SCHOOL FACILITIES OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE |
İ2000 Fred Tepfer 1380 Bailey Avenue Eugene, OR 97402 |
Itıs not hard to see the relative importance of facilities management, the day-to-day decisions about school buildings and grounds that can either provide the setting for first rate education or can distract the best efforts of teachers and adminstrators away from educating students.
Building managment is, at its most essential, managment of people and issues. In this sense, itıs not unlike other management issues, and some standard management tools can be used to help focus efforts on results rather than scattering them into crisis management.
Building management can also have a large effect on budgets. Although school administrators are quick to point out that most of the budget goes into salaries, it is interesting to note that effective building operation can, ultimately, yield savings.
As you can see on this table, the annual facilities cost per square foot (not including construction) is about $4.50 1998 dollars, not including deferred maintenance, adaptation and remodel, or compliance with new codes and standards. In a typical elementary school, that might translate to a 50 year (1998 dollars) maintenance cost of over $10 million in a facility whose replacement cost is less than $3 million.
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size:
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47,000 gross square feet (GSF) | ||
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height:
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12 feet (one story) | ||
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heating/cooling:
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gas boiler, central chilled water cooling, multi-zone air units | ||
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exterior walls:
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concrete |
Average Annual Cost per GSF (over 50 years)
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in-house maintenance:
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$1.44 | ||
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major repair and replacement:
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$1.37 | ||
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energy (based on UO model):
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$.80 | ||
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custodial
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$.89 | ||
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total::
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$4.50 |
Decisions made in the original design multiply into large maintenance dollar amounts. Even more, maintenance and operations decisions can have huge long-term consequences.
Part of this effect is through cost avoidance, ³a stitch in time saves nine². Part of that is in utility costs. Another major part is in salaries. If staff are motivated and effective, over time you will either provide more service with the same staff or have the opportunity to cover the same ground with less staff.
Managing facilities
... is management
and
... is targeting resources.
There is a large body of literature on management tools. Iım going to touch on several of them that are particularly important to facilities management, but for additional reading consult any modern management book.
Strategic planning moves you out of crisis response into an intensive look at your overall goals (not just facilities) and future trends (both local and global), identifies constraints and opportunities (which are sometimes one and the same), and proposes areas for action and change.
Benchmarking is simply comparing your performance to others, and especially to national averages. This can range from energy costs per student to custodial costs per square foot. Benchmarking can be a very effective tool in identifying areas of inefficiency or of opportunity, but it must be used very carefully. It is often difficult to make sure you arenıt comparing apples with oranges. For example, one districtıs custodial cost per square foot might include supervision and supplies, and other may not. One districtıs remodel costs might be limited to the contruction cost (what you pay the contractor), but not be the total project cost, which includes architectıs fees, building permits, and other ³soft costs². Use benchmarking, but use it with care.
Surveys are very effective facilities management tools if a couple of simple rules are adhered to. The most important is to keep them brief and simple so that people are willing to answer them. This usually means sacrificing some degree of ³scientific accuracy² and also may limit the coverage of details. However, they can quickly give you a reasonably accurate sense of whether your maintenance efforts are going into those areas that are important to the goals of the district.
My favorite user surveys rate on a sliding scale a very limited number of questions (like six), and leave open ended space for comments, or ask follow-up open-ended questions. I recently surveyed hundreds of staff in a medium sized district asking three questions. The participation rate was near 100%, the results were very valuable although perhaps not statistically perfect, and the cost was minimal.
The classic version of this goes like this:
The Jefferson Memorial is deteriorating.
Why is the stone deteriorating?
Solution: kill the pigeons! (and enrage the bird lovers), or ask
Because they come in the evening to eat the moths.
Why are the moths coming to the Memorial?
Solution: Turn on the lights two hours later. Cost = $0.
Hereıs a school facilities example (a real one):
Why is the high school basement flooding several times every year?
Why are there springs? Are they new? How long has the basement been flooding?
Why has the drainage changed? The new subdivisionıs streets all have proper curbs and gutters and catch basins.
Why is the ditch overflowing?
Facilities management is largely careful targeting of resources at the targets most likely to yield results, and concentrating management on those areas with highest potential payback.
Example #1: If you want to contract out to save costs, look first at the areas which, for whatever reason, you canıt deliver effectively from within. See ³Contracting Out² for more details and examples.
Example #2: If you set up a preventive or predictive maintenance program, make sure your initial analysis gives you the information needed to put the resources where they are needed most. It doesnıt make sense to change the filters on the air handling units more often if you donıt have time to lubricate the bearings and check the belts. Itıs like a car, where changing the oil is typically more important than changing the upholstery. See the article on Preventive Maintenance Programs.
One major area of efficiency that is sometimes overlooked is the organization itself. Is your facilities effort putting too much time into administration and too little into actual maintenance and improvement in the field? How could you change that?
Since World War II, management structures have evolved from hierarchical organizations patterned on the military through flatter organizational charts which give more responsibility to individuals to interwoven organizations of changing multidisciplinary teams that reorganize depending on the task. A close study of your organization can often point to changes that at least invigorate if not streamline it. The effect is magnified by excellent human resources practices that makes good hires and keeps them interested and motivated. Typically, a more modern management structure does just that.
This diagram divides a managers time into four quadrants. Youıve certainly experienced the frustration of spending all of your time in the two quadrants on the left side. Part of effective management is setting aside the time to reflect, to be creative, and to be proactive. This chart is one tool to help that effort.
URGENT |
NOT URGENT |
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IMPORTANT |
I
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II
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NOT
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III
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IV
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The articles following in this section give you insights into management of certain key issues inbuilding operations. For additional help in this area, look to resources published by BOMA, APPA, and others linked from the NCEF site.