Optimising Service Efficiency: A Deep Dive into Facility Performance
Facility performance plays a crucial role in ensuring the success of both business and residential operations. To provide efficient service, facility performance must align with intelligent design and construction, effectively meeting the objectives of its intended use throughout its operational lifespan. Furthermore, constructive customer feedback, backed by a continuous improvement program, helps to achieve business objectives and prolong the facility’s useful life.
- Why is the assessment of facility performance necessary?
Evaluating facility performance, whether focusing on a single phase or multiple phases from design to post-occupancy, plays a crucial role in controlling design development, construction, asset management, and capital investment projects throughout their operational life. Assessing gaps in the infrastructure, asset management relative to functional needs, business requirements, and user perceptions- both internal and external- can create a foundation for necessary adjustments in financial and non-financial aspects.
A balanced scorecard approach incorporating four domains can provide a structured framework for planning corrective actions and ongoing improvement initiatives.
BALANCE SCORECARD FOUR-DOMAIN APPROACH
- POSITIVE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
- PROCEDURES
- PROFICIENCY
- PROFIT
- What are the key objectives for evaluating the performance of a facility or a group of similar facilities?
The objectives of the ‘Facility Performance Evaluation’ are established in alignment with the business goals of stakeholders. In a broader context, the key parameters are determined in consultation with the property owners and tenants of the facility, with the aim of maximising benefits derived from facility survey observations and analytics. This approach facilitates informed decision-making regarding capital-intensive projects to enhance operational efficiency, expand, or modify building infrastructure and improve market branding and competitiveness. The four-domain balanced scorecard approach quantifies performance quality.
A systematic process can be developed to establish goals that align with organisational objectives, formulate Key Performance Indicators (KPIS), and benchmark performance against historical data and industry standards across all four domains of the scorecard evaluation. Assessing the scorecard across each domain establishes the framework for performance enhancement. Integrating risk assessment with opportunities for innovative solutions will prioritise the improvement program and delineate the organisational culture.
- What are facility managers’ common challenges in conducting a comprehensive assessment?
A Facility Manager faces numerous challenges during the thorough performance assessment of a facility, which can be summarised as follows:
- Information Gathering. In most instances, the facility preserves historical and contemporary information in disparate repositories, managed by stakeholders who do not necessarily share similar business objectives.
- Data verification. Authenticity and verification of relevant data points without validation, supported by a sound technological system.
- Analysis and correlation. The analysis and correlation of available information and data points with the functional requirements established during the pre-design and design development stages, the transformation of property usage over an extended period, the management of perceptions, and the cost inputs.
- Absence of an appropriate skill set. Inadequately skilled in-house personnel are unable to perform the facility performance assessment.
- Upper management lacks interest in allocating funds and initiating the assessment program.
- Who are the stakeholders who will perform the facility performance evaluation?
A comprehensive Facility Performance Evaluation program will necessitate the professional contributions of subject matter experts, alongside a holistic analysis conducted by the Facility Manager. Consequently, it is essential to engage Architects, Structural Consultants, Mechanical, Electrical, and Utilities Engineers, Environmental professionals, Fire and Life Safety experts, as well as Customer Relationship, Finance and Procurement specialists, thereby establishing a core audit team. The composition of this team will be influenced by the size of the property, its complexity, and its business importance. An in-house team may be trained to execute this process regularly following an initial professional assessment. Work method statements tailored to meet the property’s specific requirements can be revised and utilised for subsequent activities.
- Which model of Facility Performance Evaluation should the Facility Manager opt for?
Facility performance modelling is specifically designed to address compliance deviations from building codes and ensure regulatory compliance, while also developing solutions that pertain to fire and life safety, occupancy requirements, future demolition and modification plans, end-user satisfaction, operational procedures, and the professional development of operating staff. The evaluation model is contingent upon the property’s layout, use-specific criticality, the condition of the building’s fabric, and the quality of the interior environment. Commencing with coordination meetings involving stakeholders and conducting walk-around assessments, the Facility Performance Evaluation (FPE) model may encompass, but not be limited to, commissioning or functionality acceptance tests, operational condition assessments of building components and equipment, as well as an evaluative checklist to solicit customer feedback.
The selection may encompass a singular approach or a combination of the four-domain framework of the balanced scorecard, with the objective of enhancing the facility functionality and serviceability, facility management and service quality, addressing or minimising deviations from design and regulatory requirements, implementing investment-grade improvements, and developing the knowledge base of service providers.
A typical facility performance evaluation (FPE) model can include common service elements and individual need topics, and more, as indicated below.
- Location, Access, and Wayfinding
- Fire and Life Safety
- Legal and Regulatory compliance
- Protection of individual property
- Building fabric condition- structural and architectural
- Aligning building aesthetics with brand image
- Change and churn management
- Water, Energy, and Waste Management
- Interior Environment Quality
- Building systems and sub-systems – HVAC, Electrical, Plumbing
- Operations Digitalisation and specialised communication and surveillance systems
- Space Management
- Ergonomics
- Cleanliness
- Transportation Management
- Special Amenities- Wellness management
- Sustainability
- Business continuity
- Occupants’ satisfaction
The ASTM (2000) standard delineates the evaluation of customer requirements pertaining to facility functionality and quality, while also facilitating comparisons with building design and service levels. Performance levels are explicitly defined to address the needs and expectations of facility occupants. The suitability of a facility for a group of occupants or disparate groups of occupants is categorised based on an assessment of serviceability, condition, and residual service life.
Categories A to D are as follows:
A = OK at present.
B = Thresholds and/or 10% to 30% of topics miss significantly.
C = Serious problems, but not immediate.
D = Immediate action needed, e.g. for health or safety.
- What are the derived benefits of conducting an effective and sustainable performance evaluation?
The outcomes of the Facility Performance Evaluation (FPE) can yield numerous potential benefits, categorised into short-term, medium-term, and long-term impacts. Facility-specific tailored FPE aims to enhance initiatives within the continual improvement program. An effective and sustainable evaluation program can support
- Identifying gaps in compliance with property and life safety codes and relevant legal and regulatory requirements.
- Conduct a gap assessment of the functionality and purpose of the infrastructure design with its current status, identifying opportunities for innovative solutions.
- Establish needs for process improvement and develop processes aligned with sustainability principles.
- Establish documentation of procedures.
- Enhance customer satisfaction
- Support decisions based on information and analytics regarding capital investments in infrastructural projects.
- Identify the needs for competency improvement among service personnel.
- Analyse cost performance in comparison to the industry and its historical benchmarks.
- Improve the market competitiveness of service providers.
- Enhance the reliability and durability of the property.