Building & Facilities Operations

525,600 minutes,

525,000 moments so dear.

525,600 minutes

How do you measure, measure your response time?

Unfortunately, few will appreciate it if you try to measure response time in love. Like most people, the higher ups, prospects, and tenants like to hear numbers – real numbers. This makes maintaining accurate response time metrics is a high priority for most property managers.

Let’s take minute to think about this. Are you certain your data is truly representative of what is happening in the field? Unless your engineers are updating their work orders at the time of their work, there is a good chance your data is not as accurate as it could be.

Turkey's red flag

In order for a response time report to be truly representative of what is happening in the field, the engineer overseeing the work order needs to be updating it in close proximity to their actions. Unfortunately, teleportation still hasn’t been invented [NASA, what have you been up too??] and in the real world, property managers frequently bear witness to a complex work order progressing from new to complete in a matter of minutes. This should raise a flag redder than Turkey’s.

This all too common scenario is typical of an engineer who has waited to update their work orders until the end of the day. In all reality, unless you’ve provided your engineer with a viable way to stay on top of their workload, and maintain accurate times for their work, can you really blame them?

This is where the mobile application comes into play. If your engineers currently have smartphones, than there is little barrier to spot on metrics. Recent advancements in smartphone application technology have given engineers the ability to regularly update work orders, see the latest comments, and receive new work orders, all in real time. This enables not only productivity**, but also quick work order turnaround and accurate metrics.

So forget Rent’s “in daylight, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee,” measure in real time – with mobile!

**So long as users resist Words With Friends

Like Rent references? There’s more where that came from: Echo-Boomers’ Booming Impact on Rental

I recently wrote about the basic principles and objectives of Benchmarking.  In particular, proposing that a simple definition of benchmarking is to compare your current results from a procedure, task or process, against a standard.

While there are many complex benchmarking strategies you can employ (Six Sigma, TQM, ASQ, etc.) for most organizations, those are overkill and can often require a “benchmarking specialist.”  Remember, the ultimate goal of benchmarking is simply to get better.  You don’t always need a defined standard to accomplish that. The first major step you can take is  being honest and realistic about your current state.

10 Steps to Simple Benchmarking:

1. Pick a business result and associated process, one that impacts a significant part of your department.
2. Make an honest assessment of the results you are getting now – shoot for areas/items you can quantify.
3. Decide that this is one you want to make better.  (If a standard does indeed exist, compare yourself against that.)
4. Deliver the objective to your team – obtain their commitment.
5. Carefully analyze and detail all of the steps (and people) involved.
6. Study those steps carefully and decide which ones you need, which ones you don’t, and which you have to improve.
7. Look for places to eliminate wasteful actions and redundancy, or areas to automate and speed up.
8. Document the new process.
9. Implement it.
10. Measure the results.

We recently secured a new client for our operations and workflow management software system that undertook a system trial to evaluate our product and service.  Part of the decision criteria involved presentation of how the system would improve the closing time for billable work orders. – The longer it took from service request submission to delivery of an invoice had a detrimental effect on cash flow. While there was not an industry standard that the company could refer to, they inherently knew that they had to improve it and set an internal target of a 15% improvement.   We worked with the client during the trial to identify all the steps in their current process and average processing time.  The net result is that the client was able to cut an 18 step process down to 8 (a 56% reduction) and improve time to billing on average by 6 days for a standard billable request (a 30% improvement.)  There were several other ancillary benefits as well.

While automation certainly played a part in the improvement, it was interesting to note that simply removing some redundant and unnecessary steps in their process had an impact on the overall success. Easy things to fix, but ones that they would never found without making a fairly simple effort and commitment to making an improvement.  There is no need to over-complicate it. Simply make the same commitment and follow the steps outlined above to find your own dramatic results.

It seems almost trite to say, but technology has dramatically reduced the cycle time for communication, content production and decision-making.  Not only are we expected to communicate much more quickly than we did in prior decades, we are expected to turn around work and make decisions in similarly abbreviated time frames.  Documented communication that would have taken place by a letter 40 years ago, or by fax or courier package 20 years ago, is now expected by email, text or instant message within an hour or less.

Similarly, we have come to demand the same reduced cycle time from retailers, service providers and even government agencies (one reason the DMV will continue to be the butt of jokes).

Much of this is change has been driven by an increasingly networked world that offers always-on communication and data access.  While we may complain about its quality, we now get (and expect) cell phone and Internet access virtually anywhere, anytime.

In response to these changes, we have designed Building Engines’ web-based operations management software to support the reduced cycle time that people have come to expect.  By accessing the system, a user is provided immediate insight into daily building operations, including automated work orders and real-time notifications.

The U.S Commercial Office market is suffering unprecedented vacancy rates which are expected to hit 18.6% in 2010 – close to the historic high of 19.3% set in 1990.  We are facing a “jobless recovery” as employers focus on workforce efficiencies and try to do more with less…or fewer.   Arthur Jones, Senior Economist, CBRE Econometric Advisors Jones’ believes that the current decade will be the first during the post-World War II era in which there is net job-loss in the U.S.  Ouch!

So how do we combat this decline? With government handouts like those seen in the auto industry with the advent of the “cash for clunkers” program?  No…No… Please no…!   These short-term, short-sighted fixes are going to extend the decline, not shorten it.  We need to invest in the future and with passage of the “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act” we might see the kind of industrial investment not seen in fifty years. 

