Facility management is essential for some businesses more than others. For example, manufacturing, logistics, and construction are some sectors where facilities management is a significant component of the overall organizational management.
Unsurprisingly, these are the sectors that frequently face facility management problems. Suppose your business is struggling with the commonly encountered issues. In that case, the problem might be that you cannot effectively appreciate and include facility management as one of your core business functions. Another reason can be incompetent management or a limited budget.
Here we elaborate on the most common issues that result in facility management problems. We will also explore the solution to fix these issues.
Let’s get started.
Table of Contents
1. The increased cost of unplanned periodic expenses on maintenance
Poor facility management can escalate the need for unplanned periodic maintenance, a considerable cost to the operating budget. Often the facility management cost does not factor in the building maintenance as it is prepared during the construction phase. It leaves facilities susceptible to frequent damage.
Weather, wear and tear, excessive use, etc., affect the infrastructure within a facility, and the inability to routinely conduct checkups for any maintenance requirements can result in faults enforcing unplanned maintenance. It directly translates into increased operating costs.
The fix
Businesses must hire professional facility managers aware of the building maintenance requirements. Such managers have the technical know-how to deploy measures that facilitate the smooth functioning of operations within the facility by keeping a check on buildings and other utilities.
It is essential to hire professional facility managers as they can perform tests on the efficiency and durability of the building equipment to ensure productivity or operations are never stalled.
2. Multitasking and coordinating teams
Communication is essential to ensure facilities run smoothly. Still, one of the most commonly reported facilities management issues is that multitasking and coordinating teams are hectic and unmanageable. Such issues are common at facilities where teams still rely on manual methods to report failures and document other operational tasks.
The fix
It is relatively more straightforward to fix this facility management problem. For the constant flow of communication to streamline the organization, innovation, knowledge sharing, and productivity, you need to choose a centralized cloud-based facility management software.
Such tools allow you to automate failure reporting and inventory management and generate automatized reports. It makes facility management incredibly simpler. Most facility managers are overwhelmed with handling all the tasks, so you need facility management software to allow them to be at the top of things.
One example to facilitate multitasking and team coordination is implementing digital calendars to let workers and managers know their maintenance responsibilities and plan the workload accordingly.
3. Poor time management due to lack of real-time data
Facility management is highly dynamic, and managers have to micromanage several daily processes, like coordinating teams, attending urgent communications, participating in meetings, consulting vendors, supporting customers, and much more. In most scenarios, these processes require managing workers within the facility.
In the absence of real-time data, many facilities management issues arise. You cannot immediately decide on tasks when you don’t know where an employee is or how the shift is scheduled. You cannot plan or prioritize tasks.
The fix
For better facility management use of automated employee tracking software is beneficial. Truein is a software that offers employee attendance and tracking options backed with geofencing and GPS targeting. It provides complete workforce attendance and shift management.
Facility managers can ensure that employees are at the destined location during shifts. It also generates auto reports regarding overtime, absenteeism, leaves, and shift schedule efficiency, improving facility management services.
4. Maintenance of old equipment and facilities
Wear and tear of the facility building and equipment is inevitable. While you might have to replace the components of the facilities at some point, proper measures to maintain and prevent any damage to old gear and facilities can help prevent any severe damage.
Poor maintenance of equipment results in facilities management issues that require a large budget to restore the facility’s state. Without planned maintenance, facilities can fall into a state of disrepair and lead to a poor standard for habitation.
The fix
As building structures and equipment become old and technical problems become frequent, facility managers need to plan ways to extend the life of existing assets following the allotted budget available for maintenance.
Prevention, timely repair, and replacement of faulty components will ensure that maintenance costs are always within the proposed budget and that funds are always available for emergency repairs and replacements. Here again, facility management software tools can be utilized to evaluate and forecast the maintenance budget, accounting for worn-out equipment and buildings.
5. Struggle managing technicians
Apart from facility managers, technicians are essential to keep things running smoothly. However, they can be a bit much to handle. A poorly managed facility makes tracking the technician’s performance and professionalism difficult.
You will never know if a fault or accident occurred due to the poor state of facility equipment or improper technical repair. It puts a lot on facility owners, driving up the operation cost and making it difficult to sustain the business and deliver quality customer service.
The fix
You can also explore options to increase the budget to allow the right tools. If you face challenges with dishonest technicians, you can outsource the facility management. facility managers quickly identify incompetent technicians.
This will ensure that you have the best facility management staff focusing on core business activities such that you get continuously high returns from facility management services.
Conclusion
The above-listed facility management problems occur in every organization. The solution to these problems is to approach facility management from a facility manager-centric perspective. Technology can quickly fix most facilities management issues by empowering employees to manage problems as they emerge.
An integrated facility management software can aid your decision-making. Truein is one such app to easily manage workers within a facility through centralized control, real-time tracking, geofencing, and GPS tracking.
