In a post-pandemic environment, Facilities Managers face significant changes, with increasing economic and environmental pressures. Annual operating costs for a single setting can routinely run into the hundreds of thousands, and many FM service providers play a decisive and positive role in managing these costs by suggesting, implementing and encouraging the adoption of best practices, technological improvements and alternative ways of working.
The two areas that establishments tend to look at and focus on when aiming to reduce or eliminate wasteful processes and introduce efficiencies are Facilities Management and Asset Maintenance.
However, for many Facilities Managers it is difficult to understand and assess if they are receiving real value for money with regards to both of these specific areas as compared to other similar settings. Even for those establishments which are achieving top performance levels, there can still be savings and performance opportunities identified.
Benchmarking
This is where benchmarking comes in. The use of benchmarks offers a tried-and-true approach to homing in on the efficiency and quality of both combined and individual facilities management services. Benchmarks help make informed decisions; decisions that will encourage stability and strength moving forwards.
We’re not just talking about cost. Yes, cost plays a significant part, but benchmarking goes much deeper than simply pennies and pounds. Detailed benchmark analysis is proving to be critical to the successful management of broader transformational change, including cost management initiatives, re-engineering of business processes and implementing quality control measures. It also allows an establishment to understand how they are performing compared to other peer organisations.
The key is in maintaining efficiency
Once any benchmarking has been conducted it’s essential that operations continue to be monitored on an ongoing basis so there is consistent confidence that they continue to deliver effectively and efficiently. A big part of this operational efficiency is asset management; ensuring there is a robust asset management system in place which oversees all assets within a facility.
Asset management & lifecycle approach
In today’s era of challenging estate budgets, finding cash reserves to support unplanned equipment failures can have a detrimental impact on the bottom line. The time and cost to repair equipment that fails out of the blue are three to five times more expensive than the cost of making a planned repair of the same equipment prior to failure.
Managing assets is therefore key and saves significant sums that were once used on costly, unplanned fixes, and diverting them into asset equipment and facility upgrades that help set the facilities apart from competitors.
Lack of in-house knowledge
However, the problem many establishments face is that they don’t always have the expertise in-house to create an asset management programme. This is where working with an external facilities management consultancy will pay dividends. Of course, there is an initial investment to cover the FM consultancy fees, but as an example, the average education establishment we have worked with has seen an average 18% saving on operational costs, which covers the funding of our involvement many, many times over.
An asset management programme will establish the condition of the assets, recording its age and history, as well as its location etc., and store this information digitally. That way, as Maintenance Engineers carry repairs and Planned Preventative Maintenance checks, asset updates can be recorded and easily inputted and managed on a central database.
In turn, the development of a Forward Maintenance Register, or Lifecycle Programme, can be established that utilises the asset data to determine a replacement and renewal programme over a set time frame.
Recording the asset history, the level and frequency of repairs, its usage and operation and its original design life will determine at which point within the Lifecycle Programme the asset should be replaced or refurbished.
Budgets can be meticulously planned
This level of asset data and forward planning can in turn inform the budget. Establishments will know ahead of each financial year from their Forward Maintenance Register or their Lifecycle Programme which assets will need refurbishment or a complete replacement, and these costs can be accounted for year-by-year in the programme.
This will mean the days of simply lurching from crisis to crisis will be gone, as will the need to run a large reactive maintenance budget set aside to cover the last minute call-outs to engineers and costly asset replacement. Not least the stress and unnecessary burden that the Facilities Managers face to ensure last-minute breakages are dealt with swiftly to ensure the establishment and its assets can continue to function as usual.
To find out more about how our team of FM consultants can help your organisation get in touch – www.litmusfm.co.uk