4 Steps of A Successful Facility Planning - Complete Guide

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(Last Updated On: April 21, 2021)

Facility planning or strategic facility planning acknowledges that each resolution made in business planning has a direct impression on a corporation’s actual property belongings and desires.

Facility planning

In the actual world of facility administration, a plethora of actions fall below the ability supervisor’s accountability, inflicting frequent lapses right into a reactive mode to reply to all of the requests, orders, rules, deadlines, and calls for of the group.

Facilities are the crucial parts of a corporation’s strategic facility planning since they’re the result of business decision-making processes and have a long-term impression on the assist for the achievement of the group’s mission and vision.

Linking services to core business methods are one of the imperatives of refined facility management now and sooner or later. Even larger significance might be given to strategic facility planning within the coming years as budgets proceed to be squeezed, and employee efficiency and productiveness are key components within the information age.

Strategic facility planning facilitates the group’s technique by optimizing services to fulfill the strategic relationships between the group, merchandise/companies, and services.

The strategic facility planning is a two-to-five year plan encompassing all the portfolio of owned and/or leased area that units strategic facility objectives based on the group’s strategic goals.

Strategic facility planning helps facility managers do a greater job and ensures that every one worker is working towards the same objectives and goals.

4 Steps of Facility Planning

A versatile and implementable strategic facility planning based mostly on the precise and distinctive concerns of your group must be developed by a Four-step course.

4 step strategy of understanding the state of affairs, services, circumstances, and expectations, analyzing the wants and adjustments required, planning, after which executing an accredited plan might be defined.

Numerous instruments for every step of the four-step course can even be suggested.

Four steps of the strategic facility planning course of

4 strategy of facility planning are;

Understanding.
Analyzing.
Planning.
Acting.

1. Understanding

The first step, understanding, requires thorough information of your group’s mission, imaginative and prescient, values, and objectives. Thoroughly perceive the group’s mission, imaginative and prescient, values, and objectives.

Many organizations observe a balanced scorecard of Four key measurements: monetary efficiency, buyer information; inside business processes; and studying and progress.

The strategic plan focuses on the longer-term, big-picture wants, and imaginative and prescient of the group. Because the SFP meshes with the strategic business plan of every distinctive group, alignment is critical for achievement.

Facility managers should start the event of the SFP by totally understanding the wants of the group.

Through present inside evaluation and business imperatives, the work that an SFP staff completes is completely dependent upon the group’s particular wants and will tackle each strategic and long-range planning.

Conversely, it must also tackle the analysis of present services and the conceptualization, planning, and implementation of recent services.

A radical understanding of the present state of affairs is critical to research the wants correctly
and examine present circumstances to these wants.

Commonly, strategic plans present a combination and range of suggestions to maximize the worth of a corporation’s belongings.

The facility supervisor considers components such because the group’s mission, imaginative and prescient, tradition and core values; the present place of the business and its present actual property asset base; its total route and the initiatives at present underway throughout the company; how the business could change; and the way these adjustments could have an effect on the actual property wants of the company.

Once these concerns are effectively understood, a business-driven method is taken to research the group’s services and to set tangible objectives and plan targets.

Often, organizations take a strictly cost-driven method to their services.

Although they’re fast to implement and are sometimes cost-effective, this method is nonetheless missing in imaginative and prescient, fails to adequately tackle the precise supply of the business items and/or companies, and has solely a reasonable long-term impression on bettering the general efficiency of the business as a complete.

In distinction, a business-driven method, regardless of necessitating an extended timeframe, delivers a transparent vision for the longer term, earns worker support, and enhances efficiency, which strengthens the business competitively.

Using this business-driven method, the staff research the actual property belongings that the company at present holds utilizing gathered information, modeling instruments, and state of affairs options.

This information typically consists of lease and possession information, constructing assessments, sq. footages, area utilization requirements, and placement traits.

To provide a complete plan, the ability supervisor and SFP staff discover the assorted business objectives of every unit within the business and integrate these goals into the ability plan analyses.

This input defines a future area, and actual property must be based mostly on total company objectives beginning with anticipated companies, expected staffing adjustments, and potential new technologies.

The staff makes use of these must predict future headcounts, demographics, area utilization, upkeep necessities, capital funding, and working prices.

