Software is ever-evolving to meet industry demands, and facility management software is no different. So which facilities management trends should you have on your radar to give your company a competitive edge?
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The way we manage facilities has changed as there are fewer employees, visitors and people coming and going. As a result, employee expectations from physical offices have shifted. Now, organizations focus on providing a seamless and engaging experience to both on-site and off-site employees. FM software helps track, manage and maintain commercial facilities like power plants, factories or rental properties.
What This Article Covers:
Key Takeaways
- The main challenges facing facility management are lack of information availability, managing facility compliance and creating a sustainable workplace.
- Leveraging IoT and connected devices will take precedence to enable both on-site and off-site workers.
- Hybrid workspaces will become popular as employees continue to balance their time between working from home and the office.
- The move towards preventive maintenance will take shape as it reduces costs, downtime and untimely failures leading to losses in production and revenue.
Challenges
To efficiently maintain their office building, equipment and infrastructure in good condition, the majority of facility managers take on a variety of facilities management challenges.
Growing and adjusting to new changes are difficult, especially for firmly established industries that have been providing the same products or services for decades. Businesses must adapt to survive, just like nature does, and facilities management is no different.
Lack of Information Availability
Older or paper-based procedures frequently result in inadequate or no access to reliable facility information, which slows down operations and requires unnecessary effort. Due to the lack of information, field teams are unable to get the required facility data and leadership teams are unable to see operations clearly or access any other crucial information needed to support choices.
This can lead to more easily avoidable mistakes, possibly poor decisions and an increase in liability risk.
Managing Facility Compliance
Many businesses struggle with the issue of complex compliance activities that take an excessive amount of time to complete. Manual reporting and compliance procedures can limit a company’s capacity to succeed in other areas. Such businesses also lack defined policies and procedures for locating and fixing errors. This may lead to a less effective workforce and raise the possibility of mistakes and omissions.
Creating a Sustainable Workplace
Supply chain activities frequently have a negative influence on the environment, and their implications on climate change are currently a topic of contentious dispute.
With ongoing concern regarding carbon emissions, finding a way to reduce your carbon footprint for facilities, assets, transportation or otherwise is increasingly vital.
Top Trends
From taking advantage of the IoT to increasing hybrid work, the future of facilities management is evolving. Take a look at our top facilities management trends below.
Harnessing IoT and Connected Devices
The facilities management industry has had access to the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) for some time. But with each passing year, these technologies advance and become more widely available to organizations throughout the world.
According to IoT Analytics’ report on the state of IoT, the number of connected IoT devices is expected to grow to 27 billion by 2025.
Even though this technology is more accessible than ever, not all companies are leveraging it. For instance, AI-based facilities management systems may provide maintenance plans, repair summaries, replacement requests and more automatically without human input. This can significantly increase productivity and efficiency, especially if these technologies can work outside regular business hours.
Additionally, IoT and connected gadgets will enable FM personnel to maintain high-quality, comfortable work environments remotely.
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Moving Towards Preventive Maintenance
Many organizations still depend on reactive maintenance despite the fact that it’s more costly and less efficient. Preventive maintenance helps teams anticipate when assets need maintenance in order to continue operating at their best by using FM software that is on-site and recognizes the assets within a facility.
You can benefit greatly from preventative maintenance by:
- Prolonging the useful lives of assets
- Minimizing the chance of a disruption to business
- Making your workforce more efficient
- Improving financial management
IoT and AI technology also have a role to play in this. Asset maintenance will get better over time as a result of tracking the performance and behavior of assets and incorporating this data into preventive maintenance programs based on actual feedback.
Shifting Towards Hybrid Work
In 2024, hybrid working will continue to gain momentum.
- If a company doesn’t offer flexible working hours, one out of three employees would be willing to leave. (Robert Half)
- Over 51% of hybrid employees plan to switch to remote work while 57% remote employees will consider a hybrid working approach. (Microsoft).
FM teams must be ready to apply them without compromising the quality of their production as hybrid work, flexible hours and hot desks become more popular. This can involve promoting coworking and controlled workspaces or developing mobile apps that let teams work productively from anywhere.
Striving for Sustainability
Facilities managers maintain the security and comfort of our working spaces. They make an effort to guarantee that a workplace’s physical assets, such as cleanliness, security, and upkeep, are all up to par. The job of a facilities manager is changing, though.
Businesses are more concerned than ever with meeting their ESG (environmental, social, and governance) standards as climate change becomes a serious issue.
Innovative best practices and professional accreditation, attracting visionary investors, and being competitive in the market today all require smart facilities management technology.
Focusing on obtaining recognized certifications in building health and sustainability, such as LEED, BREEAM, WELL, and RESET to increase commercial worth and attract environmentally-conscious investors and employees is a key consideration for facilities managers.
Collecting Cloud-based Data
We anticipate people having constant access to data and information in 2024, no matter their geographical location.
Data collection is substantially simplified when using cloud-based services because facility managers don’t need to figure out how to collect and store the data. Once the equipment is plugged in, the data will be ready for usage. The only services that can provide this experience are cloud-based.
Access to data needs to be granular and customized thanks to cloud-based technologies. A site manager might not need the same level of building data visibility as an estate manager. Any contemporary cloud-based solution should provide multi-tenant platforms and project-based access control to specific building assets as standard components.
Another area that cloud-based services handle with unprecedented grace and ease is data loss risk reduction. Data is gathered and saved for you, so you don’t need to be concerned about backups or failures.
Security must always come first. Search for systems that encrypt all sensor and analytics data while it is in use and while being transmitted, and request a third-party security and penetration test from a credible security company.
Final Thoughts
Moving forward, facilities managers must prioritize the use of technology to ensure that workspaces are safe for all employees. All the trends mentioned above involve the use of digital tools to provide employees with a connected and collaborative experience. It provides facilities managers with real-time visibility and control over workspace usage.
The growth of hybrid and remote working continues to transform the way employees interact on-site. It paves the way for facilities managers to discover emerging trends and technologies that provide better working conditions for employees.
What are your predictions for facilities management trends that will evolve the industry? Let us know in the comments!