Best Practices in Facility Management

Benchmark data have been instrumental in helping several defense and civil agency organizations establish performance baselines, identify gaps, and work more effectively and efficiently and less expensively. They serve a larger goal in helping public-sector organizations discover the possibilities outside their own walls and, ultimately, make more efficient use of our taxpayer dollars. While the Logistics Management Institute's benchmark database has served as a cornerstone in helping to initiate change, data and metrics go only so far in implementing better ways of doing business. They serve as indicators of where additional analysis is needed to explain why costs are out of line with typical costs of similar organizations. Sometimes, the explanations lie in special government needs, regulations, or special environments, but often they lie in processes, management concepts, and even corporate cultures. This report therefore identifies common factors that lie behind the low benchmarked costs of excellent companies. To address this issue has meant turning from metrics to processes to provide insight into achieving best-in-class performance. The report focuses on the processes that will benefit organizations that are looking to make fundamental facility management improvements in the coming years.