At this stage, a transparent understanding of the objectives of the SFP, in addition to the approval course of and measures for success, might be full and have the second stage observe.

2. Analyzing

Second, exploration of the vary of potential futures and triggers is required to research your group’s facility wants using analytical strategies — comparable to systematic structure planning (SLP), strengths, weaknesses, alternatives and threats evaluation (SWOT), strategic inventive evaluation (SCAN), or state of affairs planning.

Use analytical strategies, comparable to SWOT evaluation, SCAN, SLP, or state of affairs planning, to discover the range of potential futures and the triggers used to research a corporation’s facility wants.

Once a transparent definition of the business’ state of affairs has been established, the ability supervisor, planners, and designers start to think about methods to stability present facility wants with long-term wants and points.

These wants and points could embrace workforce demographics, manufacturing processes, organizational construction and tradition, neighborhood and authorities regulatory necessities, market place, and capability charges and volumes. All of this mixed to outline the personal components of the SFP.

The comparability of the present stock and circumstances with the future wants supplies the hole that the SP will tackle.

Analysis Tools

Several instruments (see Analysis Tools part) could also be used to check, analyze, coordinate, and make clear this hole and the options, situations, and suggestions which are made.

Scenario Planning

Scenarios are instruments for considering forward to anticipate the adjustments that can impression your group. Scenarios might be thought of as instructive simulations of potential working circumstances.

This method may be used at the side of different fashions to make sure planners really undertake strategic considering. Scenario planning could also be notably helpful in figuring out strategic points and objectives.

Select a number of exterior forces and picture associated adjustments that may affect the group, comparable to the worldwide market, technology, change in rules, demographic adjustments, and so on. Scan newspapers and Internet sources for key headlines to counsel potential adjustments that will have an effect on the group. Utilize IFMA’s and different affiliation’s development experiences.
For every potential change, talk about three totally different future organizational situations (including the perfect case, worst case, and all proper/cheap case), which can arise throughout the group because of every change. Reviewing the worst-case state of affairs typically provokes robust motivation for wanted changes.
Suggest what the group would possibly do, or potential methods, in every one of the three situations to reply to every change.
Planners quickly detect frequent concerns or methods that have to be addressed to reply to potential exterior adjustments.
Select the almost certainly exterior adjustments to have an effect on the group, over the subsequent three to 5 years, for instance, and establish the cheapest methods the group can undertake to reply to these adjustments.

The product of this course shouldn’t be a remaining, cut-in-stone doc. Still, it supplies perception into how totally different choices will have an effect on the group’s return on funding, money stream, debt load, work processes, and productiveness of its workers.

Scenarios will information decision-makers and supply advance consideration of the potential impacts of various facility choices.

Systematic Layout Planning (SLP)

The SLP methodology was developed by Muther (1973) to create conceptual block layouts.

The methodology successively provides complicated information classes till a block structure has been generated, making it a technique to the tactical instrument.

Document the current operation (Deliverable: flowcharts).
Define the actions and planning horizon (Deliverable: desk).
Develop exercise relationships (Deliverable: relationship diagram).
Develop a square footage necessities spreadsheet (Deliverable: spreadsheet).
Develop block plan layouts (Deliverable: block plan structure).
Development of an equipment structure (Deliverable: tools structure).

SWOT Analysis

SWOT Analysis is one other planning instrument used to strategically consider the strengths, weaknesses, alternatives, and threats in a project or a business enterprise.

SWOT makes use of business goals and identifies each inside and exterior components which are both favorable or unfavorable to reaching that goal.

The 4 areas thought of are;

Strengths: attributes of the group useful in reaching the target and describing how they are often leveraged.
Weaknesses: attributes of the group dangerous to achieving the target and the way they are often minimized or neutralized.
Opportunities: external circumstances useful in achieving the objective.
Threats: external conditions dangerous to achieving the objective.

Brainstorming (AGIR-a gang in a room)

This approach higher ensures that various views and features are represented, notably if the people are chosen effectively. The downside could also be an excessive amount of entering, which can yield inconsistencies.

However, completed correctly, brainstorming supplies a chance for inventive, modern ideas that may in any other case be missed.

