When working in facility management, not only do you face a number of diverse challenges on a daily basis, but your duties and responsibilities often go beyond the scope of your work.

On any given day you could be responsible for operations and maintenance, project management, oversight of environmental and sustainability projects, emergency preparedness, civil and structural engineering, customer relations, business continuity, and finance awareness. With strict budget cuts and a recovering economy, limits are often placed on how much can be done within your organization.

We knows yours is a tough position. How do you cut costs, while keeping your establishment running at optimal levels? Often times a facility manager may consider subleasing a part of their space out to another company.

On its face, this may seem like a viable option, but soon unexpected variables like construction costs, access control, electrical distribution, and security issues come into play. Suddenly, you’re expending more time, money, and energy than you’re actually benefiting from.

Condensing operations or leaving a few floors unoccupied within your building may actually be a more practical alternative to subleasing your office space.

Things like modifying HVAC set points, turning off lights in unused portions of the building, or putting lights on their lowest setting at night or when not in use can also cut back on expenses.

Make saving energy and cutting waste a team effort. Instruct faculty and staff, maintenance workers, security personnel, and custodians to power down all lights and equipment when they’re finished working in an area.

Determining the number of amps used when running portable heaters, microwaves, and other energy-draining appliances are also ways to save money. Know the electrical capacity of your breakers to avoid any unnecessary power outages.

Other things like increasing the lifespan of boilers and HVAC systems and tracking inventory and assets can be ways to control costs.

Preventative maintenance can be the different between being prepared for and reacting to problems when they arise. Knowing that equipment and building structures inevitably wear out with time and budgeting for these instances, can save your organization money on the back end.

Knowledge is key in the reliability industry and even regulatory and compliance standards can be tough to stay on top of when your hands are already full. Continuing education courses are a good way to keep your team abreast of any changes as they occur and keep your staff in the loop so facility management becomes a consolidated effort.

Those of us here at SOLID understand what you’re up against, that’s why we’re committed to offering cost-effective solutions designed specifically for the needs of your organization. Check out our wide range of services today.

For more information on SOLID, please contact us.