Value generation in public sector facilities management will rapidly become a mandate. Traditionally elevated levels of economic and environmental waste are no longer supportable. Furthermore, the administrative burden required for sustainable facilities management must be reduced as staffing levels continue to fall.
Fortunately, the challenges for generating value from the ongoing numerous repair, renovation, maintenance, and new construction projects can be significantly reduced through the application of system thinking and associated robust processes, workflows, and tools.
The basics
Step 1: Identify ALL Participants and Stakeholders and Meet with Them (Planning, Procurement, Designers, Builders, Building Users)
Focus upon clearly defining and communicating desired outcomes for all involved. An initial baseline Scope of Work including core requirements, scope, budget, and timeline should be the outcome. Also, it is incumbent upon owners and building users to provide enough information to enable the builder to create a detailed line-item cost estimate and associated timeline. The latter being created from an objective, verifiable, and current unit price book that is locally researched (no use of cost factors of any type), with information provided in a standard data architecture (CSI Masterformat expanded).
Step 2: Follow a Robust Workflow for ALL Projects.
While each project has unique characteristics, a robust process and associated workflow should be constant. This will ensure that system thinking is applied for all activities. The workflow will be complete with phases, deliverables and requirements, timelines, and required authorizations and forms for each phase.
Value generation in public sector facilities management is now a mandate as elevated levels of waste are no longer sustainable.
Step 3: Monitor Progress and Continuously Improve
All projects bring risks and problems. It is critical that those performing the work be enabled to leverage their skills and provide timing and innovative solutions. It is rare that unforeseen circumstances cannot be resolved to the best interests of all parties.
Step 4: Provide Easy, Shared Access to Action Information
Leverage cloud technology to ensure information is current and instantly available to all team members. While levels of access can be controlled all team members must be granted access to information required for their area of work. This type of tool provides a common date environment (CDE) that minimizes miscommunications, change orders, errors due to outdated information, and the number of meetings required.
If your organization is interested in completing over 90% of all projects in a quality manner, on time and on budget, please reach out to schedule a fact finding, educational session.