1: Capturing and Analyzing FM Data Manually
As numerous stakeholders – from store managers and the operations, loss prevention, and asset management teams to company executives – need frequent access to accurate facilities data, it’s also essential that FMs have a streamlined method of communication, which manual data processes simply do not provide.
Many facilities departments attempt to gather, organize and analyze all data themselves using tools like Excel spreadsheets. While this strategy might work in the short term,managers tend to quickly realize that the amount of data they have is too large to organize and retrieve.
There are three main issues with spreadsheet-powered FM analytics
- Data input and organization is incredibly time and resource-consuming, and ripe for error.
- There is extremely limited potential for scalability.
- Gleaning insights from FM data requires advanced analytical powers beyond what most FMs can do manually.
How to Avoid This:
Need an interactive and integrated software platform with advanced analytics capabilities into their existing processes a key initiative. This technology collects, integrates, organizes and evaluates facility data from multiple sources automatically and accurately, enabling data transparency for all stakeholders and generating clear reports.
FMs can customize reporting dashboards based on their priorities, such as asset performance, spend over time. They can also identify key trends, patterns within data, and use these insights to make data-backed decisions with confidence.
2.Being Reactive, Rather Than Proactive
Some amount of reactivity is inevitable in facilities management; equipment can malfunction unexpectedly, or difficult weather can necessitate a swift response. However, the more proactive a facilities department can be, the fewer emergencies they encounter and the more money they save.
How to Avoid This:
To increase proactivity, FMs can prioritize preventive maintenance. Preventive maintenance, or upkeep work performed regularly, ensures equipment is consistently in optimal working order, reduces spend by minimizing expensive full repairs and boosts brand uptime. An FM software platform can help make preventive maintenance a priority by automating the scheduling of repeat work orders, as well as storing asset warranties and alerting when service should be performed.
Customer Success Story
Luxury retailer Louis Vuitton, which has numerous stores across the globe, found it challenging to manage all facilities with its single-person team. Instead, individual store and regional managers were handling facilities issues in a decentralized manner, often spending a large portion of their time completing maintenance tasks inefficiently, rather than focusing on customers.
However, since adopting a sophisticated software platform with service automation – turning its focus to contractor management, performing analytics and implementing preventive maintenance practices – Louis Vuitton has seen a 96% reduction in the time spent on repair and maintenance issues, negotiated lower than quoted prices on 25% of proposals and gained invaluable visibility into its data and processes. Louis Vuitton’s transformation illustrates a key industry lesson: no matter where your facilities management department begins, process optimization and real results are possible.