Are you adapting or are you just getting by?

Are you adapting or just getting by….

In the past two years we have all been forced to rethink just about everything and find ways to adapt to a changing environment. How you adapt could be the difference between running smoothly or being over-stressed and over-budget. Since this is such an important issue right now, I have decided to go a little deeper into it than we did last month. If you missed it, be sure to scroll down for the links to past articles.

Here are some additional things to consider.

Increase Current Productivity

The average maintenance technician spends 18 percent of the workday looking for parts and tools and 24-25 percent walking to and from the job site. All this non-value activity results in the average technician’s utilization of about 17-24 percent. An additional important reason for this low productivity is the lack of maintenance planning and scheduling. Instead of each technician planning their own work, promote from within and have one of the best workers develop quality job plans so the other technicians can accomplish their tasks to the same level of quality. Make sure the parts and tools needed are easily accessible and available. Studies have shown that using a planner to develop quality job plans and an executable schedule can increase the utilization by about 50 percent. Think about how many hours you will save by improving productivity from 20% to 30% or even 40%. The ROI is the utilization improvement. Also, you will not need to hire anyone new to replace that person since they will be increasing everyone’s productivity.

Become a Member of Local FM Groups

Many communities have Facility Management groups where you can gain a wide range of experiences and insights. You may meet monthly or quarterly with your FM peers and possibly vendor partners, which will help you learn about different trades and the latest products. They’ll give you information on maintenance from their perspective and may even talk about some issues you are experiencing. If you do not want to go to meetings, newsletters like this one and other industry specific newsletters and groups can be a great way to share and gather information.

Information is Golden; Talk and Listen

Getting your budget requests denied constantly? You can meet with company leaders to discuss what facilities can do to support the organization’s overall goals. The exchange of information may help both parties try to meet the other halfway; it may lead to new ideas on how your department can cut down on its expenses, or get the extra budget funding you are requesting.

Consulting with your coworkers on the floor can reveal beneficial information. There are eyes and ears all over the facilities that notice things you may not catch on your own. What are the main issues they discuss? What about the cleaning or landscape team? What common challenges do they face?

This tip may sound obvious, but in some cases facilities managers may feel so much pressure to save money that they neglect to perform maintenance on the equipment that needs it. They figure that as long as it functions, that’s good enough for the time being.