What Are the Major Challenges in Facility Management Today?

Primarily, facility management teams always deal with ever-present issues of the facilities themselves. But there are always new challenges in the realm of facility management, which means that managers have to always be up to date and adapt to alternative approaches and new technologies. Besides tending to physical equipment and assets, facility managers are also responsible for ensuring that the building occupants and visitors are in a safe, healthy, and comfortable working environment. 

That is why it is crucial for facility management teams to identify these challenges so that they can work to overcome them in the most efficient way possible. Today, many organizations have implemented computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS) or facility management software to streamline their processes and resolve major challenges. But what are these challenges?

In this article, we have listed some of the major challenges in facility management today to help your organization make better decisions.

Budget and cost management

Yes, controlling the budget and costs has been a challenge for nearly all departments, and facility management is no exception. For example, one day your boss calls you into a meeting and asks for ways to cut down costs. If you have poor control over your costs and don’t know what to say, your boss will probably get the impression that the facility is not being managed efficiently. 

An effective way to control costs is to correctly track and manage parts and items in the inventory, a feature that is included within our facility management software. By parts, I mean critical spare parts for equipment and machines and items that could include tissue-paper used throughout the facility to light bulbs in all the areas in a facility. With the help of our cloud-based facility management software, you will be able to create digital inventories of all the items to track their usage, and you will have better control of your costs and budget.

Prolonging the Lifespan of Assets

With time and heavy usage of equipment, it is only natural that your equipment and machines will show signs of wear and tear. And if something breaks down, for example, your HVAC is not working, then it’s a cause for concern. These failures and breakdowns increase unnecessary expenses, and if you, as a facility manager, are not doing everything to prevent it, you are partially responsible. Your equipment won’t last forever, but you can increase its lifespan with appropriate preventative maintenance measures. 

With the help of CloudApper’s Facility Manager, you can schedule routine maintenance and inspections, monitor daily operations, and keep track of repairing activities – all of which can help prolong the life of your assets. 

Maintaining Accurate Records

Maintaining accurate records of maintenance and operations is one of the biggest challenges in facility management. Paper-based records are inefficient, prone to getting lost, and take up more space in the filing cabinet. Managing large buildings and multiple facilities means you are in charge of many different systems and not having reliable data about every system can lead to costly and time-consuming problems. 

For instance, there is no record for the maintenance of the facility’s HVAC system. You have no way of knowing when to schedule the next servicing, which can lead to potential breakdowns, leading to more wastage of money and time. 

Accurate records are also essential for complying with various industry, national, and global safety standards and statutory requirements. Failure to comply with health and safety standards can result in fines, loss of employees and customers, and negative publicity.

Task Delegations and Team Collaboration

To make your operations more efficient, you need a system that promotes communication, productivity, innovation, and organization. In today’s dynamic and increasingly mobile workforce, a popular solution is facility management software that enables employees to access real-time data, work orders, task checklists, and important files. You won’t need to sit with your maintenance technicians face-to-face to delegate tasks. Instead, you can log in work requests into the software, and the technicians will get notifications accordingly. 

With CloudApper’s Facility Manager app, maintenance technicians can easily report imminent failures, check equipment and maintenance history, and generate reports. In addition, facility managers’ can share safety manuals, user guides, and instructions for employees to be better informed about the entire facility and how to perform their tasks effectively. 

Managing Time

What does your schedule look like? Facility managers don’t have it easy when it comes to managing their time. At any given time, they need to shuffle between meetings, calls, attend fairs or conferences to grow as a professional, negotiate with suppliers, and so on. This is another problem that facility management software or CMMS can help you with. Facility management software can be extremely helpful for managing and prioritizing tasks, as well as managing multiple facilities and buildings.

Choosing the Right Solution

Now that you know about the challenges, the next question is which vendor to choose? You should do your research and find the best solution that best fits your business and yields the best ROI. 

That said, here is a brief description of our facility management software. The Facility Manager is a cloud-based solution that is 100% customizable. You can upgrade or downgrade the software according to your business needs. All you need to do is pay a small subscription fee of $10/month/user. Moreover, you will have access to all the CloudApper applications if you only pay for the Facility Manager.

We invite you to get in touch with us today to learn how we can help your business thrive!