Professional Documents
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ancient chemistry building that has been heritage-designated by the state, and an FMD crew repairing an aging water main. These images symbolized what was good and bad at State U. The oldest public university in the state, it was a beautiful campus struggling to meet the demands of tomorrow's students with yesterday's infrastructure. Returning his gaze from the window, Milton began to consider what was troubling him. He had received a phone call from the provost of the university asking him to prepare a presentation to the university's board of governors in six weeks. In the past three years, the university had regularly cut FMD's annual operating budget, putting pressure on his division to reduce costs while at the same time continuing to satisfy its stakeholders. Milton knew that State U's students, faculty, and administrative support staff expected three things from his division: (a) a safe, comfortable, clean, reasonably attractive, and reliable physical environment; (b) timely responses to service repair requests (such as fixing leaking roofs and toilet repairs, for which users are not charged), and fairly priced, on-time fee-for-service work (such as office renovations and rekeying of doors, for which users are charged); and (c) professional services relating to campus planning, construction and renovation project management, and building and grounds design. If FMD exceeded these expectations, then his division would be seen as strongly supporting State U's strategic direction (see Exhibit 1 for an overview of State U's vision and goals). As a result of reductions in state and federal funding and a reluctance to push through additional tuition increases, Milton knew the university was facing severe pressure to further cut expenditures. If cuts occurred to FMD's budget, it would be for the third time in recent memory. This would make it very difficult for FMD to maintain existing service levels, not to mention its ability to renew State U's physical plant and reduce the substantial deferred maintenance backlog.' In the last round of cuts, the frequency of cleaning faculty offices was reduced to once a week, much to the chagrin of faculty. Milton knew that FMD's staff was doing a good job completing their activities (see Exhibit 2 for an overview of FMD's activities). However, Milton feared that further erosion in service levels, even through no fault of its own, could set up FMD for additional rounds of cuts. His biggest fear, though, was that further cuts could cause dissatisfaction among FMD users, and ultimately lead to calls for his job. To add to his worries, Milton had just received from the provost's office a report that provided an overview of the custodial, maintenance, and heating costs at 36 North American universities (State U is #1 in Table 1). State U fared well with respect to heating and custodial costs, but was significantly higher than most of the other surveyed universities with respect to maintenance costs per square foot. Furthermore, State U's maintenance costs per square foot were almost double the International Facilities Management Association (IFMA) benchmark. Milton knew the university's board of governors had already been provided
1. For example, as part the university's maintenance plan, the replacement maintenance schedule dictates that all campus roads be resurfaced every eight years. If at the end of the eight-year period there is no funding available, the resurfacing is postponed and the job is added to the deferred maintenance schedule. Note that FMD will still incur maintenance expenses for repairing the largest cracks and potholes in the pavement while the project is on the deferred maintenance schedule.
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IFMA benchmark
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with the report. He anticipated that the report's findings would play a key role in discussions he would have at the board meeting. FMD collects data on a number of performance areas (see Table 2), but Milton is unsure how to use these data, or even whether they can be used to develop an accurate and complete report on the performance of FMD. In the past, FMD's managers had been repeatedly told to focus on beating the previous year's numbers for each of their measures. Milton has come to the conclusion that these reports do not describe how FMD contributes where it counts namely, in enabling the university to achieve its strategic vision. Milton felt that FMD's recently revised mission and strategic goals (see Exhibit 1) strongly aligned with the vision and goals of State U. The problem was that he could not satisfactorily document that FMD was making progress reaching its revised mission and strategic goals. If Milton could show that FMD's measures linked to its mission and strategic goals, and that FMD had been achieving its measures, then perhaps Milton could save FMD from another round of cuts, not to mention his job. Milton had been exposed to Kaplan and Norton's balanced scorecard (BSC) while doing an MBA a decade ago. He recalled that the BSC was a tool for integrated performance management a tool that linked measurement of performance to strategy. The BSC was designed to portray a business unit's performance from a variety of different perspectives not just a financial one and relate its performance to an organization's overall objectives. However, Milton had only heard of the BSC being used in for-profit businesses and was uncertain whether it could be gainfully applied in a governmental setting. Milton knew that he had to raise all of the issues, both quantitative and qualitative, in order to provide
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FIGURE 1 Partial organization chart for State U's Facilities Management Division
Milton Keys Vice-President, Facilities Management Division
Tracey Dem Manager, Planning and Development % of FMD operating expenditures 6% Develop long-term campus plan Design services Capital project development and management
Bill Johnson Manager, Operations and Maintenance % of FMD operating expenditures 84% Custodial work 14% Maintenance work 30% Utilities (heating, cooling, electrical, water) 40%
Brook Dalhi Manager, Business and Support Services % of FMD operating expenditures 9% Administrative support for FMD including purchasing, materials management, and recycling
Joan Parski Manager, Finance and Accounting % of FMD operating expenditures 1% Financial reporting Accounting Payroll Budgets
the university's board of governors with the complete picture of FMD's performance. After that, it would be out of his hands. FMD has 400 employees including tradespeople, custodians, professional engineers, construction project managers, architects, accountants, clerks, safety managers, campus security officers, and administrators. The division has assets with a current replacement value of over $1.3 billion under its stewardship, an annual capital budget of $30-35 million, and an annual operating budget of $55-56 million (see Figure 1 for a partial organization chart for FMD and a breakdown of its operating budget). Some statistics relating to its activities and services include: Each day State U's campus has over 25,000 users comprising students, faculty, support staff, and visitors. State U's physical plant includes 65 buildings with a total floor space of almost 4.5 million square feet. State U's campus covers 2,400 acres and has 20 miles of roads and walkways, 50 miles of electric and sewer lines, and 3,000 toilets. The division owns or leases 95 vehicles and has its own garage and mechanics. There are 15,000 doors on campus and 6,000 keys are cut each year by FMD's locksmiths. 30,000 annuals are planted each year, over half of which are grown in FMD's greenhouses.
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FMD performs 250 service calls each day, and 2,000 carpentry and plumbing jobs each year. FMD receives 45,000 work requests each year and completes 250 minor capital projects (less than $250,000) each year. The state government has designated several of the grandest, century-old facilities as heritage buildings, limiting how these buildings can be renovated and used. State U's current deferred maintenance backlog (i.e., the amount of catch-up maintenance required) is $105 million.