Properly managing facilities is a foundational need for building owners. The buildings of hospitals, universities, schools districts, and municipalities are considered assets that need to be preserved and enhanced. So, what’s the best way to manage your valuable facility assets? Let’s go over some strategies on how to improve facilities on your campus.
The Old Standard of Building Facility Management
For years, the old standard of building facility management was a simple process that involved fielding complaints about equipment failure and then reactively scheduling a repair. More progressive institutions added preventative maintenance as a reliable means of extending equipment lifetime, and improving reliability. This management system was suited for an environment that featured a healthy availability of technical workers and technicians to handle the workload. However, the ranks of technicians has continued to dwindle over the past two decades, and today is exacerbated further by the overall shortage of qualified workers for hire. In addition, new equipment and controls systems are ever more sophisticated creating challenges and increased demands. Today many multi-building campuses face challenges such as:
Technician Shortage
Businesses across the country are asking their facilities managers to do more with less. The pool of qualified technicians & technical workers shrinks every year, and the cost of hiring talent capable of handling complicated building automation systems continues to rise. We work with clients across the nation and when asked, “If you could find 2 qualified technicians tomorrow would you hire them?” The answer is a resounding YES!
Campus Footprint Expansion
The multi-year building surge across health care, higher education, and K-12 school districts has increased the campus footprint for many institutional building owners. Yet despite the size increases, there is rarely a proportional expansion for the growth of the Facilities Department team. This forces managers to be more efficient in their facilities management best practices.
Budget Reductions
The relentless drive for companies and institutions to cut costs can put real pressure on the facilities team. We observe that many facilities departments are consistently tasked with reducing year over year operating budgets. This demand forces them to think creatively and look for new ways to improve productivity.
