Challenge
The client needed a new facility management supplier that could overhaul its entire hard services operation, provide long-term preventative maintenance, and project management.
As a leading institution for higher education, the client has approximately 8,000 students enrolled across its UK-wide campuses. Therefore, it is essential that the client’s educational facilities support the student experience through minimally disruptive facility maintenance services.
ABM was tasked with three primary objectives: integrate the entire hard services operation under a single supplier, support on-site maintenance with resident operational engineers, and deliver greater energy efficiency in critical infrastructure.
“The student experience has been strengthened with future-proofed and more efficient electrical power and temperature control systems.”
Similarly, ABM needed to manage multiple asset installation projects. This involved replacing the client’s boilers and installing newer, more energy efficient models. Similarly, the client’s fluorescent lighting system needed to be updated with LED lighting nodes.
Solution
ABM and the client collaborated on the mobilisation plan to ensure an effective implementation throughout the client’s sites. Given the client’s need for immediate boiler and lighting replacement, asset verification was an especially important part of the plan.
Not only would this provide invaluable site knowledge, but it would also ensure that ABM deployed the appropriate technical solutions for the client, including recruitment for engineering staff and site assets.
Initially, ABM created a PPM (planned preventative maintenance) plan to establish a scheduled timetable for asset installation and routine maintenance across the client sites. This also helped to establish the necessary frequency of maintenance for the client.
To support this, the client received a dedicated contract support specialist, who continues to liaise with all specialist subcontractors and issue reports and quote for any remedials. She also ensures that the engineering teams are scheduled according to the client’s PPM planners.
Moreover, the client has multiple sites across the UK, including London (which has several individual sites), Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, Nottingham, and Manchester. To support this wide geographical spread, ABM created individual PPM plans for every site. Subsequently, the client could access to site-specific periodical maintenance schedules, thereby retaining greater strategic visibility.
In addition to statutory preventive maintenance, ABM and the client identified multiple opportunities for increased energy efficiency. For example, ABM planned and carried out the replacement of the client’s boiler assets.
The original boilers were outdated and inefficient, which was hampering the client’s compliance targets through excessive energy consumption. Subsequently, ABM installed newer, energy-efficient boilers with a significantly longer lifecycle to support the client’s campus facilities.
Similarly, the client outlined lighting and electrical services as critically important. ABM’s engineering team replaced the client’s entire system of fluorescent lighting with LED (light-emitting diode) nodes. This has significantly extended the client's lighting infrastructure lifespan, while also increasing the lighting system’s energy efficiency.
Since 2020, ABM and the client have maintained a productive partnership in which both routinely collaborate. This has led to an increasingly energy-efficient HVAC and lighting operation, which is supported by a dedicated resident engineering team.
Benefits
- Integrated operation: The client’s hard services capabilities have been integrated under a single facilities management supplier. With ABM overseeing critical site infrastructure, the client enjoys an increasingly efficient and productive operation.
- KPIs met consistently: The client’s resident engineering team regularly achieves its target KPIs and continues to demonstrate best practices for the client’s sites.
- Minimal facility disruption: The client’s educational facilities continue to operate efficiently and without disruption, allowing the university faculty, support staff, and students to focus on their daily tasks.
- Infrastructure project management: The client continues to engage with its dedicated on-site engineering team to organise and implement additional projects. Thanks to streamlined workflows and comprehensive scheduling, implementation for the client’s site projects is significantly faster.
- Boiler installation: ABM, alongside the client, ensured the boiler installation project was minimally disruptive to the site’s operation. The client now has new energy-efficient boilers with a significantly longer lifecycle.
- Assigned Contract Manager: The client now has, alongside its on-site engineering team, a Contract Manager to assist with operational issues, provide regular reports, and act as a first point of contact with ABM.
- LED lighting installation: The client’s outdated fluorescent lighting network has been replaced with LED lighting, thereby providing greater energy efficiency and long-term functionality.
- Statutory maintenance and reactive capabilities: The client’s technical capabilities are now able to provide preventative maintenance in addition to reactive capabilities. Given the student-focused nature of the client’s sites, responsive service delivery is essential in the event of on-site complications.
- Increased facility compliance: Due to its on-site engineering team and access to ABM’s wider network of preferred specialist subcontractors, the client is audit-ready for any compliance or certification-related grading.
