In Nigeria, the facility management market is experiencing increased patronage from a wide variety of businesses: report estimated a compound annual growth rate of 13.6 percent between 2017 and 2021.
Still, if you have never used professional facility management services before, you may be wondering if, or when, it should become the next step for your business. Here are the signs that it’s time for a business to start thinking about adopting facility management:
1. Your maintenance cost is escalating.
It’s an accepted fact that maintenance costs money, but these costs should not run down your business.
When you notice that repairs and servicing costs are rising inexplicably every year, some common money-wasters to check include abuse or under-utilization of existing equipment, wasteful stocking of inventory and spare parts and unused office space. Research confirmed in 2016 that over the previous 30 years, Nigeria had added about 200 million square feet of office space to its existing stock, which is not something today’s highly mobile workforce needs. Having more space to maintain automatically increases your maintenance costs.
Another factor that quickly adds to your bottom line is poorly managed maintenance personnel and other staffing expenses. Over a 30-year period, while the operating and maintenance costs of a building account for 6 percent of total costs, personnel costs alone account for a staggering 92 percent, according to a research study.
If you’re running a system where you frequently call on independent plumbers, electricians, heating engineers and other technicians, the costs quickly pile up. Not to mention the fact that engaging these contractors also carries the risk of quality control issues, especially if:
- You have a very large facility.
- You are managing multiple locations.
- You have no real way to track whether tasks are being carried out properly.
A facility manager, had this exact problem. He had been hired as a facility manager and noticed that his predecessor had been tracking everything manually, which meant the company had no clue whether maintenance tasks were actually being completed.
When he implemented facility management software, he could see whether outside contractors were doing the work they were billing for. Long story short, he had to replace his primary maintenance vendor because he found out that that vendor was not doing the work he had been contracted to do
2. You’re having difficulties in asset management and tracking
Knowing that over 40 percent of small business track their assets manually or don’t track them at all is concerning. While this practice causes minimal problems early on, real issues will start popping up as soon as you start to scale.
Facility management can help you manage and track assets and inventory better if you are experiencing any of the following:
Asset register is inadequate or doesn’t exist at all.
It’s becoming increasingly difficult to track the assets owned by the company.
The organization cannot confidently declare its asset position.
The current condition of any asset and its location is unknown. If any equipment, machine or tool were to go missing, no one would notice.
You keep buying replacements for equipment only to find out later that you already had them.
3. You’re seeing a rising backlog of uncompleted maintenance tasks.
4. Recurring safety issues
Recurring safety issues are an indication that you are operating in a potentially dangerous environment. The simple truth is that improving safety at your facility is not a matter of choice — it is required by law.
- lack of personal protective equipment (PPE)
- absence of a hazard-communication program for chemicals
- failure to maintain logs of accidents and injuries
- lack of safety training
Facility management takes these factors into accounts and can help you reach and maintain the highest levels of operational safety using a combination of technology and human expertise and following these extensive Environmental, Health, and Safety Guidelines.
When it’s time for a change
If any of the above situations describes the current situation in your business, it’s clear that time and valuable resources are being wasted. It doesn’t matter if you are going to form an in-house facility management team or outsource everything to an independent contractor. The point is that you understand how facility management can result in significant cost savings, improved safety performance and better overall service delivery for your company.
