Every facility has its own goals for being established in the first place. That’s what drives the pursuit of good facility planning. When a chosen location of operations has all of its features aligned with these goals, then its planning works. In turn, that produces efficiency, productivity, and a low risk of errors.
Strategic facility planning starts with good facilities management. This involves all the activities needed to keep the facility well-maintained and operational. It’s an individualized process, so a facility manager has to evaluate equipment and systems thoroughly and specifically to look for opportunities where an improvement, such as an added layer of protection or a way to expedite processes, can be made.
With that said, here are five ways a facility can benefit from strategic planning:
1. It Lets The Team Nail Its Day-To-Day Operations
Even the smallest problem can be a major inconvenience in a busy facility. For example, a jammed fax machine can cause delays in communication, record-keeping, or even billing transactions. This is only one of many situations that show what could go wrong in your facility and what it can do to your operations.
Strategic facility planning enables facility managers to prevent these issues, minimizing their impact on on-site tasks. The goal is to ensure daily operations go as smoothly as they can for profitability, productivity, and efficiency to remain.
2. It Maintains Facility Cleanliness
Keeping a facility clean is more than just about looking neat. It’s also about the health, wellness, and safety of staff, visitors, and everyone else who sets foot on your facility’s premises. Don’t forget the smooth operation of the machines or equipment you use. People feel more confident and secure working in a space that’s well-managed and free of hazards, after all. A measure such as this has been shown to improve employee retention, cut work incidents, and increase workplace satisfaction.
While there are many ways to ensure a facility’s upkeep, strategic facility planning is one of the most effective. Start by having your team evaluate the space you’re working in. From there, think about the advantages it provides and the disadvantages you need to fix.
3. It Extends The Lifespan Of Equipment
Two of the most expensive assets of a business are its equipment and the sites it occupies. Upon having them, you’ll have to account for their eventual depreciation.
This isn’t always the case. There are legitimate, effective ways to extend their lifespan with proper facility planning.
The smart combination of hardware and software is key. It provides facility managers with the tools to stay on top of inventories, preventive maintenance schedules, repairs, and other crucial things from start to finish.
A good facility planning software helps with the following objectives:
- Automatically and promptly generating inspection tasks
- Tracking progress and completion rates
- Coordinating different departments for specific projects
These prove to be extremely useful, particularly once your facility grows bigger, where there would be now so much more equipment to maintain.
4. It Could Help Save Money In Your Operations
Every business that works with on or off-site facilities has cost-savings at the top of its concerns alongside maintaining growth and improving customer services. To prevent either of these from causing financial issues, yours must be cost-efficient.
This involves strategically cutting expenses that have little impact on what you’re trying to achieve. The more savings your facility has, the better it is as an asset to your business.
Proper and strategic facility planning can help ensure lower operational costs by consolidating work and effort, a concrete example of economies of scale. Hiring a team to manage every facility can be costly, so consolidating everything through a single management team working with software isn’t just saving a lot of time and money but employee effort as well.
5. It Helps Attract And Retain Talent
When you’ve found quality employees on your team, you should at least aim to take care of them. It’s expensive and time-consuming to hire and re-train employees frequently, all because you’ve lost them due to unsatisfactory or even dangerous work circumstances. A good way to attract and retain talent is to have a desirable environment made possible through good facility planning.
Remember, no employee would want to spend eight hours of their day somewhere dangerous. They want to feel comfortable, safe and protected from hazards. So, invest time and resources to achieve good ventilation, proper climate control, sanitation, and equipment management.
How Effective Is Your Facility Planning?
As the list above shows, it’s essential in creating a sustainable work environment. For a company to run effectively, every facility has to be in top condition. Reconsider the way you manage your workspaces and find out how you can take them to the next level with key smart choices.
