Transforming Under Pressure: How Smart Operators Use Constraints to Drive Change

In operations roles, so many decisions need to be made every day, new constraints can cause a reckoning. If a service provider is limited on bandwidth, you have to make tough choices about what they repair. If a budget line is smaller, you are forced to look at your spending more granularly. If economic changes alter the company’s bottom line, you need to find creative solutions for new problems.

Constraints on your business can actually fuel smarter decision-making. Let’s explore a few key ways in which operators are driving change in organizations, even in the face of limitations.

Maintaining operational resilience

Successful facilities management plays a significant role in contributing to a company’s revenue. Facilities might not always get the same revenue-generating attention as other business areas like marketing or sales, but operations determine the day-to-day customer experience.

With that in mind, one of facilities’ biggest constraints is helping protect the revenue on which the organization depends. Your management strategy should prevent any facilities issues that would cause disruptions to your core business. Steady operations rely on your facilities performing at a high level; downtime and interruptions in service can drive customers away.

Facilities can frequently be seen as a cost center, particularly in tough economic environments, but asset management can be better framed as helping power the revenue side of the business. Any changes or investments needed to support proactive maintenance and management of assets are essential for business continuity.

Investing in a detailed view of your challenges

If you have limited resources, every decision you make as an operator has a greater weight. An investment in one area may mean less budget in another area. To make the best decisions in the face of constraints, granular information about your operations needs to play a bigger role.

The smartest operations strategy requires insights backed by data. For instance, say your organization is facing supply chain issues. Equipment and part costs are inflating and becoming unpredictable, making it more difficult to plan your asset management budget. An integrated understanding of preventive maintenance plans, inventory levels, and data-fueled projections of replacement timelines can help you better design a new preventive maintenance and asset replacement strategy.

Data about asset performance can also help you identify trends and find cost savings. If you can name your constraints, you can better evolve your operations. As another example, staffing shortages can cause labor hours to grow more scarce and more costly. With information about what staff hours are spent on what work orders, you can understand the impact on operations, and use the information to evaluate maintenance priorities.

If your organization is facing challenges to the way you operate, a clear-eyed view is essential to adopt the best response.

Adding tools to your toolbox to do more with less

Your organization’s ability to adapt in the face of constraints depends significantly on the tools that you have at your disposal. If you need to maintain revenue levels, your organization must be able to successfully complete regular maintenance tasks. If you need to view asset data to make strategy adjustments, your organization must have that data accessible and accurate.

Facilities management tools like a Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) allow you to tackle more facilities challenges without necessarily demanding more resources. How can a CMMS help your team accomplish more?

• Budget constraints: optimize your maintenance costs by making data-driven decisions about equipment repairs and replacements (instead of relying on legacy systems)

• Labor constraints: focus service technician hours where preventive maintenance and repair are most needed

• Operational constraints: identify priority projects that have the biggest impact on your business continuity and revenue

• Headcount constraints: add new efficiencies in your organization by streamlining administrative tasks, like back office work order management or invoice and inventory processing

Re-evaluating legacy processes

Economic uncertainty isn’t the time to hold back and rely on “business as usual” plans. It’s the moment to move forward with purpose. Your day-to-day operations can be a driver of resilience and improvement, but your strategy needs to be driven by up-to-date data and intentional priorities.

Successful facility management requires adaptation and change in the face of pressures on your business. If your team is willing to evolve your facilities approach, constraints have the potential to become drivers for innovation.