What is the value in participating in a
Maintenance and Operations Benchmark Study?

Here are some things we have heard and seen from those we have worked with:


1. Learning more about your business. What you do and how others do it. The first response we see as we have shared a Benchmarking Study with a School District is a bunch of questions! How many square feet do their custodians clean? How do they keep their electrical costs so low? What was the result of outsourcing that work? What is a cooling tower credit?


2. An understanding of best practices. How are the leaders doing it? What equipment do they use? What schedule are their personnel on? What can you tell us about their work processes?


3. Insight into your staffing levels vs. other districts. Participants develop a better understanding of overall costs and labor rates. You can see a comparison of your current staffing vs. our staffing model. You can even use our staffing model to predict staffing levels once you add that new Jr. High School. It's nice to have some tools that help get the administration, the school board, your employees, and the community on the same page.


4. Make as much resource available to teach kids as possible. The 65% rule is trying to force more money into the classroom. Use of effective benchmarking processes allow you to re-assign resource without just "doing without". Get the work done more effectively, make unnecessary work go away, and be smart about how you run your business.


5. Understand the priorities. It's good to understand what you do well, what you need to work on, where to focus your energies, where resource is available and where more resource is needed. Benchmarking adds perspective.


6. Develop a plan to win. When you work in an organization, it helps to have everyone understand the problem and be clear about what to do about it. Benchmarking helps build goal congruency.


7. Have some peace of mind. It's reassuring to know you are working on the right things and that you are headed in the right direction!

We all work hard. We are out there doing the best we can. But without measurement we lack perspective.

Benchmarking just gives us a way to see what other good organizations are accomplishing. It gives perspective. When we see those who appear to be performing at a higher level we can ask questions;

• How are they doing that?
• What makes that possible?
• What can we learn? How could we apply this?

We can even learn from those we are outperforming. Sometimes we don't understand the advantage we have or the good things we already are doing. A winner learns from both good and bad examples.

Sometimes we are afraid to really see "how we stack up". We need to keep in mind that yesterday's results show where we were yesterday; but today's actions will determine where we will be tomorrow. Benchmarking helps us intelligently decide what actions to take. Instead of trying to drive through the night without lights, benchmarking can show us some direction, highlight some obstacles, and illuminate a path for success.

Those that benchmark their activities see this as a key tool to help them get where they want to go. What's important? What are the priorities? How do we choose among conflicting options?

When someone asks you for directions to a destination, what's your first question? Where are you? To get to where you want to go, you need to know where you are. Take the step.