How to Make an FSM Plan?

Whether you’re working in the world of business, and particularly in industries ranging from facilities management to food services, construction and IT, a Facility/Field Service Management (FSM) plan is necessary in your business. An FSM plan provides companies with a tool to address the effective and efficient deployment of their resources, team and personnel management, regulation compliance, and level of service. Business that do not have an FSM process in place commonly have an inefficient operation, higher operating costs, and left exposed to compliance issues.

This blog explains what an FSM plan is, why it’s important, and provides in-depth, step-by-step instructions to creating an FSM process that can work for your organization.

What is an FSM plan?

Whether referred to as Facility Service Management or Field Service Management depending on the discipline, an FSM Plan incorporates the systematic planning and control of the work, teams, and resources necessary to provide service smoothly.

• For example, in Facility Management, the FSM Plan will incorporate maintenance schedules, safety protocols, compliance checks, and vendor management.
• FSM will likely involve sending technicians, managing field work, tracking assets, and driving timely service result from field work.  Essentially, the FSM plan is about coordination, efficiency, accountability.

Why Focus on an FSM Plan?

An FSM plan gives the operations structure. The main benefits include:

• Better Allocation of Resources – ensures that manpower, equipment, and budgets are used effectively
• Compliance & Safety – handles health, fire, and environmental compliance checks
• Improved Service Quality – on-time delivery and happy clients!
• Cost Control – reduces costs associated with waste and unanticipated costs
• Accountability – everyone knows their roles and responsibilities.

Steps for creating an FSM plan

1. Identify objectives.

Ask yourself: Is it to reduce downtime in equipment?

To increase workforce productivity?

To achieve legal compliance?

Having clear objectives will form the basis of the entire plan.

2. Identify what equipment and/or resources you have and where your gaps are.

• Audit who and what you have (machines, facilities, people)
• Look for bottlenecks (e.g. delays in service, missed compliance deadlines)
• Understand what is available in terms of budget and resource constraints

This should give you a good understanding and baseline from which to build your plan.

3. Define roles and responsibilities.

Every FSM plan must be clear on accountability. You must define who is doing what.

• A facility manager will hold overall responsibility.
• Field staff/technicians undertake delivery of the tasks.
• Vendors/contractors will do the work you have outsourced.
• Compliance officers help verify rules are followed.

One approach to better define roles and responsibilities is to utilize a RACI matrix (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed).

4. Create your SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).

SOPs are the foundation of FSM planning. They let you define how tasks should, or can, be undertaken. Examples could be:

• Cleaning schedules for offices/hospitals.
• Checklists to complete with equipment maintenance.
• Fire drills and reporting templates.
• Protocol for dealing with customer complaints.

5. Support with technology and FSM software.

Modern FSM planning is heavily reliant on digital solutions:

• Job scheduling and tracking
• GPS applications for field staff.
• To manage inventory and assets.
• For real-time, dashboards and reporting.

Some examples of common software include ServiceMax, Salesforces Field Service, Freshdesk FSM

6. Budgeting & Cost Estimation

Distribute funds across different areas:

• Preventive maintenance
• Emergency repairs
• Hardware, supplies and software
• Employee training

This will keep your finances from being a shock to your operation.

7. Compliance & Risk Management

Your plan needs to have all legal requirements:

• Fire NOC
• Pollution Control Certificates
• GST registration and timely return filings with the CRA for facility services companies
• Insurance for employees and assets

FSM planning must map out all identified risks as well as mitigation strategies.

8. Training & Communication

Even the best FSM plan will not work if the staff does not understand it.

• Training on Std. Operating Procedures(SOP’s), safety, and reporting.
• Communicate shifts or alterations to protocols accurately.

9. Monitoring & KPIs

There must be Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) established to measure the effectiveness of your plan.

• Service response
• Downtime reduced for machines
• Compliance audit scores
• Cost savings

Monitoring will keep your FSM plan flexible and agile.

10. Ongoing Review and Updates

An FSM plan is always an ongoing process.

• Review quarterly or annually depending on the criticality of the facility.
• Revise based on new technologies, regulations and or company growth.
• Solicit feedback from staff and customers for improvements.

Sample Structure of a Facilities Services Management (FSM) Plan

1. Objective: Maintain continuity of facilities-related operations and compliance.
2. Scope: All company offices and warehouses.
3. Roles: Facilities Manager, Technicians, External Vendors.
4. SOPs: Cleaning schedules, safety procedure checklists, maintenance duration, etc.
5. Tools: FSM software for scheduling and monitoring.
6. Budget – ₹10 lakh annually for maintenance & compliance.
7. KPIs – Decrease downtime by 20%, achieve 100% compliance in audits.

Conclusion

Developing a Facilities Services Management plan involves careful consideration of your objectives, mapping your resources correctly, having written SOPs in place, evaluating compliance, and leveraging technology. Whether you are managing a building or hospital, or leading teams of field staff in multiple locations, having a solid FSM plan will mean that you are minimizing inefficiencies, keeping compliant and preventing costs from escalating.

An FSM plan that is implemented effectively, will also assist in keeping your business operations smooth within the context of risk exposure, enforcement action or regulatory penalties. It is good practice to start small, style what you do and keep refining it over time. This is a good secret to developing an effective FSM plan.