Swinburne University 
In late 1998, Outer Eastern TAFE - Victoria (who later merged with Swinburne University), began a process of reviewing its facility management. It had used a manual process for reporting on the configuration and use of assets that took a key employee 3 weeks to prepare. The facilities team reviewed its business focus and practice. It defined a new asset management model that would bring all the asset data together and provide a big-picture view of each asset and its use.
Every space was deemed an asset with attributes that deliver certain outcomes... room size, furniture, wall finishes, communications and more. And rather than a merely financial perspective on the assets, their function and performance were to be measured.
FM Innovations were asked to provide the software for this. To gain a faster payback for the TAFE, we undertook a space asset management project. All the assets were contained in a visual database and the report for this, the one that used to take 3 weeks, now took 5 minutes.
Once the space assets were being managed as effectively as the TAFE had planned for, we gathered information on other key assets. Government legislation changed and required the TAFE to operate more like a commercial entity and improve asset management. The space database allowed the TAFE to quickly introduce the government changes and plan strategically to go even further.
The existing asset maintenance database and paper records were migrated to our asset management system. Workflow improved, work management practices improved, data quality improved and response time to TAFE’s internal customers improved.
Meanwhile, the merger with Swinburne was announced. Works were becoming automatically managed and planned, and contractor performance could now be compared with other sites. FM Innovations integrated the triennial audit database with the space system, and the facilities team implemented a ‘self-serve’ capability to asset maintenance.
These improvements were of great value in the merging of the institutions. The data quality, embracing of change and records keeping meant any question asked of the FM team could be answered accurately. In the last few years, Swinburne has increased this commercial operational improvement yet further. OH&S reporting, project time recording and distributing standardised policy documents are some of their landmarks.
How FM Innovations Helped
• Report generation cut from 3 weeks to 5 minutes
• Databases centralised into ‘one truth’
• Work orders generated faster, more accurately
• Response time to work orders improved
• Workflow improved
• Data collection and quality improved
• OH&S reporting improved
• Project time recording improved
• Standardised Policy Documents distributed
At FM Innovations we proudly provide solutions to suit your needs. Please contact us to see how we can help your organisation.
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