Last update: 04/15/2008
The Consortium Story
by Bob MacKenzie, program manager
Challenges
"Re-inventing the wheel" is a constant nemesis of public administrators, particularly hard-working facility managers. What if public facility managers could save time and money by consistently doing things right-the first time? If we created a central clearinghouse, focal point and resource brokerage specifically for facility managers, would it foster intergovernmental teamwork and result in efficiencies and cost savings? Could a consortium be created to optimize the strengths of members, solve problems in a collaborative way and include outright resource sharing and creation of an expert labor pool? Finally, could such a program be completely self-sustaining and membership driven? Could a theoretical public collaborative facilities management actually be made a reality?
The Reality
Since 1995, the State of Washington has validated the theory and made it a reality -- a program which now includes more than 115 state agencies, colleges, school districts, ports and municipalities from three states and Canada. The Plant Operations Support (POS) Consortium now comprises more than 700 facility professionals in its "family," managing a combined total of nearly 7.9 million square meters of facility space. This innovative, self-sustaining program combines technology and operational services to enhance public facilities stewardship and serves as "resource central" for myriad solutions and opportunities.
A small core staff supports the Consortium and serves to coordinate, link, broker, research, and facilitate the various issues and requests of its members. On any given day, staff will field requests from members looking for surplus furniture, equipment or materials; serve as construction manager; research for solutions to specific physical plant problems; or locate hard-to-find, outdated system components. The POS staff serves as a facilities maintenance focal point: advocating, consulting and coaching to improve member operations. To date, more than 2,000 requests for assistance are received each year and have resulted in more than $30 million (USD) in avoided costs and outright resource savings since 1996.
The Beginning
The POS Consortium was conceived in the fall of 1995 in response to a statewide survey on facilities management issues. Its creation was a collaborative effort between the Washington State Department of General Administration (GA) and the Capital Policy and Communication Committee and was sponsored by the Washington State Office of Financial Management.
In January 1996, GA helped cultivate the program further by sponsoring a pilot demonstration. Objectives of the program include:
Creating a unifying organization for isolated, dispirited facility managers in state agencies;
Providing a clearinghouse for lessons-learned and best practices;
Developing a focal point for those needing technical and consultative assistance;
Ensuring public facilities managers "avoid re-inventing the wheel;"
Making sustainable operations a way of doing business.
Shortly after the pilot program began, Consortium membership included six Washington State agencies, two community colleges and three counties. Within a few months, officials of the Alaska State Department of Transportation and State Facilities found it in their best interest to join, becoming the first non-Washington state agency to do so. Leaders of state agencies, educational arenas, and municipalities used scarce funds to seed the program in expectation of greater efficiencies and effectiveness. In its pilot year, the Consortium exceeded all expectations, saving its members more than $450,000 in outright resource savings or avoided labor.
After unanimous passage in both houses of the Legislature, House Bill 1066, sponsored by Washington State Representatives Frank Chopp and John Pennington, was signed into law by Governor Gary Locke in March 1997.
Bridging the Gaps
After it was created in 1995, the POS Consortium has established itself as an innovative, unique program that bridges the gaps between sometimes isolated public agencies. The Consortium provides opportunities for school districts, community colleges, colleges/universities, ports, state governments, Canadian provincial governments and non-profit/not-for-profit agencies to be linked together to offer their resources and to benefit from collective experiences and lessons-learned.
The primary goal of the program continues to be finding ways to better utilize state and other public sector expertise and resources to extend the "lives" of tax-supported facilities and save dollars. Each member is a valuable resource to POS staff, bringing their own expertise and experiences to the Consortium's clearinghouse environment. The ability of the POS staff to know each and every one of the Consortium's members and to maintain close and frequent contact is crucial to the sharing of information among members.
Membership
Joining the Consortium is easy. Any public agency that is willing to participate, contribute, and interact with Consortium members and staff is welcomed whole-heartedly. Simple membership contracts and "Scopes of Work" are effected with public agencies as they join and a fixed fee schedule is determined after assessing the size and the number of operational sites of the requesting agency.
For some potential members, the benefits sound too good to be true, so the Consortium offers the following guarantee: "If you don't receive full value from the program, we'll float your membership free until you do." It sounds like a difficult promise to live up to, but for the POS staff, it's all in a day's work. Time and time again, the program has been able to save its members two to five times the amount of their subscription in just one transaction. That's a statement facility managers understand.
Benefits
Members of the Consortium are able to enjoy many benefits through their subscriptions. There is a vast array of information available through the POS clearinghouse. Since 1995, POS staff has accumulated an extensive collection of lessons-learned by others in the facility management business and willingly shares with others. When POS staff hear of an outstanding practice, it is exemplified as a "Best Practice" and shared with all Consortium members. The list-server, managed by POS, also provides an invaluable service to Consortium members, allowing them to dialogue easily with one another to advertise surplus or salvage items, solve problems, answer questions and simply learn from each other's experiences. Each of these practices helps to improve facility staff morale at member sites and increases the communication among facilities staffs. What was once an isolated "island" is now part of an archipelago of collaboration centers.
