Facility Maintenance
Common Facility Management Issues and How CAFM Remedies Them
From managing employees and vendors, maintaining assets and keeping track of inventory, facility management can be a tricky business. Keeping track of all those moving pieces can be rough, and if not properly remedied poor management can negatively impact your business. The three most common issues that give facilities managers headaches are lack of accountability, managing cost and sustainability, and poor asset performance.
But CAFM software are great at remedying these problems, and they can save you time, money, and stress by handling these issues for you. Here are the ways these issues throw a wrench into facilities management procedures, along with three software solutions that excel at tackling them.
Poor Asset Performance
The best way to get the most out of your assets is to predict and prevent problems before they happen. CAFM excels at preventative maintenance procedures, and regular asset maintenance can make a world of difference when it comes to saving money and minimizing your down-time. More sophisticated systems allow you to trigger preventative maintenance based on metrics and schedules  by providing reporting functions that use key data to help you stay on top of your assets at all times.
Even for subscribers to the entry-level Bronze package, MPulse puts a premium on keeping your assets in top form. All packages include modules for preventative maintenance scheduling and work order management. The software also includes a Maintenance Advisor Dashboard tool to help you keep track of data quickly and efficiently. An additional extension module lets you implement condition-based maintenance, moving beyond meter and date-based maintenance to respond more sensitively to the condition of your assets.
Lack of Accountability
CAFM scheduling capabilities help keep you from ever having to worry about who is getting a job done- or how quickly. Workflow capabilities help you oversee the process in real time, so you know exactly where your team is in terms of maintenance checks, inventory. CAFM software also helps manage expectations, especially for performance based-contracting; incentivizing prompt response (and penalizing slow response) is made easier with a clear, accurate system in place. Many CAFM systems are also mobile-compatible or feature mobile apps to keep your team on the same page no matter where they are.
eMaint provides a secure access vendor portal in addition to planning tools and a workflow manager, a useful tool that lets you auto-assign work requests. This makes it easy for your vendors and contractors to update the receipt and progress of work orders and attached documents and images of the order. Providing contractors with a unique log-in lets you control what they can access in your system, ensuring that your data is safe.
Cost-Saving and Sustainability
Facilities management is seldom the number one priority for businesses, so inventory management and budgeting can be important issues for facility managers. As a result, cost-saving and financial efficiency is something that many facility managers struggle with.  Making sure that your assets are functioning properly helps save you money in the long run, and many CAFM systems can help you spot weak points in your company, letting you then make adjustments to save money and energy in the future. Sustainability often goes hand-in-hand with cost-saving; reducing their carbon footprint is a huge concern for many companies today. Utilizing a CAFM helps you make your facilities more effective by keeping track of energy usage and other important metrics.
FM: Systems sports an “Interact Sustainability Module” that helps you rein in your financial and environmental impact. This unique module lets you track everyday of important metrics like energy performance and water usage, then use that information to improve your future usage. You can also manage sustainability projects like energy retrofits to have an even bigger impact on your carbon footprint in the long run.
Want more information on the facility maintenance space?
Be sure to compare the leading maintenance products in our Top 10 Facility Maintenance Software report, where we give you the lowdown on pricing, key features and technology models.
- Top Expert
Ashley Dotterweich
Expert in Enterprise Software Selection
