You Can’t Improve What You Don’t Measure

As a facilities leader, you face a daunting task: ensure the integrity of all facilities in your organization’s footprint so they deliver the right experience and environment for customers and employees. And of course, you must do it with a budget that’s under constant scrutiny. One of the ways you’re likely responsible for handling this is through careful monitoring of facility management KPIs — metrics and statistics that reveal how well certain aspects of your program are performing.

You may already be tracking a number of facility management KPIs, or this may not yet be a strategic initiative in your organization. Either way, tracking them efficiently requires the use of intelligent asset management systems and other platforms in order to capture data and understand how everything comes together. Additionally, having a complete inventory of all assets across all locations is of the utmost importance as it reveals performance tied to asset type, location, region, and more.

Provided that these systems are in place, let’s explore several facility management KPIs that your organization should be measuring to maximize program performance.

Track These Facility Management KPIs to Better Understand Your Program

  1. Service call first-trip resolution vs. follow-up — When you contact a vendor to service a particular asset, you want the job done correctly the first time. One or more follow-up visits means more time that the asset isn’t performing, which translates to higher service costs. Additionally, depending on the asset and the criticality of it to operations, lengthier downtime can mean longer store closures, more time with uncomfortable conditions, lost product, and more. Knowing how many service calls are completed the first time will tell you a lot about the vendors you’re working with and can also reveal details about your locations, such as whether a specific region is seeing longer service times or delays.
  2. Service call response time — When an asset goes down, time is of the essence — for multiple reasons. It may mean a location has to close. A broken down asset (such as plumbing systems) can lead to additional damage. It might impact the working environment of the location, or it could lead to spoiled products. Understanding how quickly service vendors are responding to service calls helps you identify locations, vendors, or specific damage types that are causing you the most headaches (as well as those getting high marks).
  3. Technician on site duration / time until completion — How long did it take the technician to resolve the issue? Understanding averages by vendor, asset type, problem type, and more can tell you a great deal about performance, or reveal other issues. For example, maybe a handful of locations have a specific type of rooftop cooling unit that is seeing performance problems across all sites — revealing more time needed for repair (and potentially replacement). Perhaps vendors for a key area are taking too long. Having averages and baselines here will help you notice anomalies that can be addressed.
  4. Average service call cost — This is a big one. If you’re working with multiple self-performing companies, you’re likely dealing with a variety of rates and costs. Broken down by asset type, location, issue, asset age, and more, understanding trends rapidly becomes virtually impossible. Additionally, there are minor details that can throw this metric off. While you can seek to create a baseline, working with an aggregator that builds this metric out for you and manages it on your behalf will save you significant time.
  5. Service call avoidance — From time to time, some service calls turn out to be obvious issues that can be addressed simply by talking to someone at the location (e.g., the classic “is it plugged in?”). A quick call that solves these minor issues prevents a service technician from being dispatched and your organization being charged hundreds or more for that visit, regardless of how simple the fix was.
  6. Emergency services metrics — A broad category intentionally, but when the worst happens, performance matters. Understanding how long it took for a service vendor to respond, get on site, address the problem, and report back is essential to knowing which partners you can trust and which you can’t. It helps you understand what is expected when a certain asset type or problem arises and what is normal or not when it comes to fixing it (and the cost to fix it).

Gain Deeper Insight into Your Program with the Right Partner

CLS Facility Services works with organizations in multiple industries ranging from restaurant and retail to medical and fitness to help them build proactive preventive maintenance programs for a variety of asset types. As part of these programs, we help our clients build a strong facility management infrastructure that includes:

If you’re looking to take your facility asset management program to the next level, our team is ready to work with you. Connect with us today to learn more about our capabilities, or book a time to meet with us that works best for you.