Additionally, when members contact POS staff with a research request, they are assured that a knowledgeable staff member will immediately begin work on the challenge or issue. The staff member will leverage the Internet, tap into myriad databases or use old-fashioned personal networking to gather necessary information to answer the request in short order. In the meantime, the requesting member is able to make better use of his/her time without falling behind on other important matters.
The POS program also offers professional development opportunities to members at no cost. Videoconferences keep members up-to-date on the newest happenings in facilities management. Previous topics have included energy conservation, Y2K, computerized maintenance management systems (CMMS), facilities maintenance, facilities security and innovative maintenance practices. These events are often sponsored by private industry, thereby keeping the self-sustaining Consortium within its strict fiscal limits.
The POS web-site, www.ga.wa.gov/plant, is another valuable resource offered to members. The web-site offers useful facilities-related data, as well as "Mac's Nickel Ads" where members and private industries are able to offer goods to those in need. The site also provides links to the "Industrial Materials Exchange" and the Federal and State Surplus Property Programs where members can buy surplus goods at rock-bottom prices. Links to other Consortium member sites and professional organizations are also provided, offering fast access to information and expertise in a multitude of areas.
Finally, POS publishes a high-end eight-page quarterly newsletter, Shop Talk, which is used to spotlight members using best practices and/or innovative practices, sharing ingenious ideas and showcasing new products available. Shop Talk is offered electronically at www.ga.wa.gov/plant and hard copy by request.
Verifiable Savings
The verifiable savings enjoyed by members are found in the day-to-day transactions orchestrated by POS staff. When members turn to the Consortium for assistance, they avoid labor, duplication, training and ancillary costs. These savings are calculated based on monthly feedback received from members. The number of hours a given request or event would have taken a member is multiplied by a fixed rate of $55.50 to arrive at an avoided cost total.
POS staff also serves as brokers for new purchases, surplus, salvage and other sustainable/recycle opportunities. Regardless of the situation, POS is able to take appropriate action to quickly satisfy member needs by leveraging the strength of the Consortium and creating significant savings. Savings to members for purchases, leases or other transactions are calculated using the lowest bid the member reported, or the listed price versus the final cost achieved by POS staff after negotiations.
Evaluating the Program
Perhaps the largest indicator of the POS program's success is the consistent 20 percent growth realized each year. Another benchmark used to measure the success of POS is the verifiable savings enjoyed by members. More than $30 million (USD) has been saved by Consortium members to date, a total that is growing daily. These savings come from avoided costs, cost-effective construction management, member-to-member professional and technical services, and outright purchasing, leasing or other types of transactions. In the last five years, the benefit-to-cost ratio for Consortium members has been more than 5:1.
Finally, intermittent customer service surveys provide POS staff with information about levels of satisfaction, areas needing improvement or systemic trends. A readership survey of Shop Talk, the program's newsletter, augments customer service surveys. Taken in total, they provide a comprehensive, dynamic portrait of the Consortium's health. Results of the most recent customer service survey reflect broad-based satisfaction, with more than 88 percent expressing "strong satisfaction" and all other indices reflecting marks well above 80 percent.
Recognition
The value of the POS program has been recognized beyond the realm of facility management, as demonstrated by the number of awards given to the program since its inception. In addition to the NASFA 2003 Innovations Award for the "Lexan® Restoration Project," POS was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2001 Innovations Award program of the prestigious Council of State Government. The Consortium received first place honors in the Public Works Category of the National Association of State Chief Administrators 1999 Outstanding Program Awards and was a semi-finalist in the renowned 1999 Innovations in American Government Awards program. Additionally, POS has received the 1999 and 2001 Washington Governor's Awards for Service and Quality Improvement, the 1997 Golden Circles Award from the International Facility Management Association, the 1997 Fame Award of Merit from the Association for Facilities Engineering and another Honorable Mention in the NASFA 1997 Innovations Award competition.
All of that aside, the best recognition the Consortium can receive is praise from its members. This is what some of them are saying:
“The POS group worked the purchasing of our entire fleet and saved us more than $45 thousand. If we need major equipment, we don’t work with anyone else. Why would we?”
Charlie Hicks, Sr. (Plant Mng 3/ WCC)
“Plant Ops’ unique ability to package the consultative and project/construction management, as well as employ a combination of consortium services and public bidding, resulted in our saving $150,000 from our cost estimate.”
Jim Bellamy (Fac. Planner/ Peninsula SD)
“POS is a best practice approach to carrying out the mandate of the state, focusing on resource-sharing, while helping others with a commitment of teamwork and partnership for quality outcomes.”
Jerri McCray (Ass. VP of UW)
“POS staff have responded to our requests in timely and effective ways, ranging from research and vender-related issues, to professional services and project management. We have found them to be a critical resource in these times of fiscal constraints.”
Bryan Visscher (Wenatchee SD M&O Supervisor)
Looking to the future…
With experience under its belt since 1995, it is apparent POS has proven itself as an enduring program that works, promising to save members thousands of dollars with most transactions. As long as there are facilities professionals who step out of the box and long to make a difference there will be a place for the Consortium. It enables great things to happen by using common sense and operational savvy as ways of doing the public's business. We join our members in looking forward to even more opportunities ahead.
