Tired of Unplanned Maintenance Costs?

A common issue in facilities management is dealing with unexpected costs arising from assets breaking down or needing to be replaced reactively. It can be easy for facility managers to find themselves in this situation, and sometimes it is intentional (as with an RTF maintenance strategy, which is discussed later on in this post). However, organizations that want to better control costs, maximize uptime, deliver positive experiences, and avoid the unexpected would be wise to consider a CapEx facility management strategy.

Understanding CapEx Facility Management

CapEx facility management is an approach to funding asset maintenance, replacements, installation, and other related needs in an organization. Rather than paying for these needs from OpEx budgets or requiring separate facilities to pay their own facility management costs, some organizations will utilize funds for facility management from CapEx budgets.

It stands in contrast to a run-to-failure (RTF) asset maintenance strategy, in which assets are allowed to operate until they fail or break down entirely. While RTF is intended to reduce maintenance costs, it can lead to a variety of problems including location shutdowns, uncomfortable conditions and temperatures, lost/wasted products, higher costs for temporary replacements, higher energy costs, and more.

Every organization is different, however, and ultimately the decision on how facility management is paid for is influenced by:

• The number of locations that the organization operates
• Where the locations are throughout its footprint
• What types of assets and maintenance are needed
• Historical data about past asset maintenance costs
• How organizations structure their accounting systems
• What individual locations are responsible for financially
• How organizations report on facility management
• What service providers are involved in FM programs
• The organization’s long-term financial strategy

The Advantages of a CapEx Facility Management Approach

Using a CapEx facility management approach to asset maintenance and related needs provides organizations with a variety of benefits (additionally, aggregators that use a CapEx strategy simplify work and reduce complexity for the vendors that execute the work):

• Proactively satisfies a wide variety of facility management needs
• Gives organizations a better sense of their overall annual FM costs
• Prevents unplanned expenses by not allowing assets to run till failure
• Avoids supply chain/logistics delays on asset repair or replacement
• Prevents locations from experiencing uncomfortable conditions
• Prevents lost revenue due to site closures or lost products
• Maximizes uptime as assets are proactively repaired or replaced
• Prioritizes replacement of aging/underperforming assets first
• Mitigates higher energy costs on temporary asset placements
• Operates off a consolidated, highly detailed list of assets

How to Get Started with This Approach

While you can certainly manage a CapEx facility management strategy internally, many companies find that it makes more sense to partner with a nationwide facility management partner and bring them to the table during annual planning. Doing so ensures that your FM teams and other leaders have access to specialized knowledge and experience about the process and advantages of a facility management and asset maintenance.

From there, the partner will work with you to develop an implementation plan that addresses the greatest areas of need first. The replacement assets will be ordered and installation will be scheduled. If preventive maintenance is critically needed at any locations, this will be scheduled as well and can be handled before other locations are serviced or in tandem with that service — whatever makes the most sense financially and operationally.

CLS Facility Services partners with our clients on CapEx facility management planning, ensuring that they enjoy all of the proactive benefits outlined here.