Sounds ominous by its title, but really it is your roadmap! Yes YOURS, granted, Corporate has one, but YOUR department needs one as well. What is your Mission, Vision, Values that align with your Organizations? They are a key part of your Strategic Plan. Yours needs to align with the Strategic Plan of your organization, it needs to spell out how your department will align with and help your organization reach it’s goals. Your plan should be for the same length of time as your organization’s Strategic Plan, usually 3-5 years, and is updated and extended a year each year. Each of your sub-groups whatever they are (mechanical, structural… or Plumbing, electrical, HVAC…) will be listed with their annual goals, aligning with and part of the goals of the whole department. Include manpower needs, budgetary needs, capital planning. Where is your benchmark, and how will you measure your progress? Do you have organizational growth to deal with? Include how you will mesh with and lead that effort for space, equipment… These are broad strokes, once this has been approved, you will create a Balanced Scorecard to keep track of your progress. It will break down the goals in the Strategic Plan into steps to the big goals, easier to track and assign. Now lets look at Facilities Professionals need to understand that we will end up with 3 plans after the Strategic Facilities Plan is approved: 1. Strategic Facility Plan Identifies type, quantity and location of spaces required to meet the organizations needs. This includes 3 pieces, an understanding of the organizations culture and core values, an analysis of how existing and new facilities manifest that, or will within this plan, and finally an in depth analysis of existing facilities. 2. Facilities Master Plan This is a framework for the physical environment, buildings and grounds and is site specific. It starts with alternates or scenarios to accomodate the needs set out in the Strategic Facility Plan. These are seriously more detailed than the Strategic Facility Plan to include zoning, space, workflow analyses, engineering assessments… 3. Tactical Plan This is the nuts and bolts of daily operations to include MO plans, budget… to support the Facilities Master Plan. Let us not forget the financial impact of the Plan, a risk analysis of the options presented, funding sources, ROI, NPV, IRR… Even though the Strategic Facilities Plan could be dozens of pages in a large campus, or with multiple locations, remember, the C-Suite will make their decision from the Executive Summary, a one page analysis. THIS one page is the most critical page in the entire plan because every Executive will read it first and determine if they care to look at more detailed pages. Sounds ominous, but creating it shows that you understand your organization, its goals, and your place in the mission. Happy writing!
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