keep getting into a bigger and bigger hole.
Fortunately, uh, Dan, that's not the case.
{Dan Roberge:}
Yeah, I mean, that's the simple math of it. One extra every day. It's the consistency that works. And you measure all those metrics well and also show, um, your team those metrics and make them understand. And I think that's kind of a big part of the success there. And so tell me, you know, about your previous industry and how different it was.
Like, what industry was it in, and what's the, you know, compared to senior care? How do you? What are some of the differences, and just generally, how did you, how did the maintenance teams behave at the locations, and how did you interact with the different people in the environment?
{Rob Shea:}
Yeah, well, actually, I used to work for Cineplex Entertainment for, uh, about 28 years before. Before I joined, uh, Age Care, actually. Dan.
{Dan Roberge:}
So you started when you were ten years old?
{Rob Shea:}
Uh, 14, actually, working as a movie ushered in, uh, Kingston, Ontario. And, uh, I actually managed my first drive-in movie theater when I was 17 in Kingston, Ontario. And I closed the last drive. In Toronto, which was in Markham, uh, back in 1985, is when it closed an old four screen drive, uh, in movie theater many years ago.
But it was a lot different on the maintenance side of things working. In the movie industry, Dan is. They didn't really pay as much attention to maintenance. And when something broke, it was more a case of, uh. Well, you call a plumber, you call an electrician, you didn't really have a guy.
Uh, now I did have the benefit because of my skill set, I guess, uh, you know, around maintenance and those kinds of things, etcetera. Um, is that I was able to fix a lot of things that other people neglected, or, you know, they wouldn't call a contractor just to fix a couple of seats?
They would wait till there were ten or 15 seats broken, and then they would call somebody in. But, you know, my site never had broken seats. Cause I fixed them as they broke kind of thing. And so, you know, I guess that got me noticed a little bit because every time somebody had walked in from the corporate office, uh, from Cineplex, my location always looked spectacular.
Um, and, uh, you know, ultimately that got me into the regional director for Western Canada. And I did all the way from Winnipeg to Vancouver Island in the movie business. Unfortunately, the movie business at that time was growing just like Age Care is currently growing. And I lost my job, uh, on the 7th merger with the organization.
But they took great care of me, and I fell into this job very shortly after. You know, again, a lot of it was based on the experience that I had in the movie theaters. And, you know, it certainly has great memories, Dan, but they are a lot different. You know, they're, uh, a lot different.
But at the end of the day, always went into it with sort of a customer service focus. And, you know, that certainly pays dividends, always.
{Dan Roberge:}
Yeah. And there's, I would imagine, less regulation, um, than in senior care, especially back then. I would imagine, you know, those regulations have only but increased. But, um, how was it when you came into the senior care industry and you realize, wow, we're being watched and we're being monitored and graded based on a lot of different things?
I would assume that there'd be quite a different culture just around that.
{Rob Shea:}
Yeah, Dan, one of my. And I still think of this, I find it a little funny is, um, you know, I think within the second week I had started, we were actually in the accreditation process and we had a health inspector coming to mine. I went to my site at, uh, Glenmore and have only been there for a few weeks, and the health inspector had identified, you know, two, three, maybe four issues at the site.
And, uh, anyways, uh, about a week later, it ended up on the regional director's desk, this health inspector. And so she came into my office, and she said, Rob, she says, this is a perfect example of, uh, where a gap analysis would be very helpful. And I said, I'm sorry, I've never heard of a gap analysis.
Can you tell me what that is? And she says, well, what a gap analysis is, you identify something that's wrong, and then you talk about what you're going to do to fix it. And I said, well, all of those items are already fixed. I said, in fact, we fixed them on the date, uh, that the health inspector came in.
And she says, oh, okay. And she says, well, this one's a bit bigger. Uh, how were you able to fix that? And I told her what we did, and she said, well, okay, we don't usually have people move this fast, but it's funny where we came from. If it's broken, you fix it.
Here. You know, in healthcare, if it's broken, you talk about it, and then you talk about how you're going to fix it and then you fix it. So anyways, that was, uh, a bit of learning for me. But really, more than anything, Dan, she was looking for documentation to show that, you know, when we've got something that isn't working perfectly, what are the steps that we take to ensure that it does work perfectly?
But instead of doing gap analysis, I would rather you, you know, every time that fire marshal comes in, every time the health inspector comes in, we prefer just to, you know, hit the targets right off the get-go rather than have a need to do a gap analysis to start with kind of thing.
So that was absolutely new to me, and it was a little bit strange. I certainly get it now. Um, but, you know, again, I think that's been a big part of our success. If something's broken, let's get it resolved now. But even better. Uh, and this is where Maintenance Care really helps us: to be more proactive about things, um, rather than reactive.
{Dan Roberge:}
Yeah. Wow, that's hilarious. Uh, now, as far as you've got facilities all across the country, um, how have you found the staffing for maintenance been? Is it different across the country in different provinces? It's been okay. Or is there a lot of turnover? What's been your experience lately? Ah, related to staffing?