We need to be proactive.   China and India are among the many countries investing heavily in clean-energy technologies that will produce millions of jobs.   Instead of rescuing old and dying industries with tax payer dollars here in the US, we need a longer term strategy that invests in new technologies and new business ideas that grow jobs from within.   America needs a farm team for jobs and this Act is just the kind of impetus required to put one in place.  Vote Yes with a letter to your representative.  

The Green Building initiative alone is a terrific example of what this kind of legislation can do for a struggling economy.  “McGraw-Hill Construction’s Green Outlook 2009 report “Trends Driving Change” shows that by 2013, the overall green building market (both residential and non-residential) is likely to more than double to $96 billion – $140 billion.”  The USGBC guidelines are creating new demands for materials, new infrastructural changes that will lead to new jobs, new construction and a healthier real estate related environment.   ”The Center for American Progress and the Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst found in a September 2008 study that a national green economic recovery program investing $100 billion over 10 years in six infrastructure areas would create 2 million new jobs!”  See, Green buildings Crease Green Jobs for a Green Economy.  That’s good news for all.

I am particularly interested in the new climate bill that is before the US Senate. It’s called the “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act” – which is a mouthful, even from a bunch of American politicians.  Before I’d finished reading the title of the Act, I knew someone had flipped the dial to the spin cycle.

The object of the Bill is to reduce the gases linked to global warming and to force power sources to shift away from fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas, which release heat-trapping gases, and toward cleaner sources of energy such as wind, solar and geothermal heating.   The Bill seeks to impose national limits on emissions of heat-trapping gases from major pollution sources (power plants, refineries and factories), placing a cost on the privilege of polluting to those that do it.   Hence, these major pollution sources are motivated to seek cleaner alternatives. The bill would require reductions in U.S. emissions of 20 percent below 2005 levels by 2020 while providing incentives for renewable energy technologies.   It’s a big deal to the “E” people – those who people care about the Environment and those people who care about the Economy.  I care about both, so I decided to look into it – put on my flak jacket, fins, mask and snorkel and dive in…deep.

Let me say from the outset that I am behind the “Climate Act” one-hundred percent behind it, because it absolutely means cleaner air, cleaner water, healthier people, a preserved environment, abundant wildlife and MORE JOBS.  Yes, more jobs, more employees, more office space filled.  I know that this is true now that I’ve resurfaced, but it wasn’t easy to divine that truth, or the consequences of that truth from the all the weeds of hyperbole.   Those Washington currents – all that spinning – in both directions – nearly drowned me.  So let me take you through my bathyspheric adventure into climate legislation. This will be a multi-day dive, so take a deep breath.

Today, we’ll start at on the surface with things like labels. I don’t know about you, but labels confuse me. Maybe it’s that tricky English language thing or perhaps Madison Avenue has moved to our Nation’s capital, but I’m confounded when I read any news coming out of Washington. What are “low carbon jobs”?  Are they like low carbon cigarettes – same thing in a different marketing wrapper? How about “Clean Coal”– if I burn it or bathe in it will I actually be cleaner?

Do they put clean coal in low carbon jobs?

And then there’s “Cap and Trade”. It sounds like a great game – like a combination of beer pong and baseball cards. Or “Pollution Credits” – who’s going to believe that they get credit for polluting? What crazed politician thought that one up? Are these just euphemisms, or are they real? The truth is both.

Let me explain each – the truth and consequences:

Low Carbon Jobs:   Not some filtered version of your regular day-to-day slog, these are jobs directly borne out of the “Climate Bill”. They are jobs in new energy industries like solar, wind and geothermal power. Strong regulation of greenhouse gases will not only shift existing jobs to new, more environmentally sensitive, industries, but it will also create jobs through greater investments to develop an efficient and robust power grid. The push for cleaner, better, more efficient energy – forced through this legislation – will spur a new wave of entrepreneurialism in what some call the Low Carbon Economy.

Clean Coal:  This is a euphemism – no doubt about it. Coal is not clean, unless you use it to filter your water.  However, the intention is good. The term describes new technologies that seek to reduce the environmental impact of coal energy generation such as greater filtration, chemical washes and other means of carbon capture. Coal energy is very dirty stuff, so pay close attention to what you hear on the radio and TV.

Cap and Trade: This term describes an administrative policy used to control pollution by providing economic incentives for successful reductions in the emissions of pollutants. Cap and Trade legislation sets limits or “a cap” on the amount of pollutants that can be emitted into the environment and polluters or other groups are issued emission permits or allowances for the right to emit a specific amount of each pollutant. If they exceed those amounts, they pay a penalty which is essentially a tax on polluting.   Polluters can trade for these “Pollution Credits” allowing them to pollute more in the short term, but it is expensive, and there is a total limit on the number of credits, so the organization that traded the credits to the polluter must pollute less –  thereby respecting a limit on overall emissions.  Clean operators can sell their allotted credits to dirty operators. The natural result of this legislation over time, if properly administrated, is to force polluters to reduce their emissions through new techniques and technologies. Essentially, it creates a market for pollution credits enabling operators to successfully reduce emissions without tanking the company.  Again, more jobs, more employees, more office space filled.

These are just a few of the labels.  I’ll talk about them more as we continue our dive tomorrow.  See us at www.buildingengines.com