Management-by-variance as a facilities management performance assessment technique (summary only): Fid-Bau Portal

Management-by-variance as a facilities management performance assessment technique (summary only)

Hinks, John / McNay, Peter

The need to establish key performance indicators for facilities management (FM) is well recognised. However, difficulties in establishing universally-accepted definitions of the FM function and its management process continue to confound the identification and application of a generic set of performance parameters. This paper describes the process of developing a management-by-variance tool for monitoring the performance of the FM function of a major financial services company. The dual problems of the absence of a standardised set of key performance indicators (KPIs) and the lack of existing data for performance evaluation were addressed using a Delphi group. The principle of management-by-variance is based on the monitoring and analysis of performance trends, which is done by monitoring changes in performance using a bespoke (rather than generalised) set of performance indicators. This paper describes the process of creating the pilot version of a management-by-variance tool in sufficient detail to allow the process to be replicated to create other sets of bespoke KPIs. The process and outcomes of the exercise to short-list, rank, and weight a finalised list of 23 KPIs are discussed. The KPIs are analysed in the context of the method of their selection, prioritisation and weighting for their intended custom application.