Organisation and process consultancy
Organisation and Process Consultancy for Building Cleaning
How facility services are organised decides quality and cost – often more than the question of who delivers them.
When processes have simply grown up over time
In most sites the organisation was not planned; it came about. Areas follow a division that once made sense. Cleaning frequencies come from a contract that no longer exists. Responsibilities have shifted without anyone writing it down.
As long as nothing happens, this does not stand out. It becomes noticeable at the contract start-up, when a new service provider takes over and nobody can describe the actual processes. Or when costs rise and there is no explaining what for.
The first step is always the same: write down what actually happens.
Why we know both sides
01
Both sides of the contract
We have been responsible for sites on the service provider side and have procured them from the client side. Both perspectives go into every analysis.
02
Tested in operation
Area planning, staff deployment, taking over a site – we have done this ourselves, not only advised on it.
03
Workable without changing systems
Our recommendations build on what is already there. You need no new software and no reorganisation to make a start.
What we work on with you
Where you start depends on what is coming up. Ahead of a tender, the organisational analysis is the first step, because it supplies the basis for the service specification. If a change of site is imminent, the work begins with the handover. And if everything is running anyway, that is the cheapest moment to look at the processes.
01
Organisational analysis
A survey of the actual processes: who does what, when, in what order – and where friction arises.
02
Area planning and service specification
Recording areas, applying benchmark figures, cutting the areas sensibly. A basis for a tender as much as for your own deployment planning.
03
Supporting contract start-ups
Taking over a site decides the first six months. We support instruction, handover and the start-up phase – on both sides.
04
Process management
Describing recurring processes and embedding them: complaints, ordering materials, key management, staff changes, documentation.
05
Optimising workflows
Concrete improvements at the site: walking times, equipment locations, sequences, interfaces with other trades.
06
Staff deployment planning
Adjusting working times and staffing levels to actual demand – taking account of marginal hours, cover and turnover.
07
When the analysis leads to a tender
Frequently the organisational analysis shows that the existing contract no longer fits. The next step is then a re-tender – and the analysis has already supplied the basis for it. We carry this on if you wish; procurement advisory has a section of its own.
Frequently asked questions
The questions we are asked most often
What sets this apart from procurement advisory?
Procurement advisory leads to a contract. Organisational advisory comes before or after it: it puts order into what is already running, or creates the foundations on which a tender can be built in the first place. The two often merge – sound area planning is organisational work and at the same time the precondition for a service specification that holds.
You advise clients and service providers – how does that fit together?
Without contradiction, because in any one project we act for one side only. That we know the other from our own responsibility is the reason for most engagements: we know what a client expects, and we know what can actually be delivered at the site. You do not acquire that market knowledge from one perspective alone.
How does an organisational analysis work?
It starts with a site inspection alongside the people who work there – not with a meeting in the administration. After that we work through the documents: the service specification, deployment plans, records, complaints. Out of both comes a picture of the actual processes, from which the recommendations follow. For a single site, expect two to four weeks.
How long does support for a contract start-up take?
Support from roughly two weeks before handover to eight weeks afterwards is sensible. That is when the decisions are taken that shape operation: instruction of staff, agreeing the reporting lines, clarifying the interfaces. Whatever is not settled in this phase often stays unsettled for the whole term of the contract.
What does an organisational analysis cost?
The effort depends on the size and number of sites. For a single site with clear use, expect two to four weeks from the site inspection to the result; with several locations, correspondingly longer. Most of it is the survey on site, not the work-up afterwards. In an initial consultation we give a concrete estimate after a short description of your sites.
Further reading
Articles on this topic from our blog.
Organisation and process consultancy
Round Planning in Building Cleaning: Areas, Benchmarks, Travel Times
Organisation and process consultancy
Contract Mobilisation: From Award to the Eighth Week of Service
You want to put your processes in order.
In an initial consultation we clarify where the trouble lies and which building block is most likely to shift something. Free of charge and without obligation.
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