Innovating the Business of Facilities Operations: A Framework for the Next Major Advancement in Facilities Operations

Abstract

Facilities leaders are under budget pressures that manifest them-
selves as a need to do more, limit headcount, go faster, and reduce
energy costs. There is an urgent need to improve operations to meet
these constantly increasing demands. Sound familiar? Then this article
is for you.
Two main business facts form the core of this article.
First, businesses need to change, and make no mistake, operating
a facility is a business. Incremental improvements happen continuously,
but every once in a while there needs to be a quantum leap forward—
something more revolutionary than evolutionary. Often, technology is
an agent of change (PCs, internet, DDC, CAD), but it is only a catalyst.
For major progress, facilities leaders must realize the need to do some-
thing very different, embrace the idea of innovation, and be willing to
make fundamental changes to how the group operates.
Second, data are immensely valuable. This is true for every business
function within every industry. Facilities operations is no different, just a
little behind the curve. The facilities industry has focused its technology
advancements on hardware efficiency and control technology, but still has
not seriously embraced information technology (focus on information).
The few that have operate in a different world than the rest.