From fragmented property management to a strategic, holistic view

Challenge

A lack of long-term thinking and a hard time getting an overview

With several hundred facilities to manage, it can be hard to get an overview of which measures are needed, when they should be carried out, and how best to coordinate them. It’s a challenge that many municipal and public housing property companies grapple with – and that was also the case for Lunds Kommuns Fastighets AB (LKF), which manages more than 230 facilities in Lund.

Just a few years ago, maintenance planning was a challenge for LKF. The responsibility lay primarily with the technical department, while the property management department – which is in direct contact with the tenants – had limited insight into the planned projects. This resulted in internal challenges in the form of difficulties following up on projects, gaps in internal communication, and an increased risk of missed work and unnecessary costs.

“We had several different overarching plans for different buildings depending on the year of construction, which made the planning fragmented. Some areas had detailed strategies, while others were handled more ad hoc. That meant we sometimes prioritized wrong or missed maintenance needs that should have been caught earlier,” says Carolina Larsen, maintenance coordinator at LKF.

Fragmentary overview

The planning was mainly tied to individuals, and the plans that were produced were hard to follow up in the property system available at the time. This meant that LKF’s planning and follow-ups were often done in various Excel lists stored in one of the departments’ folders on the shared server. This also led to a fragmentary picture that definitely did not make planning easier.

In addition, the customer-facing property managers lacked insight into what was planned, which affected both the dialogue with tenants and the ability to coordinate projects cost-effectively. And since no one clearly owned the follow-up, it was also hard to keep track of completed measures and the collection of documentation such as drawings and operation and maintenance instructions.

Solution

A shared maintenance tool for the whole organization

LKF realized that something needed to happen to create better conditions for long-term maintenance planning and strategic property management. The project managers in LKF’s technical department therefore decided to run a pilot project in which they tested Planima during 2020 to create more consolidated and strategic planning.

“We needed a system that wasn’t just a database for maintenance plans but that also gave us a strategic tool for prioritizing and coordinating work. Planima gave us exactly what we needed,” says Carolina.

In connection with the pilot, a larger reorganization was also carried out, in which planning and budget responsibility moved from the technical department to the property management department, and the role of maintenance coordinator – which Carolina holds – was created.

“My job is to keep track of all the maintenance plans, plan for upcoming maintenance projects, and – together with our administrator for property documentation – update the maintenance plans when measures have been carried out. The project managers who carry out the work still belong to the technical department, though,” says Carolina.

Both a reorganization and a pilot with Planima, then. The result? Well, it was so positive that Planima’s platform was quickly implemented for maintenance planning across the entire portfolio, which has not only led to a better overview but also made it possible to change their entire way of working – from reactive and cost-driven to strategic, proactive, and results-driven.

With Planima’s help, LKF could:

• Gather all maintenance data in one place – all departments concerned got access to up-to-date information and to be able to act on the right basis.
• Create better reporting and decision support – finance staff and decision-makers could quickly get an overview of upcoming needs and the maintenance backlog.
• Reduce dependence on individuals – previously, much of the knowledge sat with individual employees; now the information became available to the whole organization.
• Use resources more efficiently – by combining maintenance work, unnecessary repetition and short-term solutions are reduced.
• Work strategically and results-driven – thanks to the overview and planning, it became easier to set goals and act to achieve them.

Results

Strategic and systematic property management that delivers results

Since introducing Planima, LKF has been able to take a more long-term approach to property management.“Today we can go into the system and see right away what has been done, what is planned, and what should be prioritized going forward. That makes us more confident in our decisions and enables more strategic management of the entire portfolio,” says Carolina.The fact that the work has become more structured has also been confirmed in a recently completed maintenance audit, in which the auditor gave the following assessment of LKF’s maintenance work:

“The overall assessment is that satisfactory governance and control of facility maintenance is being exercised. The assessment is based on there being a clear target picture for expectations regarding both the housing and the condition of the facilities. Furthermore, the assessment is that there is a systematic way of working for inventory, planning, and implementation of maintenance across the portfolio.”

Carolina sees this as clear confirmation that LKF’s work with Planima has paid off:“We’ve built a structure where we both take inventory of and follow up on our facilities in a systematic way. That allows us to work long-term and at the same time engage the whole organization in the maintenance work. Our goal is to create a culture where everyone sees the importance of maintenance – from large investments to small everyday efforts,” she says.

Planima – a tool for long-term, strategic property management

LKF is just one of several examples of how municipal and public housing property owners have been able to make big gains by working in a structured way with their maintenance planning. With Planima, LKF can work according to a cohesive strategy where all decisions are based on facts and long-term planning.There is also clear transparency that allows Carolina and her colleagues to capture and plan both larger renovation projects and smaller, pure maintenance work, which can lead to a longer service life for both specific components and the facilities as a whole.“We can work proactively instead of constantly putting out fires. It creates security, saves money, and enables us to manage our facilities in the best possible way – for the tenants, the finances, and the environment. When we can maintain continuously, we don’t have to replace the components as often, and then we save both money and carbon dioxide,” Carolina concludes.