{Rob Shea:}
Yeah. Well, I kind of hate to say this, Dan, but, uh, you know, at Age Care, like all providers, they do struggle a little bit. Um, especially in British Columbia right now, it is a huge challenge. They've identified, you know, more than 2000 vacancies in the province. Uh, just on the care side.
So healthcare aides, LPNs, registered nurses, uh, sort of as a starting point. Um, but the infrastructure department has actually maintained, uh, really great staffing levels right across Canada. We struggle very little. Um, uh, again, I think a lot of it, in part, as you know, Dan, I, uh, know there's great training available from Maintenance Care, but we do our own training, uh, just because I think it's important, based on my own.
I used training from a previous CMMS system. We actually had, uh, uh, I guess he was a very patient trainer, if you will. The approach that I wanted more than anything was to learn certain aspects of it. Once I learned it, I wanted to move on to the next things.
Because again, your program itself, um, it really has many fingers at the end of the day. And I just find that if we move faster than somebody's ready to move, then you have a tendency to lose some of those people. And even with Ontario coming on board, we had a number of people, uh, that said, yeah, I think I'm going to have to pack up.
Uh, I don't know how to use computers. I don't even know how to turn a computer on. Uh, but, uh, our first training sessions were really not about how to use Maintenance Care. Our first training sessions were more about the capacity and capability of what this program can do for you.
So the first thing that we did was we got their interest. Uh, we showed them, and of course, we're getting lots of wows. This is incredible, uh, that kind of thing. And we just said, look, we take it a step at a time, a day at a time. We provided, uh, group training, but we've also provided one-on-one training where necessary.
And I think that's the sort of thing that, um, you know, if we train them at their level and what they're ready for, uh, and we still have people at this point in Ontario that are simply just opening tasks and closing tasks. That's really all they're capable of doing.
Uh, and we've been using the program since April 1. Um, but about 90% of the sites are starting to put assets into the system. They're starting to link tasks into those assets. Um, and slow and steady wins the race. Even in western Canada, where we've been using it for a number of years, we have some that I would deem to be absolutely super users, and we still have some people who are using it at the basic level.
We're ready to move forward with them when they're ready to move forward.
{Dan Roberge:}
Yeah. You know, I've seen this scenario before. You imagine when we started 20 years ago, nobody was using computers hardly, and, you know, and they were using their pagers and, um, you know, in every instance you had somebody who was very capable at their job, just this computer skills maybe weren't there.
And so we always wanted to go slow and make sure that they're learning, you know, the basics. And it's easy to do, and it helps them, and then they can grow whenever they're ready like you said. So when you're looking at your, um, your teams across the country, how do you like.
Because there are some parts of the job that are quite difficult to learn or take time to learn, let's say, you know, the regulations around fire safety and so on, and they, I would assume, don't all come. In with that education, do you provide anything around that scenario?
How do you help your teams grow in their maintenance skills themselves?
{Rob Shea:}
Yeah, so again, I actually, my three regional facility managers are all very, uh, very adept. Darren in Ontario, he's, uh, been working with Well Age Care since September 6 last year. He worked for, uh, Chartwell for 20-plus years prior. Absolutely, uh, adept. Ryan comes from oil and gas, uh, and so he's absolutely fantastic.
He's got his class four boiler certificate. Again, very adept in all things HVAC. Uh, now, regal out in BC. Um, he comes in with a lot less experience, but I'll tell you, he's got such a great can-do attitude, Daniel. And you show him once, and he learns immediately.
So, uh, having that depth of team is very helpful, first and foremost. But when we create, uh, PM's as an example, uh, we don't just say, go out and do that. Uh, fire extinguishers. We actually have a list of those five or those six things that you must do when you inspect that fire extinguisher.
You got to lift it up and make sure that it's full. You have to make sure that the gauge on it reads green. You have to check the nozzle to make sure it's not blocked. You have to make sure, uh, that little pin is in place.
And you got to make sure that little vinyl, uh, thing, uh, on there is holding it in place, those kinds of things. And then it's been signed. Those step-by-step instructions are all in our PMs as well. Daniel. And that's the sort of thing that is very helpful.
If the checklist becomes too big, then we will utilize a checklist that they, uh, complete the PM with. But when they're finished, they scan that checklist and put it into the PM for the month.
{Dan Roberge:}
Okay. And so, um, do you sometimes use contractors for your preventative maintenance, or do some people like to pass on the liability? Let's say it's like, okay, I'm going to use them for h vac or whatever is the case.
Correct.
That part of your kind of decision-making process?
{Rob Shea:}
Sometimes, yeah.
So we have, uh, you know, I think the simple and easiest one is that every quarter, uh, our h vac technicians come to the site. Uh, they, again, have a list of things that they must check off. Yes, we changed your filters. Yes, we inspected the pulley. We inspected the belt.
