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When it comes to facility management (FM), the list of daily activities can be very large, and can include a regular job of cleaning the floors to odd jobs like making spreadsheets of working hours. All this work falls under facility manager’s responsibility, and because of the plethora of activities the chances of lapses increases while responding to all the requests, deadlines and demands of the organization.
Though, with time, the need to become dynamic and strategic has been felt by most facility managers, but they find it hard to make timely strategic plan for these activities. The need of the hour is effective prioritization of what is important rather than urgent in order to rise above the threshold, to provide innovative facility management services.
Strategic facility planning (SFP) as the name suggest, is the proactive planning of delivery of services by a facility management provider to its clients that are better, timely and prudent. The time it takes to plan and execute a strategically planned facility can help to prioritize daily work while avoiding any mistakes, delays and dissatisfaction that can hamper client experience. Thus, it helps to run facility management operations quickly and smoothly.
As, facilities management is relatively a new addition in the service sector, there are many managers who are still unfamiliar with the ways of how to go about accomplishing a working strategic plan. Working out a plan for a successful strategic process might require training the facility managers to the latest information, methods and techniques that complement the organization’s needs.
The role of the facility manager is to help run an organization competitively, effectively and optimally while providing the best workplace possible for its employees. Strategic facility planning is another important tool for a facility manager to contribute to the success of an organization.
Every business decision has a direct impact on an organization’s financial planning, the core on which strategic facility planning objectives and aims are based. The purpose of strategic facility management plan, therefore, is to develop a flexible and executable plan,specifically tailored to meet the requirements of individual businesses. The four pillars for a successful strategic facility planning are –
Understanding
This is the most important aspect while providing facility management service. It help to understand the unique requirements of an organization, as well as their expectations.
Analyzing
Facility management is like any other managerial service and makes use of analytical techniques, such as SWOT analysis, SLP or scenario planning etc, to better equip the facility manager with the information required to make future based analysis and decisions.
Planning
Strategic planning aims at long-term needs of the organization and should be reviewed and updated annually, or as per requirements.
Acting
All the comprehension, analysis and planning is finally executed, while constantly taking feedbacks for further iterations. These iterations are incorporated into the next plan or project to further improve performance and to make it cost-effective. These changes and updates must be managed to ensure they are achievable.
We will further discuss the above four points, as well as, about strategic facility management and planning in the upcoming blogs. So, stay tuned for more!
