Managing The Built Environment

There are certain realities with implementing an IWMS / CAFM / CMMS system. I find that the right process is critical to success and is often overlooked. Here is what I recommend in a nutshell:

1. Don’t use an FM consultant connected with software vendors to make the software decision. Use them (or the vendor directly) only for implementation after the selection is made.

2. Spend time understanding your business requirements first - if you understand what you are trying to accomplish and what you really need you will be in a position to decide on a system (instead of worrying about the software features first)

3. Start looking for a system that fits your needs (not the other way around - if you customize anything, it should be your processes, not the software!

4. Spend the time to implement it right. Use Change Management, involve your staff and get their input, change your processes to match the new tool, populate it with accurate data from the start, train everyone, etc. And be prepared to change things after you’ve implemented and everyone has learned more about how to work with the new system.

5. Implement in stages. Start with one building or portfolio, start with one element, such as Corrective or Demand maintenance work orders first, then only when it’s successful, add preventive maintenance, space management, asset inventory, performance measures or whatever other integrated FM elements you are implementing in your system. Involve your best people. Show results and demonstrate the benefit. Then, implement the rest, building on success.

6. Re-train as needed.

7. Do an audit after 6 months or so. Check with all the stakeholders and staff. What works? What doesn’t? Do a Quality Assurance test on the data and process. Listen to your staff, they know best about what’s working. Make changes and adjustments.

8. Use the information (not just data) from the system to show it’s value and make decisions. Maintenance decisions, occupancy decisions, capital replacement decisions, staffing and resourcing decisions, etc. If you don’t use what you put into the system, people will stop bothering with it and you will be back where you started (go to step #1)

I had the pleasure of being invited to speak at the 2009 International Maintenance Excellence Conference recently. (IMEC.ca) Here is the blurb:

Do You Want Better Results? Don’t Just Measure Performance, Manage It!
Performance isn’t just about measuring results. You must implement management techniques that use performance measures proactively to drive behaviour and improve results. Start with measurement data and KPI’s, understand their impact on employee and subcontractor behaviour and implement a management approach that influences behaviour and drives results.

The conference is hosted by the University of Toronto’s Centre for Maintenance Optimization & Reliability Engineering (C-MORE) and organized by the publishers of Maintenance Technology Magazine.

My topic was a little different for the conference, which has an emphasis on technology, statistics and science to improve reliability, often for production facilities, factories and other organizations where high reliability and minimal unscheduled downtime are critical.
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FM is a complex, issues based role. I’ve learned along the way that nobody in the industry knows it all, and the best way to be successful is to leverage the knowledge and great ideas of others, including your staff, colleagues and suppliers.

Recently, I delivered a 3 day workshop on Strategic Facilities Management in Dubai. The location was spectacular, naturally, and the audience was diverse, interesting and most importantly, keenly interested in enhancing their skills and knowedge in the profession, which is quickly emerging in the Middle East.

While the 3 day workshop had many individual modules, the last session was on developing FM skills. This  included an example from my past, dating over 15 years ago from a teamwork exercise while working in the Facility Management department of a major company.

It was so compelling about the the value of teamwork, I still had the exercise booklet. Continue reading »

The answer is yes and no.

First, it’s important to understand where Six Sigma came from. The term itself refers to having less than 3.4 defects per million. It’s pretty well impossible for any FM organization to have that kind of volume for anything. The concept was designed for manufacturing where if you are turning out a hundred thousand screws or half a million boxes of cereal a day, the math works.

Luckily, Six Sigma is more than just math. Continue reading »

The search term “penalize your supplier” in a Google search recently led someone to my web site, www.StrategicAdvisor.ca

They landed on our performance measurement article, which certainly has those words in the content, but then they quickly went somewhere else - probably because we don’t talk about penalizing suppliers - we focus on managing supplier performance to get results in a proactive, constructive way. Continue reading »

There is a growing trend to implement effective performance measurement systems and frameworks (KPI’s and SLA’s) for subcontracted and outsourced functions, but very few organizations measure their internal services with the same tools. Continue reading »

Performance Measurements (KPI’s) are one of the most useful management tools available. Getting it right, is another matter. It’s easy to develop ways to measure performance but it’s harder to assess how those measures will drive Performance.

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