SCHOOL FACILITIES OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE |
©2008
Fred Tepfer
1380 Bailey Avenue Eugene, OR 97402 non-commercial use freely granted |
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It's 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 from education and learning. Educational outcomes and financial bottom lines are both strongly influenced by buildings and grounds, thus have the potential for great good or great harm. However, as facility managers are inundated by the onslaught of many urgent problems, they often lose sight of these larger issues and responsibilities.
Building management, at its most essential, is managment of people and issues. In this sense, it's not unlike other management issues, and some standard management tools can be used to help focus efforts on results related to the core issues rather than scattering them into crisis management.
Building management can have a large effect on operating 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, and a very large portion of the discretionary (non-salary) portion of budgets relates to facilities and transportation. Seemingly small decisions can have large scale outcomes when amplified over the lifespan of the decision (such as whether to provide mechanical air conditioning at high operating cost or passive cooling at low operating cost).
As you can see on this table, the annual facilities cost per square foot (not including construction) was at that time about $4.50 in 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 (in equivalent dollars).
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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 |
(source: Whitestone Research)
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, "a stitch in time saves nine". Part of that is in utility costs: heating, lighting, garbage, sewer, etc. 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.
This ripples through many of the current issues in facilities: sustainability, affordability, healthy buildings, safety, and so on. The same logic that applies to costs translates verbatim to sustainability: the environmental costs of building operations quickly outstrip the environmental costs of construction, be it in the area of climate change/carbon footprint, volatile organic compound (VOC) release, water use, stormwater pollution, recyling, or nearly any other environmental issue.
There is a large body of literature on management tools. I'm 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. By making changes at appropriate times and in appropriate ways, great efficiencies can be achieved. Misapplication of strategic planning has damaged the reputation of this powerful tool, so remember that it needs to be brief and very focussed so that particpants attitude toward change shifts from neutral or negative to positive. I usually try to find measures for change in every strategic planning process that can be implemented right away at little or no cost, and then make those changes immediately.
Benchmarking is simply comparing your performance to others, and especially to national averages. This can range from energy costs per student, expressed in dollars or in pure energy (btus), 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 carefully. It is often difficult to make sure you aren't comparing apples with oranges. For example, one district's custodial cost per square foot might include supervision and supplies, and other may not. One district's remodel costs might be limited to the contruction cost (what you pay the contractor), but not be the total project cost, which includes architect's fees, building permits, and other "soft costs". 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 "scientific accuracy" 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 four to six), and leave open ended space for comments, or ask follow-up open-ended questions. Several times I've surveyed hundreds of staff in medium sized districts asking three or four questions. The participation rate runs in the range of 60% to 80%, the results are very valuable although perhaps not statistically perfect, and the cost is minimal.
This is a powerful reminder that focussed drilling down through the available information can result in more effective solutions. 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.
Here's a school facilities example (a real one). For more fun, follow this link for an illustrated version (following the link from each page).
Why is the high school basement flooding several times every year, costing the district thousands of dollars with each occurrence?
Why are there springs? Are they new? How long has the basement been flooding?
Why has the drainage changed? The new subdivision's streets all have proper curbs and gutters and catch basins. Let's go out there and look at what happens on a rainy day.
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 can't deliver effectively from within. See Contracting Out 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 doesn't make sense to change the filters on the air handling units more often if you don't have time to lubricate the bearings and check the belts. It's like a car, where changing the oil is typically more important than changing the upholstery. See the article on Preventive Maintenance Programs.
Example #3: Environmentally-concious operations can focus in many different areas, with different costs and benefits. Changing janitorial supplies to greener materials often saves money as well, so is a win-win-win. This triple bottom line of environmental savings, financial savings, and health improvements makes it an easy target for implementation. Building shut down/turn down during times of no use is a similar "no-brainer" of low cost and high benefit. However, replacement of floor materials that still have a long useful life with more sustainable materials doesn't pass the test of close scrutiny.
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 from Stephen Covey divides a managers time into four quadrants. You've certainly experienced the frustration of spending all of your time in the two quadrants on the left side, and none in the upper left quadrant. 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, IFMA, APPA, and others linked from the NCEF site.
updated 1/07
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