A major supplier of supplemental health and life insurance had been experiencing rapid financial growth. Its new facility management administration needed to ensure that the firm’s FM approach adequately protected capital investments in facilities and equipment and that they were operating at maximum efficiency. The company engaged UGL Equis to assess and develop plans for improvement.

UGL Equis assessed the facilities and operations of four locations totaling 1.15 million square feet. Our goals were to:

•Document each department’s facility requirements and existing service levels

•Evaluate costs and create baseline data

•Compare their current facility practices against industry best practices

•Provide recommendations to improve facility services, management technology, costing, operational structure, labor and project services

The team collected baseline facility data for 18 facility categories and 200 specific items and applied industry best practices against the client’s existing operating model. Recommended initiatives to improve facility performance were issued.

In evaluating the client’s operational structure, UGL Equis found that its facilities were performing at a high level in management, office automation, budgeting and procurement. UGL Equis recommended reengineering in service delivery, call center, skills training, customer satisfaction and reporting, where performance was not as strong.

The UGL Equis team took several steps to improve facility performance:

•Held process reengineering workshops with several departments and developed a new Service Delivery Process

•Recommended changes to facility reporting to better manage productivity data

•Developed a procurement strategy to bid services and consolidate providers in order to reduce costs

•Recommended “right sizing” the facilities organization to enhance productivity, and provided a three-year staff re-alignment plan

•Recommended skilled trades certification program with a local Technical College to enhance job skills in order to be less dependent on out-tasked providers

•Overhauled the client’s Standard Operating Procedures in order to decrease workloads and maintenance backlog

UGL Equis’ action plan included recommendations for labor reduction, man hour utilization, centralization, training and service level agreement (SLA) adjustments with the potential to save $4.9 million. After one year, the client saved $1 million by implementing these recommendations.