As such, it’s prompt {that a} skilled facilitator ought to conduct a majority of these classes.

Strategic Creative Analysis (SCAN)

Strategic Creative Analysis is a process for strategic planning, resolution making, and analyzing case research. An instance of a strategic planning approach that includes a SWOT evaluation is SCAN evaluation.

The strategy of SCAN is described in Exhibit 1. (Step 3. Includes the Top Rated Objective – TRO).

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a really helpful SFP instrument for evaluating and measuring your group in opposition to others, anyplace on the planet, to realize info on philosophies, practices, and measures that can assist your group takes motion to enhance its efficiency.

In summary, benchmarking is the practice of being humble sufficient to confess that others are higher at one thing, and being smart sufficient to discover ways to match and even surpass them at it.

Benchmarking makes use of a lot of the organizational understanding gained within the first step of SFP to check practices and metrics to acknowledged leaders.

Networking with peer organizations, opponents, and particularly for facility organizations, visiting award-winning service organizations supplies perception to carry back and adapt to your operations.

Adaptation is the important thing—recognizing a great course of or observe and use it in your particular means inside your group is the essence of profitable benchmarking.

For SFP to function the proper mechanism to research and enhance present facility operations, a proactive method to benchmarking practices and companies of these organizations acknowledged as business leaders are required.

Benchmarking could also be undertaken as a part of a broader course of reengineering initiative, or it may be performed as a freestanding train.

Organizational Simulation

Organizational simulation is a prominent methodology in organizational research and strategic administration. This instrument goals to understand how organizations function.

The organizational simulation can describe the coordination of facility operations based mostly on understanding and analyzing the impression of interrelated facility options and actions.

This methodology can measure organizational efficiency and support strategic thinking.

3. Planning

Third, as soon as the evaluation is completed, plans for potential responses and periodic updates to present plans in response to adjustments available in the market should be developed to satisfy the long-range wants of your particular group.

Develop plans that meet the long-range wants of the group.

At a minimum, the SFP needs to be reviewed yearly and additional up to date periodically as circumstances require.

As a result of the analyses carried out, choices will grow to be obvious, or really useful programs of action can be supported by the completed analysis.

These suggestions will grow to be the essence of the SFP.

To be organizationally mandated, most facility managers might want to current the suggestions to senior administration, get hold of buy-in (typically involving some negotiation and adjustment to the plan), and get remaining approval and funding for the proposed plan.

IFMA makes use of and recommends the balanced scorecard methodology for integrating planning into the group’s goals, but acknowledges that each group has chosen strategies for business processes and facility administration conforms to align with the organization’s methodologies.

The following are major steps in establishing the plan:

Document the first goals to be addressed (the hole) within the SFP.
Evaluate websites, zoning, prices, labor, competitors, and all factors crucial for success.
Conduct monetary and threat evaluation to concentrate on discovering the utmost worth.
Develop options with recommendations and priorities.
Develop a course for advertising the really useful SFP to realize administration approval.
Obtain monetary and different approvals needed to launch the motion part.

It is vital to notice that after accredited, and the SFP could proceed to evolve and adapt to altering circumstances inside and out of doors the group. The flexibility of a good SFP will accommodate the minor changes.

4. Acting / Action

Fourth, take motion as deliberate to implement the strategic facility planning efficiently.

Take actions as deliberate and implement the SFP. Feedback from actions taken might be integrated into the subsequent plan and/or undertaking to offer steady enchancment to future SFPs.

After approval, the SFP is then prepared for implementation.

Implementation of an SFP sometimes requires the event of a selected undertaking or undertaking to ship new, altered, or reconfigured area to satisfy the organizational want. This particular undertaking is a novel course that’s supplemental to the SFP.

Specific undertaking planning with take place outdoors the SFP to meet the detailed implementation part. Some initiatives, particularly giant new area initiatives, could also be managed by specialty or contract teams.

It is crucial in these instances that services keep concerned as a core staff member, to make sure integration of the planning and operational phases of the precise undertaking.

Regardless of the instruments used within the growth of an SFP, the SFP needs to be considered as a residing doc that experiences findings and makes considered suggestions for implementing the plan inside a practical time frame but maintains the pliability to adapt as business requires.

While implementation is in progress, flexibility to adapt to modified circumstances could also be required.

