Facilities Asset Management

Facilities and Property Asset Management and Maintenance

What is Facilities Asset Management

Facilities asset management is the practice of managing and sustaining an organisation’s physical assets, such as its buildings, machinery, and equipment, referred to as facilities asset management. Business operations, maintenance, regulatory obligations and protecting the security of resources and workers are all included in this.

Management of facilities seeks to keep an organisation’s assets in excellent shape and use them effectively while simultaneously reducing expenditures. Organisations may maximise the performance and value of their assets throughout their full life cycles with the aid of effective facilities asset management software.

Facilities asset management is a wide-ranging description of what it takes to run buildings and maintain assets. While the building itself may be an asset, this content looks at all types of assets from fixed (plant and equipment) to IT technology and fit-outs.

 

Generally, assets fall into the following high-value and depreciating categories:

Building-related assets

Employee-related assets

IT-related assets

 

 

 

The assets of a facility can be defined in a variety of ways. Small businesses frequently categorise assets according to cost in relation to budget; anything over a certain dollar amount is considered an asset. This is frequently changed by mid-sized businesses to include life cycle investments; anything that necessitates a sizable commitment over time. In addition to leasing assets, 12-month obligations, capital investments, and depreciating assets, enterprise organisations expand the concept.

Facility management covers a range of disciplines across public and private organisations to ensure the safe and effective operational management of businesses.

Health Safety Environment

Facility Management Industry Is Growing Rapidly

The facility management industry is growing rapidly, and the pandemic made health and safety a top priority for facilities managers. Changes to technology, green initiatives such as sustainability and other current trends are changing how facility management teams conduct business and respond to everyday challenges. (Reference: What is Facility Management? (ifma.org))

Facility managers are a crucial part of every organisation because they ensure that the places where we work and the equipment we use, are safe, comfortable, sustainable and efficient.

Facility managers contribute to an organisation’s strategy and bottom line in a variety of ways;

• Contribute to operational efficiencies
• Plan and deliver infrastructure needs to support productivity
• Manage risks including those to facilities, employees, suppliers and business reputation
• Mitigate and reduce environmental impact
• Promote sustainable tactics for long-term cost management
• Leverage technological solutions
• Mitigate and overcome effects of natural disasters
• Guarantee compliance
• Leverage security

Why is FM relevant?

How Do You Manage Facility Costs Effectively?

Up to the specific assets they utilise and rely on, facilities must serve the people who operate within them. The management of facilities assets includes a wide range of assets, such as high-end copy machines, roof stack HVAC units, and expensive IT hardware. Facilities managers are responsible for keeping track of, overseeing, and maintaining them as necessary with a strategy to guarantee they continue to serve people efficiently.

 

There are several ways to effectively manage facility costs

1. Conduct regular audits and assessments of the facility to identify areas where costs can be reduced, such as energy and water usage, waste management, and maintenance expenses.
2. Implement a preventive maintenance program to reduce the need for costly repairs and replacements.
3. Utilise energy-efficient technologies and practices, such as LED lighting and HVAC systems with programmable thermostats.
4. Outsource non-core functions to specialised service providers to reduce labour costs and improve efficiency.
5. Use facility and asset management systems to track and analyse costs, identify trends, and make informed decisions about budgeting and resource allocation.
6. Negotiate contracts with vendors and suppliers to secure better pricing and terms.
7. Encourage employee engagement through participation and collaboration to reduce costs, increase productivity and create a better working environment.
8. Monitor and control the facility’s budget, to make adjustments as needed and keep costs under control.
9. Communicate and collaborate with other teams and departments (such as maintenance and resource teams) to ensure that everyone is aware of the facility’s budget and how it impacts their work.
10. Finally, make sure your software solution allows you to work onsite, travel to other sites, and even log in from home.

It’s important to note that the best cost management strategy will vary depending on the facility, size, usage, and other factors. Also, it’s always important to measure the cost savings against the effectiveness of the implemented strategy. Modern facility/asset managers use technology to improve their work, enhance productivity, reduce downtime, and streamline their daily operations. A facilities management solution that includes asset management allows you to provide a functioning and safe workplace.

