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10 tips for managing a lean facilities maintenance program

Your facilities budget is shrinking. Your maintenance staff is being reduced. There’s always uncertainty in business, but this feels a step above the norm.

And through it all, you’re being challenged to do more with less.

As states prepare to more fully reopen, customer experiences—and your facilities—will take the spotlight. Customers are joining you in this uncertain time. Like you, they’re concerned about safety and stability. They want to know that they can trust you.

Even though you’ve lost budget and people, you can still rise to the occasion. You might even be able to do more than you could before. But it’s critical to look at your facilities program differently.

For that, here’s our top 10 tips for how you can build a lean facilities management program using what you have today.

1. Know your numbers

By asking the big questions.

  1. What do you typically spend on parts and materials?

  2. What’s the combined value of your providers’ salary and benefits?

  3. What’s the combined value of personnel in procurement and accounting?

  4. What do you typically spend on third-party maintenance work?

Get a clear sense of your facilities spending baseline. How does that compare to what you used to spend? Once you’ve marked the baseline, tracking spending becomes more straightforward.

With a reliable reference point, you’ll find it easier to know what kinds of work should take priority.

2. Make your technology work for you

A work order management system should keep you informed about what’s happening across your portfolio.

Two important things to keep in mind:

  1. Your system isn’t helpful unless it’s accurate.

Create a detailed work history. Use your work order management system to record accurate check-in and checkout times, specific work process notes, asset information, parts and materials, and photo evidence of work performed.

Without this information, you miss out on the chance to build a database for work at each of your locations. And without this data, you leave performance metrics on the table.

2. Your system should reflect everything you know about your facilities.

Where do you keep warranty and lease information for each of your locations? What about important contact information or process knowledge?

Without instant access to this information, you’ll risk wasting time and money.

Even today, companies store much of their facilities knowledge in analog sources. Printed guidebooks, three-ring binders, and sticky notes are popular places—and also in the heads of employees.

Prepare yourself for the day when those employees move on. Losing employees doesn’t have to mean losing what they know. Storing critical information in a centralized platform is a form of insurance against tribal knowledge.

3. Align your facilities plan with company goals

Organize discussions with your heads of finance, legal, and brand strategy.

How are they responding to the current situation? What are their plans for moving forward?

Your facilities plan should be streamlined with the higher-level strategy at your company. Why? The state of your facilities impacts nearly every aspect of your organization.

  • Legal: A snow-and-ice management program could have an impact on the number of slip-and-fall claims across your locations.

  • Finance: Installing energy-efficient devices at your locations will create long-term energy savings and reduce maintenance costs over the long term.

  • Brand: Customers create a story about your business long before they even walk through the door. Your facilities help customers understand what you value—and that can solidify your company’s reputation.

Your facilities strategy can generate enormous value for these other departments and their leaders. It influences how people think, feel, and behave in response to your business.

For that reason, your facilities strategy belongs in conversations about your company’s overall mission, strategy, and corporate values.

4. Prioritize specific locations

Especially during challenging circumstances, setting priorities is critical. You won’t be able to handle every location equally.

And with a good strategy, you won’t have to. Identify specific business goals, like operational efficiency and customer care. Then budget time and attention as well as finances.

To begin, ask some key questions.

  • Which of your locations tend to have the most foot traffic?

  • Which locations have shown the greatest maintenance needs?

  • Are there certain trades that should be prioritized at those locations?

  • How much time is left on your leases? Will locations close, remodel, or continue as-is?

With fewer hands on deck, merely reacting to needs will work against you. But once you know what to work on as well as where, you can plan ahead and avoid surprises.

5. Tap into a strong provider network

You know your budget. You’re making use of a work order management platform. You’re setting smart priorities. Things are going smoothly.

And then they’re not. Maybe one of your long-time providers tested positive for COVID-19. Or maybe one of your locations was hit by a hurricane.

Sometimes, even the best planning just isn’t enough. Sometimes, you need more help.

When unexpected needs arise, get in touch with a third-party service provider network. Think of it like a pressure release valve—when surprises happen, you’ll have time to regroup and get unstuck.

With a third-party provider network, you’ll always have someone around.

6. Educate providers on safety procedures

With states preparing to reopen, local guidelines around COVID-19 are changing every day. Stay tuned to the newest information and keep your providers informed of any updates.

Setting up Google Alerts for “COVID-19” and the name of your city or state will give you a daily rundown of the latest news.

Create checklists based on the latest information from health authorities. And keep up information about healthy habits throughout your locations.

  • Wash your hands frequently

  • Avoid touching your eyes and face

  • Cough into a cloth covering or into your sleeve

  • Avoid all non-essential travel

Provide personal protective equipment (PPE) such as N-95 face masks, latex gloves, eye protection, and hand sanitizer.

7. Bundle work orders together

Sending one service provider for each work order will quickly dent your maintenance productivity—as well as your budget.

So bundle work orders, instead.

Maybe an overhead light at one of your locations has been out for days. Yesterday, one of several toilets in the customer restroom stopped flushing.

Today, a lock on one of the doors isn’t working.

Rather than sending three providers for three work orders at the same location, schedule one provider to address all three. You’ll save time and money, and your providers will accomplish more in fewer trips.

8. Consolidate invoices by consolidating service providers

You’ve chosen a handful of different third-party service providers for good reasons. But for every provider, there’s a different invoice.

And for every invoice, there’s a different set of payment terms, submission guidelines, and other particulars.

Managing third-party invoices can quickly become time-consuming. You can lessen the extent of this issue by consolidating providers and managing fewer invoices.

Take a look at your highest-performing third-party providers. Do they show expertise where you’re showing a need?

If so, consider expanding their presence across your portfolio, and in different trades.

9. Get a handle on deferred work

During a time like this, it’s tempting to hit Pause on certain work orders.

Maybe this or that maintenance request poses such a small issue that it’s not worth addressing just yet—or perhaps you’re waiting to bundle related work orders together.

Whatever your reason for deferring work, it’ll benefit you to take a data-driven approach to deferments.

  • How does deferment impact your high-traffic locations?

  • When should deferred work orders be addressed?

  • What’s the true cost of any given deferred work order?

How you prioritize deferred work will vary according to location and severity. But strategies for tackling older work orders tend to fall within the same themes.

Use your work order management system to track deferments. Take a look at your budget. Think about your current goals. In light of average time to completion and budgetary impact, some things will just have to wait.

10. Identify opportunities for investment

You likely know of assets across your portfolio that could use a reboot.

Traditional light bulbs could be converted to high-performance LEDs. Touch-operated restroom facilities could be converted to more sanitary touchless models.

To get through the initial install, you might need a capital investment.

But over time, modern facilities upgrades pay for themselves. Not only are they much more efficient—they’re more reliable, too.

To help shoulder the initial costs, consider working with an energy services company, or ESCO. They’ll cover the initial funds, normally settled over a long-term payment plan.

Meanwhile, you’re saving on energy and maintenance costs.

Rethinking your facilities program isn’t easy. But how your organization adapts to uncertainty today could say a lot about its ability to thrive long into the future.

What is SMS Assist?

SMS Assist is on a mission to transform the facilities maintenance industry by delivering unprecedented transparency and control. More than 186,000 commercial properties—like retail stores, banks, restaurants, and more—and residential rental properties leverage our cloud-based platform to connect to more than 20,000 service providers and our operations teams that are available every second of every day. It’s a new approach for an industry in need of a better solution.

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