An illustration of the concept of facility management
An illustration of the concept of facility management

Integrated Facility Management (IFM) is a comprehensive approach to managing all assets and operations in a building or facility so the work can go on uninterrupted. It coordinates different sectors, from maintenance, cleaning, security, and space management to energy efficiency, under a single system.

Picture a common situation in a facility where an employee encounters several problems, such as a leaky machine, a computer error, and an HVAC malfunction.

In a classic facility management setting, an employee would call maintenance for the machine, email IT for a computer issue, and fill out a separate form for a cleaning request. 

This fragmented process wastes time and leads to inconsistent service and potential delays. Employees might find themselves following up on unresolved issues, unsure of the status of their requests, while unpredicted malfunctions can interfere with the facility’s production.

The lack of a centralized system means that there’s no easy way to track progress, predict malfunctions, schedule repairs, or ensure that all problems are addressed as soon as possible. This disjointed approach often results in employee frustration, lost productivity, and higher operational costs for the organization.

A solution to this problem is integrated facility management, and in this article, you will learn more about how it works, the main benefits, and why you should choose LLumin as your #1 system.

What is Integrated Facility Management?

Integrated Facility Management (IFM) is a holistic approach to managing all aspects of a facility, streamlining problem reporting and operations while making worker’s lives easier. 

It combines all common facility-related services under one unified system, improving efficiency, communication and responsiveness.

Microsoft’s implementation of IFM at their Redmond campus provides an excellent real-world example of this concept in action. 1

When a Microsoft employee wants to report a problem, check the progress of a task or see if there is any maintenance work in the near future, they just use their facility management system.

service request workflow

With integrated facility management systems, they can easily report and see the progress of tasks through a centralized facilities management portal. This portal is accessible via mobile devices or desktop computers, providing a convenient way for employees to submit service requests and track the status of work orders.

Once a request is submitted, the IFM system takes over. It automatically generates a ticket and routes it to the appropriate facility manager based on the nature of the issue. 

The facility manager then reviews the details, creates a work order, and assigns an available technician to address the problem. Some software like LLumin does this automatically if you preset certain conditions, for example, “notify A worker when the temperature of machine B reaches a certain point”. Nobody needs to manually assign; whoever is in charge will automatically get a notification.

This entire process, from issue reporting to technician assignment, happens seamlessly within the IFM system, requiring just a few clicks.

Here are some facility management best practices:

Facility management best practices

What is the Difference Between FM and IFM?

In traditional FM, a company might have separate departments for maintenance, cleaning, and security. If an office needs machine repairs and deep cleaning, two different teams will handle these tasks independently.

In most cases, these two teams aren’t aligned, so the chances of them interrupting or overlapping each other are high.

With IFM, everyone is well aware of the facility management processes from start to finish. All teams are notified when something occurs and can easily follow up and check on progress via a simple dashboard. The chances of an unplanned downtime, interruptions or delays are close to zero.

The key difference is that IFM brings together all facility-related services under one umbrella, leading to better coordination, efficiency, and cost-effectiveness compared to traditional FM.

What is an IFM Model?

IFM model in this context aims to streamline operations, reduce costs, and improve overall efficiency by integrating various facility management services under a single management structure.

Learn more about facility management trends in our article.

5 Benefits of Integrated Facilities Management

What are the main reasons why you should have an IFM system for your facility?

  1. Reduce costs

Having all work orders under one roof makes facility operations transparent to all employees. Therefore, managers can easily spot places where budgets are being wasted or used inefficiently.

Plus, instead of having several budgets for different teams, with one budget, it is easier to track costs and optimize when needed.

Automating operations, implementing proactive maintenance, improving communication, and tracking performance metricscontribute to more efficient use of resources, reduced downtime, and ultimately, lower operational costs.

  1. Improve Operational Automation

Implementing a facility CMMS  management system like LLumin’s CMMS+ automates key operational aspects. This includes generating maintenance alerts, tracking requests, and improving mean time to repair. 

Automated reminders for upcoming maintenance tasks and AI-powered tools enable more proactive asset performance management. 

This automation increases visibility into operations, allowing technicians to see their assignments and priorities. At the same time, management can better predict maintenance tasks, schedule facility maintenance techs, and order repair parts as needed.

  1. Level Up Proactive and Predictive Maintenance

Starting the repair process once the machine is down costs the facility way more time and money than planning ahead and scheduling regular maintenance. With proactive and predictive maintenance, facilities can avoid almost any issues that lead to service disruptions.

An integrated facility management system minimizes the possibility of service disruption by providing a unified system for all work orders.

LLumin’s CMMS+ goes beyond preventive maintenance by identifying when assets will need maintenance using machine learning, sensor-based data, and historical information. 

This proactive approach improves the overall health of physical assets, allows for scheduling maintenance at convenient times, and establishes the necessary controls for predictive maintenance. 

The system can even predict when machines are likely to fail, enabling truly predictive maintenance practices. You can expect to:

  • Reduce unplanned downtime by up to 26%
  • Reduce mean time to repair by up to 26% faster
  • Improve overall asset and facility management operations
  • Automate your reporting & compliance
  1. Offer Better Communication and Employee Adoption

With an integrated facility management system, all processes, safety procedures, and work changes are effectively documented, communicated and followed. By minimizing doubts, questions and follow-ups, employees can effectively do their jobs without waiting on instructions and approvals from management.