Integrated Facilities Asset Management Software

Facility management and the concepts of asset management have converged when it comes to their functions. Modern enterprise software is web-based and offers different modules to help each part of the organisation to do its jobs more efficiently and electronically.
Facilities asset management software is a type of computer program used to effectively administer and organise the maintenance, repair, and overall upkeep of a building or complex of buildings, and assets.

This can include tasks such as scheduling maintenance, and tracking inventory, and equipment. The software can also be used to monitor building systems such as heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) and lighting to keep the business environment safe for workers.
These systems cater for any type of physical asset that is utilised by and supports a facility’s day-to-day operations.

 

Facilities asset management systems cater for any type of physical asset that is utilised by and supports a facility’s day-to-day operations. There are two main types of physical assets in this context:

1. Immovable assets such as buildings, office units and outside spaces, as well as utilities (such as power, water and sewerage), lighting, elevators, and fire alarms.
2. Movable assets such as items that are not necessarily part of the building itself i.e., machinery and equipment, printers, photocopiers, IT equipment, tools, instruments, vehicles, etc.

Streamlining Your Maintenance Processes

How your facilities are managed affects your bottom line. Streamlining your workflow processes will help to increase visibility, maintain consistency, and improve facility efficiency. Eliminating paperwork orders and enhancing the visibility of allocated assets and equipment for all facility and maintenance activities, helping to improve team productivity and efficiency. Streamlining your service centre allows easy creation of cyclical or reactive maintenance jobs by building and/or asset classes, using templates to create efficiency in repetitive maintenance tasks. Get proactive with your maintenance tasks by using your smart devices to:

1. Work order management: enables you to manage routine maintenance, dispatch technicians, and keep track of a facility’s repair history.
2. Inventory tracking: can issue alerts whenever inventory gets low and help keep track of important assets.
   Analytics: this should help your business identify problem areas and find ways to be more efficient. So, a flexible analytics dashboard is essential.
3. Capture photos: in the field of maintenance concerns/completions and associate them with an existing work order or create a new work order in the field.
4. Maintenance tracking: track cyclical and reactive maintenance, inspections, and calibrations of machinery.

Dangers of Poor Asset Management

In asset-intensive businesses, it is essential to structure the organisation so that the development, acquisition, and operation of the assets are carried out effectively. Business functions, such as Sales, Operations, Finance, and Human Resource Management, may be represented in the business structure, whereas asset management can be a “grey area”, beneath the view of management, but above the level of maintenance.
A lack of asset management focus can lead to problems from poor communication between operations and maintenance on the one hand and senior management on the other. This applies to both the understanding of physical situations and to the financial steps needed to address an actual or potential problem.

As an example, a fitter may see a problem of equipment availability, such as when a shortage of tires leads to a loss of availability in a fleet of dump trucks. But from an overall business sense, it is not readily apparent whether this is a temporary problem that it is best to live with, or whether more tires or more trucks are needed. Getting the best solution will require an analysis of the business operational plan and the asset management plan. The ongoing recurrence of problems of this type indicates the essential role played by the asset manager.

Asset managers need to continuously provide answers to basic questions about any asset, such as:

• Does it work?
• Is it safe?
• Does it support the business aim?

In relation to business aims have we got the right:

• Equipment by type and location
• Support facilities, buildings, logistics, and services by type and location
• Support personnel by quantity and skills

If not, what should we be doing about it, for example developing a case for activities such as following up with the appropriate level of management:

• Buildings, plant, machinery, equipment: buy or sell, lease or terminate the lease
• Asset support facilities expand, contract, consolidate, and relocate
• Asset support personnel, recruit, reduce, train, outsource, and in-source

Reference: Physical Asset Management with an introduction to ISO55000 Second Edition; Nicholas Anthony John Hastings – ISBN 978-3-319-14777-2 (eBook)

Choosing The Right Partner For Facilities and Asset Management

Workplaces are changing, operating infrastructure, keeping assets and equipment running, connecting personnel, and ensuring your environment is safe, whilst reducing costs and increasing profits becomes a difficult task to accomplish. With facilities asset management software, teams can collaborate more effectively with other departments in terms of maintenance practices and protocols. You can connect with other members across departments, saving time and getting things done more efficiently. Another important aspect is auditing your assets to report an accurate picture of where assets are truly located.

