Corrigo data drives capital replacement and maintenance decisions for Harris Teeter

Michal Shepard is the Director of Maintenance, Energy, and Engineering for Harris Teeter Supermarkets and is responsible for 258 stores from Delaware to Florida, 66 fuel centers, three warehouses, and a new home delivery fulfillment center.

Corrigo data drives decisions about capital replacement and maintenance spend, automates PM scheduling, and tracks the performance of the internal FM team and outside vendors.

Discover how to boost the performance of your grocery facilities management team. Contact a Corrigo expert today.

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Video transcript

My name is Michael Shepherd. I’m director of maintenance, energy and engineering for Harris Teeter supermarkets. We have 258 stores from Delaware to Florida, 66 fuel centers, and three warehouses. We also just opened a fulfillment center for home delivery groceries in our northern area.

What is your job role?

I’m responsible for all internal maintenance, remodels, energy procurement, energy management and specifications, writing SOPs, those kinds of things. I got into this role by accident and in this career by accident. When I was young, I went to a trade school to train for HVAC, and my neighbor at the time wanted me to go to work for his company. I was in school, was identified as a potential candidate, and was hired by a supermarket in Florida where I spent 19 years. I took another role with another grocer for four years, and I’m now working on 19 years of my current company. So 41-plus years in this role just in facilities.

What struggles does Corrigo address for you?

I chose Corrigo for one simple thing, and that was bill payment. Our maintenance management software at the time had an end of life, meaning no future support. I looked at several platforms, and I thought Corrigo would give us the most bang for my buck, knowing that, long term, I needed data. I also needed other things to drive decisions both on the capital side and on the maintenance spend side. So, Corrigo was the best all-around product for the price.

How did COVID impact your business?

COVID, at least on the facility side, didn’t hit us very hard, other than the extra sanitation that became our responsibility. We’ve only been using Corrigo for two years, so we’re just barely scratching the surface of all it can do. But the grocery business changed completely because there was a huge increase in folks not eating out. The grocery business itself thrived during COVID because people were actually cooking and staying at home, and it really carried over into the afterlife of COVID. People working from home tend to cook and do things at home instead of eating out. I think that during COVID, families came back together. They’re spending more quality family time together, so I think, as negative as COVID was, it really centered society back to a more family-centric life.

How has Corrigo boosted FM performance?

One thing we do with Corrigo is we actually have an internal team of technicians, so we’re tracking both internal techs and external vendors. What it gave me, as far as my internal team is concerned, is the ability to see their effectiveness based on their time cards, based on their work order time. It has really enabled us to look at our teams differently and make an area more effective instead of having technicians cross over. Same with vendors, it has allowed us to kind of give a scorecard to a vendor, whereas before, we really didn’t have any idea how that was happening.

How are you more data-driven with Corrigo?

It’s actually brought together several different areas where we would have had to build different spreadsheets from different systems before bringing them all together. The biggest thing was adding the financials. By running billing through Corrigo, we’re able to catch the financials before they hit our AP system. So, I can give update reports and prepare our finance team for being either over or under budget.

How has Corrigo automated your FM processes?

Really it has, especially from a standpoint of having a call come in from a facility and our help desk not having to touch it. Also, it has automated our PM (preventive maintenance) processes. Before, we had to create PM work orders monthly, quarterly, etc., for vendors, and now that’s an automated process.

Would you recommend Corrigo and why?

I would recommend Corrigo. So, this is my sixth CMMS system startup. I’m all about digitizing things. Paper is really something I want to get away from, and I’ve been that way for the past 30 years. I’ve had six adventures into this, and Corrigo has been the easiest by far and has given me the most significant data on the backside. And, again, I’m just scratching the surface. We’re probably utilizing less than 25% of its capabilities.