With LLumin, new employees can quickly view all work orders, past, present and future maintenance schedules, track the working of any machine, etc.

  1. Implement Data-Driven Performance Tracking

Establishing metrics such as Mean Time To Repair (MTTR) helps facilities track progress and performance effectively. LLumin’s CMMS+ helps improve core metrics like MTTR, MTBF, and OEE by first tracking them and then providing tools for reporting, consolidation, and analysis. 

This data-driven approach gives facilities clear goals to aim for, shows current efficiency ratings, and helps prioritize which benchmarks to focus on. 

By tracking repairs, asset maintenance schedules, and work orders automatically, facilities gain the data needed to complete repairs before they cause system-wide disruptions.

How to Get Started with Integrated Facilities Management

Suppose you run a facility that automatically qualifies you for integrated facility management software. But should it really be your top investment right now?

If you are experiencing similar scenarios like the following, then yes: 

  • Work orders get lost between email, phone calls, and paper notes
  • A tenant reports a broken HVAC three times because their first requests were misplaced
  • The maintenance team finds out about expired equipment warranties only after failures
  • You discover multiple teams working on the same issue in different building sections
  • Your facility manager spends hours each week manually creating maintenance schedules
  • You can’t quickly access equipment service history when vendors ask for it

An integrated facility management system will help in each of these settings and ensure no further issues go unnoticed.

How to choose the right software?

With so many facility management software options available, it can be hard to choose the right one. Should you look into features, use cases, ease of use, price, or onboarding support? In some cases, you can have it all.

When choosing facility management software, prioritize solutions that offer core features like work order management, preventive maintenance scheduling, asset tracking, and real-time reporting. Look for platforms that integrate well with your existing systems and offer mobile capabilities for your field teams. 

Consider vendors that provide strong technical support and training resources to ensure smooth implementation. At LLumin, we ensure you have an expert team member to train your team and customize your software according to different needs and use cases.

Don’t rush the selection process – evaluate multiple vendors, request demonstrations, and speak with reference customers about their experiences. With LLumin, you can take a tour on your own.

Focus on software that’s scalable to grow with your organization and has a user-friendly interface to encourage adoption among your team. While cost is important, prioritize solutions that offer the functionality you need rather than choosing solely based on price.

Why is LLumin the Best IFM System?

LLumin is the best IFM because it streamlines every aspect of your facility management. With LLumin as your facilities CMMS, you can have all this in a single system:

  • Work order management
  • Asset management
  • Preventive maintenance 
  • Inventory management
  • Integrations with IoT and sensors
  • Reporting and analytics

By connecting your facility assets, documentation and employees to LLumin, everyone will be on the same page. LLumin is 100% HTML5 compliant, browser independent, and mobile-friendly while being easy, scalable and flexible at the same time.

Here is how LLumin works in a nutshell:

With asset history, maintenance records, preset conditions (vibration level, temperature, etc) and CMMS data, LLumin constantly monitors each asset on your list and triggers an alert when needed. A work order is automatically created and it instantly notifies the person in charge.

LLumin workflow

The maintenance department loves LLumin because they can see everything in one place. They print out work orders that show which parts are needed. They see what’s in stock and what needs to be ordered, and they can see any planned no-production days and determine which work orders should be completed during that window.” says the owner of Miller Milling. Read the Miller Milling full case study.

Request a demo of LLumin to see if it is the right fit for your facility.

Conclusion

Big facilities need an organized system to make sure there is no unplanned downtime and that the right people are notified on time. 

An integrated facility management system helps reduce costs, automate processes, improve team communication, implement proactive maintenance and keep track of KPIs (key performance indicators).

Implementing such a system should be smooth since the main goal is to make employee’s and manager’s lives easier, processes streamlined and minimize errors. With a dedicated project manager and customer support team, the onboarding process won’t be a problem.

With LLumin, it is easy to control all assets and manage employees in a facility with a few clicks. Innovation and automation are the main pillars we built into our CMMS+ while ensuring we are user-friendly and cost-effective.

Request a demo and see how LLumin fits your needs perfectly.

FAQs

What does an IFM do?

IFM manages all aspects of a facility, including maintenance, security, cleaning, and space management, under one system. Instead of teams working separately on tasks, wasting time on finding the people in charge, reporting and following up, everything is streamlined with one software that automates everything.

IFM services meaning

IFM services refer to the comprehensive range of facility-related tasks handled under a single management structure. This includes maintenance, security, cleaning, energy management, space planning, and other support services necessary for the efficient operation of a building or other facility. 

References

  1. https://www.avanade.com/en/clients/microsoft-facilitylink

Chief Operating Officer at LLumin CMMS+

Karen Rossi is a seasoned operations leader with over 30 years of experience empowering software development teams and managing corporate operations. With a track record of developing and maintaining comprehensive products and services, Karen runs company-wide operations and leads large-scale projects as COO of LLumin.