A company’s bottom line can be impacted significantly by its facilities management costs. While optimizing FM cost efficiency requires careful planning, there are ample opportunities for significant savings.
One way to save money is by choosing a CAFM system that streamlines work orders, automates data capture, prioritisation, triage and the process for seeking quotes from contractors.
Unplanned Repairs
Whether you own the property that house your business or manage space for clients and tenants, effective facility management plays a critical role in keeping your company comfortable, productive, and safe. The best way to ensure that your employees have the equipment and resources they need to do their jobs is through a well-established, centralized system for tracking maintenance requests and repairs. This can be done through a facilities management software solution like MRI or by hiring third-party facilities management providers to handle your needs.
A good facility manager will prioritize planned repairs over unplanned ones, which can be expensive. Unplanned repairs often require technicians to be pulled away from other projects, replacement parts may need to be expedited, and production can be stopped while the problem is addressed. This can cost the company significantly in lost productivity and revenue.
Planned repairs, on the other hand, can be cheaper and more efficient. By performing regular inspections and repairs, your team can extend the life of equipment and systems, which will result in lower repair costs and minimize downtime. With the right technology in place, you can even use a predictive maintenance model to help reduce the frequency of unplanned repairs and increase efficiency.
A centralized systems for tracking work orders, failure reporting, inventory management, and other processes can save you time, money, and resources in the long run by preventing costly mistakes. With a comprehensive facility management strategy in place, your business can improve employee morale and productivity while decreasing operational costs and increasing profit margins. This is the key to a sustainable business that can continue growing for years to come. In the modern workplace, people spend 87% of their time in buildings. Make sure those spaces are safe, welcoming, and conducive to productive work with the help of a reputable and experienced facilities management service provider.
Overspending on Maintenance
Having the best facility management practices in place is key to avoiding costly repairs. That’s why it’s essential to develop a budget plan that includes all your fixed and variable costs. This way, you can ensure that your facility expenses are in line with your business goals.
However, sometimes even the most careful planning can result in a few unforeseen expenses that get lost in the shuffle. These expenses may not be as big-ticket as a large-scale renovation project, but they can still add up quickly. To prevent these costly mistakes, consider using an integrated workplace management system (IWMS) that combines your facilities maintenance software with asset management and other services. This will help you spot these silent budget-killers before they turn into unmanageable expenses.
Another way that FMs can save money is by ensuring that they are always looking for opportunities to streamline their operations. One easy way to do this is by leveraging an outsourcing solution like OpenWorks, which enables businesses to use the services of self-performing contractors to meet their maintenance needs without having to hire in-house staff. Another great example is WorkTrek Facility Management. This not only saves time and money, but it also helps to increase employee satisfaction and productivity.
Finally, FMs can also save money by ensuring that they are always keeping an eye on their supply chain and inventory. This is especially important at the moment, as labor rates are rising rapidly due to Covid-19 and other global factors. As a result, many service providers have seen their backorders soar to record levels, with wait times increasing by as much as 27%. Fortunately, this trend should start to ease in the second half of 2022.
Understaffing
Understaffing is one of the most significant facility management costs. It can lead to a variety of problems, including decreased productivity, poor customer service, and costly mistakes. To avoid understaffing, you must make sure your facilities team is staffed properly and that they have the tools they need to perform their jobs effectively.
While short-term understaffing can occur for a variety of reasons, most of these issues are easy to resolve. For example, if you have a busy season that requires extra staff, you should plan ahead and hire the team members you need well in advance. This will help to prevent the stress and confusion that can come with understaffing.
Long-term understaffing is a more serious problem, as it can cause your business to suffer. Employees who are constantly overworked will start to burn out, which can lead to higher absenteeism and turnover rates. In addition, employees who are stressed and tired will be less productive and more prone to workplace accidents. This can result in expensive workers’ compensation claims and lost business opportunities.
The most serious cost of understaffing is that it can negatively impact your company’s reputation. A bad reputation can take years to repair, which can be a devastating blow to your business’s finances. Customers will not want to spend money at a business they believe isn’t taking care of their needs. Additionally, a negative reputation can affect your bottom line by reducing sales and lowering customer loyalty. To avoid a reputational disaster, you must address understaffing issues as soon as they arise. If you don’t, they will eat away at your profit margins and destroy your company’s reputation. Luckily, fixing this type of issue is easier than it sounds if you take the time to implement good hiring practices and training programs.
Overspending on Technology
When it comes to maximizing productivity, comfort, and efficiency, facilities managers play a critical role. Their behind-the-scenes work helps employees concentrate on their work, and it ensures that equipment runs smoothly. When your facility management team has the right tools and strategies in place, you can improve efficiency and support growth.
In addition to boosting productivity and morale, facilities management also helps reduce energy costs and extend the lifespan of equipment and infrastructure. This is especially important as the world becomes more environmentally conscious and focused on sustainable practices. As a result, sustainability and ESG reporting have become increasingly crucial aspects of facility management.
The best way to minimize unnecessary expenses is to implement a preventive maintenance schedule. By regularly inspecting and repairing infrastructure, facilities managers can help prevent breakdowns and expensive emergency repairs while reducing warranty leakage. This can save you thousands in operating costs each year while improving the health of your workplace environment.
A centralized work order management system can be an asset for your facility management program. It can help you track and resolve issues, create and update work orders, and make data-driven decisions through reports and dashboards. This type of solution can increase productivity and efficiency by allowing your employees to submit requests through one platform.
The success of your facility management strategy will depend on your ability to provide consistent service and proactively identify new opportunities to drive operational efficiencies. With this in mind, it’s important to invest in the best tools and technology that can help you meet your business goals. A cloud-based work order management system is ideal for modern facility teams because it provides real-time data, eliminates manual processes, streamlines communication, and improves workflow.
Underestimating Maintenance Needs
Whether it’s a fire alarm that goes off or a computer system that doesn’t work, equipment failure can be costly. Not only does it cost your facility staff time and money to respond to the emergency, but it can also lead to a loss of production and revenue. With that in mind, it’s critical to invest in preventative maintenance and proactively inspect and repair systems. This will help minimize the risk of downtime and ensure that your facilities continue to operate as smoothly as possible day-to-day.
Another way to minimize the cost of maintenance is by creating a maintenance schedule that includes both planned and reactive tasks. This will help reduce the amount of downtime your facility experiences, which will also save you money. Planned maintenance can be more cost-effective than reactive maintenance, as it will allow your team to avoid costly repairs and extend the life of your equipment. Additionally, a planned maintenance program will help you track and report key data, such as uptime, asset availability, and maintenance costs.
Finally, it’s important to have a clear understanding of your facilities’ needs. This can be challenging because many departments look at facilities from a different perspective. For example, operations is concerned with facility management, finance evaluates buildings from a cost standpoint, and business managers focus on employee productivity.
When it comes to ensuring your facilities’ needs are met, the best approach is with integrated facilities management (IFM). IFM unites all of these teams and departments under one platform, which makes it easier to monitor company-wide expenses. This will save you money by reducing redundancies and streamlining communication. It will also increase productivity by providing a consistent, holistic view of the status of your facility.