The belt didn't need to be replaced this quarter, uh, as an example. Uh, those kinds of things. And the good thing, Dan we never lose a belt, which is great, because there's nothing worse than having to have a technician come back from your HVAC company because they didn't change the $10 belt, that sort of thing.
So when they're finished with those inspections, it's the same thing. So we have a pm task in the system. And then, when that has been completed, the document is uploaded against that specific group of assets, uh, if you will. If there are any identified deficiencies, Dan, then a new task must be implemented in the system until that deficiency has been resolved.
{Dan Roberge:}
Amazing. Amazing. So do you run your household the same way, uh, as you, uh, do, uh, your day-to-day, uh, business world?
{Rob Shea:}
You know what, um, especially over the summer, Dan, I'm on a four-day work week, so I take Fridays off. But the nice thing is, on Friday, I do all the things I would have to do on Saturday and Sunday. So Saturday, and Sunday, I can just float in the pool and have a nice cold beverage.
But I don't use Maintenance Care for it. But I do make a list of all the things that I need to do on the weekend that I try to get done on Friday.
{Dan Roberge:}
Very good. Very good. Well, I mean, um, I think we've, uh, covered a lot of interesting topics. Uh, is there anything else you want to share with us about, uh, where you're headed, uh, as far as a company or kind of your advice related to maintenance, uh, techs out there that might want to get into this career and so on?
{Rob Shea:}
Yeah, Dan, uh, the one piece we never really chatted about, but where we're getting to is, uh, useful life, uh, of equipment, which I think is, uh, you know, it is really laid out so well in Maintenance Care. But we're hopeful that by next year that, uh, at least 50% of our sites will just be able to take a report off of Maintenance Care, uh, to show our assets that we must review, uh, for capital budgeting purposes.
So, you know, the nice thing about Maintenance Care is that it's in there twice the expected life, uh, the expected useful life. But then there's another one that indicates where it is today. So we may have an h vac unit that we're expecting to last 25 years, but what ends up happening is that we've got one out of the 30 that may be on a rooftop as an example, and there's one or two that are just always causing us problems.
And so we will adjust that from 25 years down to, say, 20 years because it's giving us grief. And so then it's going to pop up on our capital list, uh, five years sooner. And so then what happens is, when it comes time for capital planning, and we're already, believe it or not, working on that, for 2025, we will take those reports off of Maintenance Care and say, okay, this is so showing that.
This is now at, uh, you know, uh, 110 or 115% of its useful life. Now, that gives us the ability. Do we have enough money to change it this year? Because if we don't, then we're going to be spending another $5,000 every year until we replace this unit, which we don't want to do because it's just always problematic.
And that's the one feature that we're. Growing towards, uh, with Maintenance Care. But we're very excited because, um, there's a lot of work in capital planning. And there's nothing worse, Dan, than saying, this is the elevator we're going to replace this year. And so you move forward with replacing that elevator only to have another one die on you.
And so, really, what we want to do is make sure that we're always selecting the right HVAC unit, the right boiler, and the right elevator. And now we can do that because we've got history on every one of these assets. And that's the stuff that, uh, is just so helpful and keeps us, uh, organized when it comes to capital planning if you will.
{Dan Roberge:}
Well, you just made me think of a new report we could create, um, where we can compare, especially because you have multiple sites. If you have a certain piece of equipment, let's say it's a boiler or something like that, that you want to replace. Potentially, it can show you other boilers in that report that will tell you these are also ones you can consider replacing.
At the same time, maybe you can negotiate a bigger rate for buying more than one. So that might be something that could be helpful. So we'll work on that report.
{Rob Shea:}
You know, actually, Dan, we take it as far, uh, and again, we really almost approach it mathematically, if you will. Uh, if I've got a site with 100 beds and, uh, beds, for example, and I need to, uh. A bed has a lifespan of 20 years. If I don't change five of those beds every single year, there's going to come a point in the future where I have to buy more beds than I have money for.
And so the nice thing is, again, this is where Maintenance Care comes in. I take a list of all my beds. Uh, we have to do an annual assessment of every single bed in the place. That way, I would know exactly which beds need to be taken out.
In fairness, even in some cases, even though the bed that is destined to go out, it's due for replacement. We will still take all the motors off of it. We'll take the actuators off of it, uh, and then we'll send it to, uh, scrapyard for steel and get a little bit of money back for it kind of thing as well.
That enables us to keep our equipment in place for as long as we possibly can.
{Dan Roberge:}
That's amazing. Well, thank you very much for being a customer, being such a great customer, and also for doing this because, uh, I know that your knowledge is extensive, and you've shared a lot with us. Today. I'm sure there's tons more, but, um, I know a lot of people are going to learn a lot from what you just said, so, uh, that's very appreciated.
Thank you very much. You know, hopefully, you can do this again in the future.
{Rob Shea:}
Anytime, Dan. And, uh, we just appreciate everything that Maintenance Care, uh, does for us. And you guys have been nothing but a great partner, so thank you as well.
{Dan Roberge:}
All right. You take care.
{Rob Shea:}
All the best, Daniel.
.svg){kind=small}