Johnny Ch Lok

How Facility management Influences Service Performance Johnny Ch Lok

Facility executives should be alert to changing external conditions that alter company strategies. Competition for fee-for-service patients, for example, has led some health care organizations to see facilities as a way to attract customers. The power outage of August 2003 helped facility executives throughout the Northeast sell infrastructure improvements. One health care facility executive said that bankruptcies of other hospitals have shown top management the risk of letting the physical plant deteriorate so long that the organization simply can't afford to replace items when they finally wear out. A facility executive in touch with management's ideas is more likely to spot ways to add value. About three years ago, one company decided to focus more directly on its core restaurant business. One goal was getting managers to spend more time in restaurants and less time in field offices. "Our department took that as a cue," said the company's facility executive. "We changed the concept of the traditional field office and made it a resource center." The resource centers were no longer workplaces for managers but rather locations to be visited or accessed electronically; average office size was cut by more than 70 percent at least in pRecruitment and retention are other areas where facilities can have an impact. One hospital recently opened a state-of-the-art intensive care unit. "All we have to do is get the nurses in the door," said the facility executive. "As soon as they see it, they're here. They don't care who the doctors and other nurses are -- at least for a while." In another hospital, nursing vacancies dropped nearly 90 percent with the move into a replacement facility.ossible. How can facility management improve university teachers teaching performance ? No one will deny that a better looking campus will make a university more appealing to potential students. And common sense says that a well-designed workplace can boost productivity by improving communication, eliminating distractions or reducing absenteeism. But, for facility executives intent on adding value, no facility benefit is relevant, except one: the one that meets a specific organizational need. A good example is speed. Getting a high school renovation completed in June rather than July isn't likely to be as important to the school board as getting a new branch open sooner is to bank management. The extent to which the link between organizational need and facility benefit can be quantified varies. For example, increasing reliability for data centers increases cost, but the payback can be gauged by the additional amount of uptime it brings. Update an old branch bank that still has avocado and harvest gold as its color motif, or customize a retail outlet to appeal to a demographic group, and the return shows up in increased business. But not all investments in aesthetics can be measured so easily. "You've got to have really good facilities to attract students," said the facility executive at one university. "They have much higher expectations." But quantifying the value of a positive first impression is difficult. Schools can query students about the physical environment, just as hospitals can ask patients how happy they were with the facilities, but customer satisfaction surveys can't directly measure financial returns on an investment in facilities. It's ultimately a judgment call whether the investment is worthwhile. Cost matters but the perceived need for a better image determines how much expense is appropriate.?How facility management improves health care service performance ?