Facility managers across the globe share and implement facility management best practice from each industry. Facility managers have a common goal in facilities management. They want to be efficient and effective, reduce operating costs and increase employee productivity.
Facility management is a dynamic process. Every day is different and the procedures must change to meet these demands. Facility managers must continue to learn and keep up to date with best practices in facilities management. This is the only way to save money and keep their buildings and facilities as efficient as possible.
These are seven common best practices for facilities management that will help you reduce costs, increase maintenance management efficiency, and reach operational success no matter how fast.
Best practices for improving efficiency in management of Facilities
Streamline and digitize facility maintenance and operations
A well-designed workflow that can be easily modified is an essential part of good facilities management. A well-organized workflow can increase visibility, consistency, and efficiency in your facility.
Digitizing HVAC and lighting systems can make facilities management more efficient. Many facility managers have discovered that digitization has made it easier to manage their operations. You can monitor the heating and cooling settings of your building’s HVAC system by collecting their status information directly from the field through your maintenance staff’s mobile app. This will result in more efficient energy consumption. Lighting can also be controlled as needed to improve energy efficiency and save money over the long-term.
By creating electronic work orders via a facility management software, or an CMMS software, facility managers can streamline their facility and maintenance operations. The elimination of paper based orders improves team productivity and efficiency by making it easier to see all maintenance and facility activities.
Modify your facility management to meet your company’s specific needs
Every organization is different when it comes to facility management. No matter what your top priority may be preventive maintenance or special projects, asset management, or event scheduling, your workflows should be flexible and tailored to meet your unique facility maintenance requirements.
Facility management is not a one-size fits all approach. Facility managers can use customized facility management software to capture, track and report all the critical details of their facility’s activities, giving them the tools and resources, they need to ensure that their facility decisions are in the best interests of the organization.
Communicate with your colleagues, across departments, as well as with outside vendors
Communication is crucial to success. A key best practice in facility management is to communicate clearly and effectively amongst all team members, departments and vendors. Keep everyone informed about any changes in your facilities, your processes, emergency repairs, and any other information that may affect your facility. Be open to hearing from your team members by answering any questions.
You can communicate effectively with others by having the right communication tools.
- Inform your team about all current activities at the facility and any upcoming assignments to increase productivity and accountability.
- Keep records of contractors and vendors details and task information to maintain vendor and contractor relationships.
- You and your team can eliminate unnecessary tasks and spend more time on the work that is most important to you, your company, your technicians, maintenance schedule, facilities, and other staff members.
Best practices for managing Facilities to reduce costs
Create a preventive maintenance program
You, as a facility manager, strive to maximize efficiency and reduce maintenance costs. Implementing a preventive maintenance plan (PM) for your facility will allow you to increase the life of your equipment, decrease downtime, and reduce reactive maintenance. You can also keep a calendar for all PM tasks, track metrics, maintenance schedule KPI analytics, and monitor metrics that will help you make data-driven decisions about your facilities and cut down on your reactive maintenance costs. An organization that has a preventive maintenance program in place can save 12%-18% annually on its maintenance costs.
Facility managers may find it overwhelming to track and maintain the details of a PM plan. However, routine maintenance can be simple with the right tools.
Track and measure facility management processes, and perform with data trends
It is a recommended best practice for facilities management to keep as much information as possible. This includes details such as the manufacturer, serial number, emergency repair information, warranty information, and warranty information for all your equipment and assets. It also tracks worker labor rates, hours, inventory levels and equipment downtime.
You will have full visibility into your facility operations and can set and achieve facility and maintenance goals. You will have the ability to access all your assets’ logs and data to help you establish operational benchmarks and key performance indicators (KPI), which will allow you to prevent and reduce asset breakdowns, extend asset lifespans, lower maintenance costs and prepare for future operations costs. This intelligence will allow you to analyze trends and make data-driven decisions regarding your facility, maintenance processes, asset enhancements and productivity. It also helps with future budgeting. This level of decision-making will lead to increased profitability and a strong return-on-investment (ROI). It will also help you improve your operational performance, ultimately leading to a better bottom line.
Use the IoT capabilities to your advantage
Technology is constantly improving and evolving best practices in facilities management. It’s why it’s crucial that facility managers embrace technology to aid them in their daily facility management tasks. The Internet of Things or IoT is actually changing the way facility managers operate.
Facility managers don’t have to spend time organizing their schedules, organizing paperwork, or tracking down lost request’s details. There are many cloud-based software options that can help them manage their facility. They can now communicate and access all their facility activities and schedules from any device, including their smartphones or tablets. This gives them the freedom to collaborate with their maintenance staff from anywhere and at any time. You can control the lighting and HVAC settings of your facility’s facilities from your smartphone or tablet.
The IoT provides you with the tools you need to save time, cut costs, align your team, maintain a safe working environment, improve productivity, and focus on what is most important to you and your company.
Maintenance management software can help you manage your operations
These best practices will help ensure that you are successful in facilities management. Facilities maintenance software can help achieve faster results. It can be overwhelming to have so many options. We recommend these key features to help you narrow down your options:
- Management of assets and equipment
- Historical log for knowledge exchange
- Automation of routine and workflow processes
- Time management improvements
- Reduced maintenance costs
- Configurable reporting
Facilities managers can use a facilities management system to prioritize tasks and assign work orders to their teams based on the priority of each work order and technician availability. The system can store information about how an item was fixed in the past. This reduces the time it takes to complete work orders. It also provides a great way to report employee and asset productivity. This helps teams stay on track and ensures that the most urgent requests are addressed first. It also reduces work order resolution time, streamlines processes, and lowers costs.
It doesn’t matter if you need to choose the best maintenance software for your facility or set up the most cost-effective preventive maintenance program. Instead of reinventing the wheel, use the tools and facilities management best practices that have been proven effective time and again.
