6 Tips to Optimize Your Facilities Management
Facility management is a key factor in operating any business or organization. Some of the responsibilities include cleaning, parking, overseeing and implementing technological developments, and agreeing with contracts and providers. Whether you’re a seasoned manager or are just learning how the processes work, there’s always something more you can discover. Here are some of the most important advice you can get regarding the steps you should take to make your facilities as safe and efficient as possible.
Upgrade equipment
Machinery models frequently change as technology develops, and if you want your business to operate at the highest capacity, you must ensure that you make the necessary upgrades as often as you need. To determine what developments would work best for your company, you need to thoroughly assess all the processes within your business. Not everything new will integrate well into your business, and you must determine what works and what doesn’t.
One of the areas you can consider is energy efficiency. Replacing old equipment with newer options helps you cut utility costs while improving sustainability and ensuring heightened work performance. When you opt for more efficient lighting with better color quality, output and longevity, employees work better, are more energized, and the probability of injury is diminished.
Work out a plan
You can’t begin modernizing your business if you haven’t designed a comprehensive plan of all the steps containing all the steps you must go through to ensure everything works accordingly. Choose a facility management checklist to help you navigate all the tasks you have to do more efficiently. From utility management to data tracking and analyzing, keeping your activities in order helps improve your decision-making, which in turn means business processes are optimized more rapidly.
You should take it a step further and take a direct step in improving workplace safety by choosing a forklift inspection checklist. As one of the most dangerous pieces of equipment in warehouses, forklifts alone are responsible for 1 out of 6 workplace deaths. An estimated 84,000 non-fatal injuries are also occurring yearly due to operating this machinery. When you include a specialized template in your facility management, you reduce the probability of such accidents occurring.
Ensure cleanliness
While a priority pre-2020, the importance of maintaining proper hygiene has become all the more noticeable following the COVID-19 pandemic. Facility managers have a duty to ensure conditions that promote health and safety in the workplace, and this means ensuring buildings are clean. However, you should also ensure the cleaning agents don’t contain toxic substances that could harm health.
Waste management
Estimations suggest that roughly 63% of UK packaging waste was recycled in 2021, with commercial and industrial waste amounting to a whopping 43.9 million tons in 2018, of which England generated 85%. Some research suggests that over 70% of the trash that ends up in landfills could have been recycled. To ensure proper facility management, make sure your workplace practices waste separations. The bins you choose should be able to accommodate the amount of waste you generate. If the containers are too small, they won’t be able to handle the volume accordingly.
Assess the costs
Cost management is one of the most important aspects of facility management. You must be able to determine the precise amount to be allocated to each service. Overspending in one area means that you have less to spend in another. As a facility maintenance manager, you need to understand the complexities of this business sector; and be realistic about both the direct and indirect operational costs associated with management.
Professional energy audit
During an energy audit, opportunities to reduce energy use at the institutional level are systematically identified. The steps necessary for development are also thoroughly discussed. Understanding these factors is essential for the overall development of the organization; and as a way to ascertain the needs of the building you manage correctly.
You have several aspects to consider when working as a facility manager. Staying organized and taking everything step-by-step ensures you’ll integrate everything into the final result.