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Does Your Business Need a Facility Manager?

You’re probably not losing any sleep over facility management if your business fits into one small office. But, if you plan on growing your business, your small office will eventually grow into a whole building.

This is where facility management comes in. The job of a facility manager is to ensure a well-organized environment in which you, your team, and your whole business can thrive.

According to Transparency Market Research, the North American facilities management market will be worth about $340 billion by the end of 2024. So, facility management services are not something you should underestimate.

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Does Your Business Need a Facility Manager?

The Basics of Facility Management

Facility management is a profession that focuses on utilizing a company’s buildings and equipment in a way that offers the best value. Facility maintenance is just one part of facility management.

Strategic facility management ensures functionality, productivity, and safety in the built environment.

Facility management is also key to ensuring that your company’s buildings and equipment comply with existing legal requirements.

If you are wondering if or when you should hire a facility manager, here are some telltale signs:

Your Maintenance Costs Are Escalating

As your business grows, so will your maintenance costs. But, if these costs start running down your company, you have a problem.

Some common money-wasters are likely to blame If you can’t figure out why your servicing and repair costs are increasing each month. These can include unused office space, wasteful stocking of spare parts and inventory, and under-utilisation or abuse of existing equipment.

According to a 2013 report published by Wired, the U.S. had added about 2 billion sq. ft. of office space to its existing stock over the previous 30 years. Today’s mobile workforce doesn’t require so much space.

The way you manage maintenance personnel and other staffing expenses also has an impact on your bottom line. The costs quickly pile up if you frequently have to call in heating engineers, electricians, plumbers, and other contractors.

When you are operating in multiple locations, or have a very large facility, it’s hard to keep track of all maintenance tasks. Many business owners are in the habit of tracking everything manually.

This can get messy really quickly. Moreover, if this is something you don’t have experience with, you can’t know whether the maintenance workers are carrying out their tasks properly.

This is why facility managers rely on facility management software. Such tools allow them to make sure that every contractor and maintenance employee is doing the work they are being paid for.

You Need to Expand Your Facilities to Accommodate Growth

Let’s say that your business is expanding and you need additional storage space for your data. To handle the growing needs of your company, you need to build an effective data centre infrastructure.

Naturally, this is a huge investment, and you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew. A facility manager can help make sure your new data centre can handle the evolution of your company.

Using their experience, they can vet and hire a data centre construction firm. Their job would also be to manage the service contract you have with the firm, help ensure data centre security, and manage periodic upgrades.

Even though your facility manager may not be an authority on the subject, they will know how to find and work with people who are. A good facility manager knows how to take care of quality control when engaging contractors.

Existing Facility Management Technologies
FACILITY MANAGEMENT TECHNOLGIES

You Have a Hard Time Managing and Tracking Assets

Many businesses don’t track their assets, or they opt to track them manually. Because of this, huge issues can appear as soon as they start scaling.

You need a facility manager if you are experiencing any of the following:

  • Tracking the assets owned by your business is becoming increasingly difficult.
  • Asset register doesn’t exist.
  • You don’t know the location and condition of every asset you own.
  • You cannot confidently declare your asset position.
  • You keep buying replacement parts only to find out later that you already had them.
  • If no one would notice if any tool, machine, or piece of equipment had gone missing.

So that you won’t have to deal with such issues anymore, your facility manager will manage and track your assets.

They will help you avoid equipment loss (shrinkage control) and avoid unnecessary purchases (solving inventory invisibility issues). They can also reduce search times for equipment by tracking inventory with mobile solutions.

The Number of Uncompleted Maintenance Tasks Just Keeps Rising

Broken light bulbs, faulty HVAC systems, leaking taps… issues like these can easily frustrate and distract the employees. A facility manager can help you maintain workplace satisfaction.

When you have to juggle between budgets and resources, employees and customers, it’s easy to put off maintenance work for later.

But if you let these tasks pile up, soon you will face a considerable deferred maintenance list. Then, you may not be able to solve everything, and your business will suffer. One of the responsibilities of a facility manager is preventing the backlog of uncompleted maintenance tasks.

Michael has been working in marketing for almost a decade and has worked with a huge range of clients, which has made him knowledgeable on many different subjects. He has recently rediscovered a passion for writing and hopes to make it a daily habit. You can read more of Michael’s work at Qeedle.