It is prudent to view an SFP because the “current SFP” since any main change in market circumstances, financial outlook, or different forces might require various levels of change to the unique doc.

This is another excuse that situations are very useful—since they anticipate a few of these potential adjustments. The SFP is a serious facility administration instrument used to assist the group—alignment with the organizational imaginative and prescient, mission, objectives, and goals are at all times crucial for the success of the SFP.

Documentation of particularly profitable or problematic parts of the SFP, if famous, can present helpful suggestions for the subsequent iteration of planning.

The cyclical nature of planning and steady enchancment supplies alternatives to study from every course of. The following diagram is a course of the model developed for SFP accomplishment.

This course of mannequin integrates the sequential actions, individuals, deliverables, and inter-relationships for a person group to achieve success when implementing the 4-step SFP course.

The course of the model consists of three layers of individuals (government administration, facility supervisor, and employees) and roles illustrating who implements every one of the duties within the SFP growth course.

The SFP staff must be carefully linked to implementing activities from the undertaking launch to the ultimate implementation part, and hand-off for the event of the tactical facility plans to assist the group’s business planning.

Major actions are aligned with the four-step course of and embrace duties comparable to information gathering/benchmarking, evaluation/synthesis, state of affairs growth/forecasting, and SFP implementation.

The course of the model ends with the hand-off to a tactical facility plan, which frequently is the ability management annual plan or finances.

Feedback by all phases for steady enchancment is proven with arrows in reverse. It must also be famous that there aren’t any arduous and quick strains indicating when one part ends and the subsequent begins.

Plans stream at totally different charges because of totally different organizational necessities and managerial route. The exact transitions are unimportant however must observe your individual group’s necessities.

Facility Planning and Facility Managers

Facility managers know that they should grow to be extra proactive and strategic is vital, however, discovering the time to commit to strategic planning is usually a battle.

As Stephen Covey teaches, we have to prioritize what’s vital somewhat than merely pressing to realize most effectiveness.

Strategic facility planning is a course that may result in a better, more proactive supply of companies from a facility administration group to its stakeholders.

The time taken to hold out strategic facility planning is effectively spent in that it helps to keep away from errors, delays, disappointments, and buyer dissatisfaction.

It can enable facility plan implementations to run extra shortly and easily.

Since strategic facility planning shouldn’t be a day by day job, many facility managers are unfamiliar with one of the simplest ways to perform one of these planning, or maybe have been requested by senior administration to offer a strategic facility plan shortly and should not positive the place to start out.

Facility managers should still be not sure of methods to provoke the strategic facility planning course and must get hold of info on strategies and strategies helpful for efficiently implementing a strategic facility planning to correspond with their group’s wants.

While each group is totally different, all organizations attempt to grow to be extra aggressive, efficient, and supply the perfect office potential for its workers. This is the position facility managers fulfill, and strategic facility planning is a train that’s thought of one other instrument so as to add to the “FM tool belt” wanted for achievement.

Take away

The cyclical nature of fixed planning for the altering future and adopting plans alongside the best way are regular occasions. These adjustments and updates have to be managed to make sure they’re achievable.

The strategic facility planning identifies the sort, amount, and placement of areas wanted by the group. It accommodates two foremost parts, the first being an in-depth evaluation of present services and the opposite an achievable and reasonably priced plan to satisfy the organization’s needs.

Using the organizational business plan, the variations need to be recognized between the present conditions and analyzed needs.

Gap evaluation, a business useful resource evaluation instrument enabling a corporation to check its precise efficiency with its potential efficiency, is an applicable instrument for use.

Financial evaluation can also be required to find out the yield on the best return on the lowest threat.

A proactive method to benchmark practices and companies of main organizations within the business might be useful for strategic facility planning and serves as a mechanism to grasp, analyze, and enhance the operation of the present service.

Since variations in organizational kind, tradition, and processes strongly affect how strategic facility planning is achieved, the really useful strategic facility planning will need to be adjusted by the differing types, cultures, and processes of your particular group.

The function of the SFP plan, due to this fact, is to develop a versatile and implementable plan based mostly on the precise and distinctive concerns of the individual business.

4 Steps of A Successful Facility Planning – Complete Guide