In the Facility and Property Management profession, I see an important ingredient missing from many organizations – good information.
That’s information you can use to make decisions and improvements both with internally delivered services and with your suppliers.
An excellent example of the value of information, even if not directly related, is Wal-Mart. Their retail success is something that even Facility Managers can learn from.
On a forum recently, a Facility Manager was looking for ways to save costs at his facility due to the current economic pressures. He identified a few things he was doing, mostly the common low hanging fruit items, and asked for ideas.
Having been in that situation as an FM and responded to it as a supplier, I learned that a good source for cost savings ideas can be your suppliers. Yes, it can happen, but you need to approach it properly.
