Increased cost efficiencies, improved quality and enhanced customer service are the goals of any major projects that maintenance and engineering managers take on at institutional and commercial facilities.
Broward College in Davie, Fla., achieved all of these goals during a sweeping centralization of its facilities management services for an educational system that includes nine campuses covering 2 million square feet used by more than 70,000 students and 2,500 employees.
Broward moved 100 full-time employees and a custodial team of 150 contract employers and other maintenance-related employees under the umbrella of the district director of maintenance, mechanical and electrical systems.
The facilities management departments took a year to examine all of their operations, using outside consultants and in-house management expertise and welcomed people from many aspects of the campus to the table to help in the planning. The restructuring produced a number of highlights including:
Broward’s efforts to streamline its operations earned the college a 2015 Facility Maintenance Decisions Achievement Award for Personnel. Sean Devaney, the district director of maintenance, mechanical and electrical systems says the staffing changes have benefited staff and most importantly the students.
“Like any organizational change, the centralization of these services came with some contention and trepidation,” he says. “It was a shift in campus administration responsibilities, facilities management culture, budget responsibilities, facilities management culture, budget responsibilities, and in how the college looked at and prioritized its resources.”
Facility Maintenance Decisions is currently accepting applications for the 2016 FMD Achievement Awards, which recognize excellence in maintenance and engineering departments in institutional and commercial facilities. Click here to visit the Achievement Awards website and submit your entry and learn more information.