Hardcat® Lebosi® is an enterprise, web-based asset management system that offers a combination of modules and functionality to suit any organisation and sector. Each software module addresses specific functions and as a whole typically includes:

Why Choose Hardcat Lebosi?

Hardcat Lebosi enables tagging and tracking of any type of asset, whether in storage or use. Our software solutions also manage inspection/maintenance cycles for items that require upkeep over time. The solution includes parent/child structuring, to track assets, sub-components, and individual equipment, including the location of items in use or storage areas down to the shelf location. The Hardcat Lebosi offering is an off-the-shelf software solution that is fully customisable for any unique environment based on requirements and workflow.

• Deliver operational efficiencies
• Create an environment conducive to productivity
• Find and adopt technological solutions
• Guarantee regulatory compliance
• Minimise risks to facilities and employees
• Reduce energy consumption costs
• Reduce the carbon footprint of the real estate portfolio

Intuitive and Accessible

Enjoy intuitive navigation, data entry, and searching. Document the full scope of data associated with buildings, assets and equipment.

Powerful Tracking and Reporting

Document the complex histories of your assets. Record and track condition, maintenance, loans and location histories. Generate quick and customisable reports.

Easy Data Migration and Training

Hardcat Lebosi makes migrating data from diverse formats and systems easy. When your migration is complete, quickly train staff and engineers on the system, completing a smooth transition.

Collaborate Anywhere, from Any Device

Access assets via smartphone, tablet, laptop, and desktop. Create an entry from your smartphone and it’s immediately available for your team to view and edit anywhere. Manage assets with staff and engineers in real-time and empower your team with workflow and organisational features.

Gain Greater Control of Complex Environments

Our enterprise solution involves work management, asset maintenance, planning and scheduling, supply chain management and environmental, health and safety initiatives. At a glance know everything about your assets and equipment to realise their true value. This requires asset management to interact with many functions and departments of an organisation as assets can touch many areas.

Management/Site View of Assets and Shared Data

Hardcat Lebosi provides flexibility to set up which user and at what level, can have visibility and access to information and assets. Flexibility to structure the system the way you want to use it. For an organisation that would like to gain better utilisation and ROI on their assets across multiple organisational units and locations, there is value in having visibility of assets you have, where they are located at any given time and being able to share data.

Interoperability and integration with Existing Systems

Hardcat Lebosi is an inherently open system designed with integration and sociability in mind. Interoperability and integration are inherent in the DNA of the product suite. All software components are designed to provide superior asset management capabilities which can stand alone or complement wider-reaching ERP and finance systems. Hardcat Lebosi will perform the functions that your ERP was not designed to perform.

• SAP | Oracle
• Third-party tools such as Microsoft Biztalk or IBM’S WebSphere
• .NET
• Message Queuing (MSMQ)
• XML | Excel
• Test Files i.e., Comma Delimited
• Web Services | Email
• Active Directory interface
• Technology One | SmartStream | Sage

Where Can Hardcat Lebosi be Deployed?

• Cloud
• SaaS
• Web-based
• Windows (Desktop)
• Android (Mobile)
• iPhone (Mobile) and iPad (Mobile)

Key Benefits Of Using Hardcat Lebosi

Decision-making power

Affords broader facilities management

Empower managers at a granular scale

Anticipate costs

Plan for maintenance and upgrades

Minimise the total cost of ownership at the asset level

Hardcat Lebosi for informed management of facilities and operations for the company as a whole.

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