From airports to hospitals, corporate offices to retail estates, facilities management is the backbone of every sector. It’s also a complex and challenging industry. Here Richard Graham, Industry Sector Manger at RS, outlines some of the issues facing facilities management providers and those tasked with delivering facilities management services alongside some of the supplier services and solutions that can help.
What are the biggest issues for facilities management providers right now?
Facilities management providers are facing significant challenges. Some of these are familiar to all large organisations. Recent increases in National Insurance, for instance, mean all businesses have higher employee costs. At the same time, labour and skills shortages make resource planning difficult, especially if you’ve a wide range of tasks to be delivered.
Other challenges are more specific to facilities management – or at least more pronounced within this industry. The cost of operational downtime, for example, can be higher because it can lead to fines and other additional costs. Client expectations are a big factor too. To win contracts, facilities management providers need to demonstrate supply chain control and due diligence to their customer base. To achieve this, they need to develop a robust supply chain and to work with key partners who can deliver what may be complex contractual obligations. They also want to demonstrate good credentials within contracts by increasing innovation and showing improvements around ESG while still driving down costs.
Given these competing pressures, what are the top priorities for those working in facilities management?
Obviously, the details vary depending on your job role and the precise needs of the client, but there are some common features for both contract managers and engineers working within facilities management. As well as delivering on the contract priorities that they’re responsible for, maximising uptime and reducing costs is critical. To achieve those goals, it’s important to manage contract stakeholders effectively and promote innovation and continuous improvement as much as possible.
How can a partnership with RS help those in facilities management to succeed?
The range of products RS has available allows facilities management providers to consolidate their supply chain. Strong availability can help support the demands of contract requirements.
RS also offers services and solutions that support facilities management professionals in meeting contract deliverables. Our eCommerce solutions, such as eProcurement integration to support PunchOut and the RS PurchasingManager™ procurement platform, ensure the purchase to pay (P2P) process is efficient. This will help to reduce costs for organisations, no matter what volume of orders are placed each year. With RS ScanStock®, a vendor-managed inventory solution, we assume responsibility for restocking fast-moving spares, giving valuable resource more time back to spend on value-adding activities.
Finally, the network of 17 RS Local branches across the UK and Ireland play a vital role in supporting facilities management. They can hold stock locally and offer different delivery options, whether that’s click-and-collect at a time that’s convenient, kitting services or local ‘milk run’ deliveries for large or complex sites where deliveries need to be carefully managed. You can choose what works best for you and your facility.
