How Facility Managers Can Prove Strategic Value

In the world of facility management (FM), "success" is often invisible. When the lights stay on, the temperature is perfect, and the elevators arrive on time, the organization hardly notices. But the moment something fails, FM is thrust into the spotlight.

In this episode of the Connected FM Podcast, Eric Dillinger, Vice President of Strategic Consulting at Woolpert sits down with industry veterans s Skip Vaughn, Assistant Vice President of Facilities Management at American University and member of the U.S. Technical Advisory Group for ISO/TC 267, and Mike Tasker, the Director of Aviation Maintenance for the Port of Seattle to discuss a critical shift: moving FM from a "maintenance" cost center to a strategic business partner.

The "Demand Organization" Alignment

At the center of this shift is one critical concept: the demand organization.

This includes all the people and groups your facilities support — whether that’s students, passengers, researchers or employees, each has different expectations, and success in FM depends on how well you align with them.

As Skip Vaughn explains, if your stakeholders are not successful, neither is the organization.

Redefining "Uptime"

One of the biggest hurdles FMs face is the definition of uptime. As Mike Tasker points out, if the organization doesn't understand that assets require scheduled maintenance, FM is unfairly penalized for necessary downtime. To bridge this gap, leaders must:

1. Define Uptime Together: Ensure the demand organization understands that maintenance is a requirement for long-term reliability.
2. Price the Performance: Articulate the "price point" for different levels of service. If the organization wants 100% reliability, they must understand the resource investment required to achieve it.

Measuring What Matters: The Three Lenses of Value

Skip Vaughn highlights three categories that higher education and corporate leadership value most when assessing FM impact:

• Economic: Moving beyond the "utility bill" to show how preventive maintenance reduces expensive emergency repairs and impacts the bottom line.
• Social: How facilities support the local community and internal culture, such as through sustainability events.
• Environmental: Tracking progress toward carbon neutrality and waste diversion goals.

The Bottom Line: Start with "Why"

To secure the resources needed to keep facilities running, FMs must stop "gun decking" (falsifying data to look good) and start telling the honest story of their backlog. By understanding the Why, the reason the facility exists, you can connect your What, the technical work, to the overall success of the business.

Listen to the Full Episode

Tune in to the full conversation below: