CBRE identifies priorities for facilities management excellence

To achieve operational excellence in facilities management, organisations must balance three priorities: managing costs efficiently and creating value; maintaining high satisfaction among occupants and clients; and proactively stewarding property and infrastructure. Forging the Iron Triangle: Facility Management Operational Excellence, is a new report by the CBRE’s Global Corporate Services research team and the result of a year-long inquiry into mainly US-based facility management organisations, industry scholarship, and an industry-wide survey of more than 125 facility management executives. It reveals the initiatives that have a lasting impact on facilities management team performance and the reduction of risk, increasing workplace satisfaction and extending the useful life of properties or building infrastructure. Talent management, risk management and life cycle cost analysis are also found to be prevalent in high performing FM teams.

The report analyses the operations and best practices of high-performing facility management organisations that collectively represent 90 million sq. ft. of properties, 294,000 occupants, $3.2 billion in occupancy expenditure, and 1,940 commercial real estate associates. CBRE says that the purpose of publishing the paper information is to 1) help better define Operational Excellence in terms that can be adopted by the facilities management industry, 2) propose concepts that appear to propel FM organizations forward and 3) highlight tactics that result in operational gains. “The industry lacked a consistent vision for what operational excellence is and how it can be achieved,” said Bill Concannon, CEO of CBRE’s Global Corporate Services division. “This report provides that definition as well as a roadmap to achieving it.” The research found that the following components were represented in each FM team which was studied and had proven essential to improving the performance of those organisations:

• Efficient cost management and value creation: accomplished through cost reductions, cost avoidance and risk management initiatives.
• Maintaining high occupant and client satisfaction: accomplished by managing occupancy, providing safe and functional work environments and providing ap­propriate property or campus amenities.
• Proactively stewarding property and infrastructure: accomplished through adopting disciplined approach­es to corrective maintenance, preventative maintenance and customer requests.

For more information visit www.cbre.com/gcs