The seven pillars of FM excellence: Your diagnostic framework

I walk into struggling FM operations regularly. The first thing I check tells me everything.

Are facility managers drowning in internal client complaints? Do they have any idea what their service providers are actually doing right now?

When the answer is chaos, I know which pillars are missing.

Why most FM systems fail before they start

Organizations treat facility management software like a technical purchase. It's not.

It's an organizational design decision.

Teams inherit legacy processes—old software, email chains, Excel trackers improved bit by bit over years. When they finally choose a CMMS or CAFM, they don't actually know what they need. The terminology is vague. It can mean anything.

So they base decisions on cost. They let the maintenance team select the tool alone.

Leadership stays out of it.

That's the first crack in the foundation.

The seven pillars that hold everything up

Context shapes your approach. Usage intensity signals everything. A building hosting an event with 3x normal occupancy needs proactive resource scaling—more cleaning, toilets, ventilation. You can't react your way out of predictable demand.

Leadership provides direction. When leadership doesn't engage in system selection, you get a technical tool nobody uses. When they don't clarify accountability, decisions stall. Service providers sense no urgency. Technical problems accumulate. Users feel ignored. Clients leave.

Planning prevents chaos. I've seen teams discover that 20-30% of reactive jobs disappear with simple preventive actions—proactive communication with tenants, small routine checks. Most contracts specify job volumes per month or quarter. Use those as planning inputs. Automate the scheduling. Suddenly the calendar is clear, reminders flow, and execution becomes seamless.

Resources enable execution. Most organizations have enough people. What they lack is training on common routines, communication standards, expected behaviors. And they underinvest in technology for low-paid workers while leadership carries the latest iPhone. Field workers are becoming knowledge workers. Pay and equip them accordingly.

Operations deliver value. True integration isn't a claim. It's a capability. A cleaner should raise a maintenance job when they spot a problem. Users need a single point of contact. The FM supervisor orchestrates workload and priorities across all service lines—and has authority to design new processes when needed. That's integration.

Evaluation proves impact. Track tasks created and closed. Response times. User satisfaction. On-time delivery rates. Quality of historical data for future planning. Best-in-class teams hit 90% preventive maintenance compliance. Industry targets sit at 70-80% preventive, only 20-30% reactive. Where do you land?

Improvement compounds gains. Review metrics weekly. Watch for unassigned job accumulation—it signals bottlenecks before crisis. Monitor treatment delay dashboards. Talk directly to users about quality, speed, communication. When you spot recurring jobs, find the preventive action that eliminates them.

The pillar organizations ignore most

Your field workers solve daily problems. They work in services because they like to serve.

Give them gratitude and support to level up.

They'll delight you.

That's the pillar most organizations neglect. They undervalue the frontline champions who execute everything. They underpay them, undertrain them, and hand them outdated tools.

Then they wonder why the whole structure wobbles.

Your Diagnostic Question

Excellence in facility management isn't a destination. It's a system.

Miss any pillar and the whole structure wobbles.

Which pillar is your organization neglecting right now?

The answer is probably simpler than you think. And more urgent than you realize.