“When I’m working, yes I know I’m gonna be, I’m gonna be the man who’s working hard for you…But I would walk 500 miles, And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walks a thousand miles, To fall down at your door.”
Facility Management, Franchises, and The Long Road Between
This might be true for Charlie and Craig Reid of The Proclaimers, but for facility managers and business owners, there is nothing romantic or appealing about the inefficiency and productivity lost in the commute between facilities.
Viewers of many Rom Com and sitcoms featuring the “I’m Gonna Be” song are all too aware of the drama and wasted time created through distance.
Similar to the many miscommunications and frustrations that can happen in long distance relationships. businesses that spread over multiple buildings, counties, cities, time zones, etc. can face many communication and cost barriers that can be solved through the use of digital facility management tools.
When Facility Management Means Time on the Road
Imagine for a moment this simple case study first relayed by Ray Steeb, Founder and CEO, of eFacility.
Ray describes that when talking about facility management, individuals usually visualize a single facility (ie. stadium, hospital, office building, etc.) and not numerous facilities spread out over hundreds of miles.
For many, this small scale vision is rather limiting to the full spectrum of facility management and building use. In reality, businesses can spread over multiple facilities and locations.
This is even truer for those involved in franchises. The distance between locations requires an even greater amount of organization and sharpened communication as individuals’ time is often lost to the commute between facilities.
Non-Value Add Time in Facility Management
Steven Braggs of Accounting Tools delineates that one of the measures that is used to quantify performance in facility management is the time it takes to actually fix a problem or “time on tools.” This is known as “value added time.” Thus “non value added time” is anything before fixing the issues.
Though at times frustrating, non value added time is also necessary to achieving the end result of an efficiently executed resolution.
Ray Steeb described non value added time as the time it takes to gather the tools or the time it takes to walk to the problem in the facility. Despite the necessity of the time taken to prepare for a resolution, it is still vital to optimize the preparatory period in order to cut down on unnecessary expenses and wasted time.
eFacility solves many of the ancitipated problems that can occur by providing all of that information in one place.
Know Before You Go
This digital facility management tool can store and provide crucial information such as a warranty, blue prints, past work orders, past maintenance notes, etc. all in one easily accessible place. Not only is all of the information in an easily transmittable place, but it is also easily searchable.
Through the use of a tool like eFacility, one can avoid the common communication and cost pitfalls that occur in the face of managing multiple facilities that exist as a part of the same business or under the umbrella of the same franchise.
Consequently, this tool can decrease non value added time to provide quicker fixes and more time to resolve or even anticipate other issues at a faster rate.
According to Steeb, non-value add time is amplified in the franchise scenario. Non-value add time is no longer about the time to walk from one side of a building to another.
It is the time it takes to drive or from one facility to another or simply to even communicate with individuals between facilities.
If that is an hour or two, imagine if the technician drives to the next location and does not have the parts or information necessary to fix the problem; then that person or team has to drive back, or order parts, and complete the project on another day.
Not having all of the information before they drive out to the facility could literally add thousands of dollars to the cost of completing a single work order.
Not to mention the time wasted in waiting for the sharing of information to solve a problem through the simple communication between facilities could also save time and money as well.
Distance Is Always A Factor
Situations like this can occur at as small a level as independent contractors showing up to a job not realizing the particulars to a specific job but this can also scale to even larger scenarios. There are other applications where this same tool could be applicable such as franchises, oil fields, cities, defense, and many others.
In these magnified scenarios, the examples involve rather large but extremely tight budgets, the need for fast and precise solutions is essential while the possibility for issues and errors is also imminent.
Get The Right Information, To The Right Person, At the Right Time
eFacility provides the right information to cut down on miles, money, and maintenance missteps that can happen in projects involving multiple locations and facilities.
Though there is little to romanticize about in the very straight-forward world of facilities management, one can at least dream of working hard, saving money, and maybe even driving 500 miles without the worry of bringing the wrong supplies or forgetting necessary information to complete a work order.
About Us
eFacility provides software for facility managers that need to capture and share institutional knowledge.
eFacility’s patented technology allows technicians to access the documentation necessary to complete a work order from a mobile device.
Geo-based documentation delivery ensures the technician can quickly access the important documentation for only the area of the facility in which they’re standing.
References
“All 13 Studio Albums by The Proclaimers from 1987 to 2018.” The Proclaimers Official, the.proclaimers.co.uk/albums.
Bragg, Steven. “Value Added Time.” AccountingTools, 27 Oct. 2018, www.accountingtools.com/articles/2017/5/8/value-added-time.
