I presented to a local IFMA chapter in North Carolina last week. The topic was “Dynamic Facility Trends”. I’ll go into detail on some of the latest trends in facilities in a follow-up post. I wanted to get down a few thoughts on how to best plan for and manage changed in dynamic facilities environments and the answer to that problem is using an effective Scenario Planning Solution. This can help facilities teams to better manage planning for planned and unexpected change in their current facilities environments. Scenario Planning allows you to “Master the What If” and can help you answer questions such as:
- What if we grow?
- What if we contract?
- What if we need sudden flexibility in how we organize our occupancy?
- What if we lose a facility due to an unplanned event or emergency?
The facilities scenario planning process can be complex, involve multiple possible outcomes, involves multiple phases for those outcomes and also involve varying costs depending on which scenario is selected for action.
A facilities scenario planning solution must have the following four components which will provide facilities scenario planners with the power and flexibility to plan for possible outcomes due to planned or unplanned facilities changes.
A facilities scenario planning solution must do the following:
- Scenario planning needs to consider multiple scenarios with associated outcomes
- Scenario planning needs to consider multiple phases for each potential outcome
- Scenario planning needs to take into consideration suitability, space standards and adjacencies
- Scenario planning needs to take into consideration associated costs
