As a facilities manager, you take pride in your facility. You spend a lot of time making sure it’s running at optimal efficiency.

But even if your team is running efficiently, you still have to account for inefficient finances.

The good news is that there are plenty of ways that you can minimize expenses and maximize profits. Here are three tips that make reducing costs a breeze.

1. Update and Simplify Your Maintenance

First, if your maintenance hasn’t joined the 21st century, it’s time to get up to speed.

If it’s been a couple of years since someone really audited your maintenance procedures, now is the time to start. Some processes have simplified in the past few years, rendering certain steps obsolete.

That said, job instructions often run in the opposite direction – they tend to get more complicated as time goes on. And past a certain point, your maintenance crew is just checking boxes instead of really doing the right steps.

So, turn a critical eye to your maintenance procedures. If you can, simplify the procedures into steps that are easy to follow. If your procedures are significantly revised, make sure to train employees on the new procedures.

2. Automate Proactive Maintenance

Maintenance isn’t just about putting out fires. If you’re committed to cutting costs, you have to reduce the overall amount of downtime.

Let’s be honest: unplanned downtime is expensive. One survey found that unplanned downtime resulted in four-hour outages on average, with each outage costing $2 million. And that’s not accounting for the lost goodwill incurred when your business can’t deliver on your promises.

The best way to fix this is proactive maintenance, which is when you perform routine asset maintenance to reduce the chance that the asset will break down.

However, your team is still human and they have a lot on their plate. Tracking and scheduling proactive maintenance manually is a huge waste of time.

Instead, invest in the right tools to automate your proactive maintenance schedule. That way, your team never misses a scheduled check-up and your assets are less likely to break down on the job.

3. Itemize and Upgrade Energy Use

In large facilities, maintenance may spend a lot of time on mundane tasks like changing light bulbs. That doesn’t seem like a big deal in the moment. After all, it’s a lightbulb.

The problem is that each light bulb adds up. And a large facility needs quite a lot of light. If you’re not using energy-efficient bulbs or making sure your team uses energy-efficient practices, you’re going to rack up one huge energy bill every month.

One of the simplest things you can do is switch to LED bulbs. They cost more upfront, but they use less energy over time.

You can also start conducting nighttime audits to make sure that you aren’t wasting energy after hours. Revise janitorial practices to reduce the amount of time that lights are left on throughout the day. Also, make sure to check your heating and cooling systems every month.

Need More Tips on Reducing Costs?

The truth is, you can always find ways to keep reducing costs and improving your team. You just have to be ready to learn and improve.

We know that facilities managers face huge challenges every single day, from managing large teams to watching the budget and maintaining assets. You don’t have time to wait around.

Which means that when push comes to shove, you need the best resources for the job.

If you’re ready to keep learning and improving your facility, check out our blog for more useful posts to make your facility stronger than ever.