Nigeria is one of the countries in Africa where maintenance
of facilities is not embraced fully, especially by individuals who own critical
facilities at homes. Nevertheless, users of various facilities at
workplace are seeking knowledge about means or ways of ensuring functionality
and sustainability of their facilities. With this, the expectation is that
facility management companies will develop solutions that solve the main issues
on facilities being experienced by individuals and businesses in cities and
towns across the country.
Recent analysis indicates that facility management companies
are proffering hard and soft facilities solutions more than integrated
facilities management solution, few companies are into IFM solution. In
addition, FM companies are concentrating their resources towards commercial and
residential segments, neglecting industrial segment.
Infoprations, through its Facility
Management Industry Outlook project, has discovered that professionals and
companies in the industry need to work on the current process innovation that
produces solutions clients are benefiting from. Analysis shows that people’s
and companies’ needs are changing in line with the emerging natural indices
such as weather and economic determinants like increasing inflation rate.
Hence, it is imperative for
FM companies and practitioners to rethink process leading to solution creation
and nurturing. For instance, part of the Infoprations’
analysis establishes that from January 7 to October 7, 2018, people and businesses
have searched different solutions regarding floor, window, roof, wall and ceiling.
They also sought knowledge on landscaping, interior design and decoration, facade and plumbing. Analysis reveals that
people were interested in getting one or two of the solutions and putting the
existing ones into proper shapes for maximum operational efficiency through
repair and maintenance.
Design Thinking and the New Solutions
In the previous analysis, Infoprations has proposed that companies
must create customer positive experience through collective values creation and
sharing, a position which proponents of Design Thinking process support. DT is
more about providing values that match market opportunities. FM solutions must
align with the clients’ needs not what the companies felt they need. With this
proposition, companies should be design-centric when the need to create new
solutions arises. This is where FM practitioners have to bring their cognitive
capabilities to the table towards acceptable solutions development. Companies,
most especially employees in charge of new solutions development must empathize
with potential clients by studying them from demographics and psychographics
perspectives. Then, they must be defined into specific categories by
constructing point of view on their needs before the proposed solution could be
ideated. After the ideation, the proposed solution must be developed and tested
with few potential clients.
Comments
Post a Comment