What are the 4 common FM mistakes and how to avoid them?
We've noticed a lot of departments that need improvement from our many years of working directly in the facilities management action. This is regrettable but understood because the FM sector is undergoing rapid change, making it difficult for organisations to keep up.
Additionally, it's evident that some businesses do not fully appreciate the influence that facilities management can have, which is why they do not recruit a professional staff or allocate the required resources.
Organizations commit a number of crucial blunders in the management of their facilities as a result of these and other significant issues. The four most frequent ones we observe are listed below, along with concrete actions businesses may take to prevent them:
Mistake 1: Manually collecting and analysing FM
With tools like Excel spreadsheets, many facilities departments seek to compile, arrange, and analyse all data themselves. While this approach might be effective in the short term, managers typically come to the conclusion that manual data procedures are not a practical option because they have too much data or their firm is growing too quickly.
FM analytics that rely on spreadsheets have three key drawbacks:
- Data organisation and input need a lot of time and resources, and it's easy to make mistakes.
- Scalability is just very weakly possible.
- Above what FMs can perform manually, considerable analytical skills are needed to extract insights from FM data.
It's crucial for FMs to have a simplified method of communication because so many stakeholders — including store managers, the processes, asset protection, and asset management teams, as well as company executives — require regular access to accurate facilities data. Manual data processes simply cannot meet this need.
How to Prevent This:
Facilities managers ought to priorities incorporating sophisticated technologies with strong advanced analytics into their current procedures. This technology accurately and automatically gathers, organises, and analyses facility data from many sources, providing information sharing for all parties and producing understandable results.
According to their objectives, such as asset performance, contractor compliance, or cost over time, FMs can tailor reporting dashboards.
Mistake 2: Failing to provide Facilities Management with enough resources
Organizations occasionally fail to devote the appropriate funds, personnel, or technological resources to facility management. In fact, even for businesses with many sites, it's not unusual for a single person to oversee all facility operations. Operations may be hampered by a lack of resource and concentration, which can also stagnate proactivity and maintain efficiency low while spend high.
How to Avoid This:
First and foremost, businesses need to understand how important facilities management is to efficient operations and happy clients. Provide enough resource, especially focused members of the team, and place a high value on open communication with all stakeholders. Although employing a software platform can cut down on the resources you need to devote to facilities management, it's crucial to keep in mind that you still need to assign members of the team and set aside time to build and run the programme.
Use service automation to free FMs from time-consuming work order chores like planning work orders and verifying contractor compliance. By automating these operations across all corporate offices from a single interface, service automation can boost productivity, cut costs, and establish a centralised database for FM data across the whole enterprise.
Mistake 3: Reacting instead of taking action
In facilities management, some degree of reactivity is unavoidable since unexpected equipment failure or bad weather can call for a prompt reaction. However, the less emergencies a facilities department has to deal with, the more money they may save.
How to Avoid This:
FMs might give preventive maintenance more priority in order to be more proactive. Regular preventive maintenance ensures that equipment is always in top working condition, saves money by avoiding costly comprehensive repairs, and increases brand uptime. By automating the scheduling of recurring work orders, recording asset warranties, and sending out alerts when service is due, an FM software platform can assist in making preventive maintenance a priority.
Mistake 4: Not Making Contractor Management a Priority
Organizations frequently lack standardised procedures for locating, interacting with, managing, and paying contractors. This may result in a variety of problems, such as:
- Finding qualified, compliant contractors with reasonable prices difficult.
- Disparity between FMs' expectations for service jobs and how contractors actually carry it out .
- Lack of transparency about important contractor performance measures, such as check-in times.
- Slow processing of invoices.
Your FM operations may suffer as a result of these problems; if you outsource workers who don't meet compliance standards, your department may be held legally liable. Without properly outlined Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with your vendors, you may experience delays in response and completion times as well as difficulties with timely billing.
You may encounter a variety of problems in the interaction between the "store-FM-contractor" if SLAs are not enforced at every point of the life cycle. Your professional relationship can suffer if you don't pay contractors and close bills on time.
How to Avoid This:
Most importantly, prioritise good contractor management; failing to pay attention to service providers might result in serious consequences. Treating important contractors like collaborators of your FM department can help you build strong, lasting relationships with them. The relationships you have with your contractors can be improved by processing bills promptly, communicating clearly, setting specific SLAs, and giving both complimentary and negative comments.
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