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Most facilities teams at schools, colleges and universities face the same dilemma: literally hundreds of capital projects and a limited budget. The challenge is establishing an effective facilities capital planning process that balances short-term needs with long-term goals. Such a process will ensure that valuable funds are not spent on the non-critical projects, that costly emergency repairs and downtime are avoided, and that key stakeholders feel confident that scarce capital funds are being well used. Implementing a consistent and objective methodology for prioritization of facilities capital projects is a key step in achieving these goals and in aligning spending with organizational objectives.
Given this never-ending challenge, schools must find an effective approach to prioritizing projects in a way that eschews guesswork and politics. By relying on solid data and a clear understanding of organizational objectives, facilities managers can determine what to do first and demonstrate how they reached those conclusions.
Items critical to the continuous operation of key facilities must be at the top of the list and must not be subject to the chaos of budget cuts. Whether a facility contains classrooms, gyms, or faculty offices, if it serves the mission of the organization, its condition is crucial. And its shutdown can have serious consequences.
These critical projects must be identified and prioritized, and defensible data is needed to get them funded. Developing an effective long-term capital plan requires a school to maintain a comprehensive understanding of the entire facility portfolio, determine what improvements are required, prioritize those improvements to align with...