The operations plan for a building is not just one SOP—it is the cumulative collection of all vital standards and processes. Think of it as the bible for facilities governance. Whether you are practicing a fire drill or planning to upgrade the building’s HVAC system, the building’s operations and maintenance plan holds the answers to the important questions: who, what, where, when, why, and how.

Here is a look at the collection of operations and building maintenance plans that make up the core SOP for every major business.

Facilities operation plan

A facilities operation plan (FOP) details, at length, the many processes and approaches associated with facilities management. It contains everything from descriptions of the building and campus, to sections for different aspects of property maintenance, to standards for upkeep, and beyond. These plans are often dozens of pages long—sometimes even hundreds—or split between individual facilities for larger organizations. It sets the expectations, standards, and precedents for broad facilities management.

An FOP also covers standards and practices for how employees interact with facilities at a fundamental level. For example, this might include an SOP for issuing badges to new employees. It also includes a complete resource guide and information for facilities managers, service providers, vendors, and other points of contact regarding facilities services.

Building maintenance plan

Building maintenance plans are sometimes part of the FOP and sometimes broken out as a separate plan. They focus specifically on the upkeep of a building—from nightly janitorial services to seasonal groundskeeping, HVAC, plumbing, and electrical systems. Maintenance plans offer both preventive and reactive guidance for building maintenance, including schedules for routine service and action plans for critical system failures.

More and more, these plans also include some level of life cycle planning and enterprise asset management, so companies can anticipate future facility needs. In a digital environment, they may also include a digital twin of the building or its core assets. These elements are often combined with budgets and service-level agreement (SLA) plans, discussed later in this post.

Emergency action plans

Health and safety are a pillar of facilities management and therefore deserve specific attention during the planning process. Also called business continuity planning, emergency action planning involves creating specific processes to ensure employee safety and welfare in the event of a catastrophic incident. This includes planning for fire, flood, active shooters, electrical outages, and region-specific situations like earthquakes or blizzards. Emergency action plans identify the threat, provide specific instructions for how to avoid harm, and assign responsibilities to key stakeholders.

Emergency action plans also include practice planning. They may cover schedules for fire drills, as well as maintenance checks for sprinkler systems, emergency lighting, backup generators, fire extinguishers, and other relevant emergency systems.

Budgets and SLAs

Because building maintenance planning is so extensive and covers so many essential elements of facilities, there is a need to budget accordingly. Every facet of maintenance costs money, and it is in a company’s best interest to plan as far ahead as possible for facilities expenditures. As a result, many businesses include budgeting and SLAs as part of their operations and maintenance plans.

Budgeting plans are a straightforward way of anticipating costs—often quarterly or annually. This ensures companies spend appropriately and have a metric for tracking facilities spending against expectations. Likewise, SLAs provide an accurate picture of what a company is paying vendors for services and the expected return on investment. Budgeting and SLAs become especially important as companies consider an integrated facilities management approach rooted in consolidating upkeep costs.

Planning is the backbone of facilities management

Every aspect of operations and maintenance deserves a plan. Good SOPs ensure preparedness in the event of a disruption to facilities. Everyone will know what to do and what their responsibilities are.

Where is the nearest fire exit, and who is the building’s fire marshal? What is the budget for building capital improvements this year? What is the process for facility management during the post-COVID-19 return-to-work strategy? The answers to these questions reside in the building’s operations and maintenance plans. And if they do not, it is up to facilities managers to document the standards and practices that prepare the organization for future situations.

‍