The Company

Anoka County is the fourth-most populous county in Minnesota, with a population of over 333,844 as of the 2010 census and reportedly growing an average of 1 percent per year. The county was founded on May 23, 1857, the year before Minnesota was admitted to the Union. It was settled by fur traders along the Rum River. Anoka County’s mission is to “serve citizens in a respectful, innovative, and fiscally responsible manner.” It consists of 20 cities, including its county seat and namesake, Anoka and its largest city of Coon Rapids. The county has a total area of 446 square miles, 423 of which are land and 23 square miles of water, including 9 lakes, several creeks and the Mississippi River along the southeastern edge.

 

The Challenge

With a diverse set of facilities comprising 2.5 million square feet of space to serve the growing population, Anoka County had outgrown its manual, home-grown facilities management solution. Each year, the county saw a rise in work requests as facilities grew older. “We were faced with trying to move things ahead with sticky notes and phone calls,” said Andrew Dykstra, Director Facilities Management & Construction, Anoka County. In addition to an inefficient, manual work order process, the county had no standard approach to preventive maintenance for its portfolio. With a disorganized system, only 66 percent of work orders were being completed – resulting in poor customer service.

 

The Solution

FAMIS maintenance management.

In order to continue supporting the county’s growth and aging infrastructure, the county implemented FAMIS Maintenance Management to achieve its goals:

  • Drive maintenance best practices, minimize downtime and improve asset utilization
  • Track orders and all related expenses incurred
  • Manage the full asset lifecycle, with a complete view of their assets and equipment
  • Accurately itemize equipment cost and forecast for equipment replacement
  • Allow for regulatory compliance and automatic preventive maintenance interval adjustment
  • Increase ease of access to and reliability of information

Anoka County implemented a solution with a “crawl, walk, run” approach; they have started slowly to keep things simple, with phases for additional capabilities planned in the future. The first phase started with FAMIS Maintenance Management and has leveraged its mobile capabilities, equipping its technicians with smart phones so they could spend less time in the office and more time in the field and engaging with clients.

The county performed an ROI analysis in order to justify the new system. After implementing FAMIS, the county has been able to complete 95 to 97 percent of work requests – a 45 percent improvement.

Employee satisfaction also improved. With FAMIS, employees were able to communicate with clients to make sure they were on the same page and needs were being met. Customer satisfaction also rose tremendously as a result of improved communication and more work requests being completed.

By tracking work orders and expenses in FAMIS, Anoka County has a wealth of reliable information to calculate their return on assets and manage their full lifecycle. This has been used to accurately forecast the cost and replacement needs of their equipment and create a 1, 5 and 10-year capital plan. And, with a better perception of the lifecycle of its assets, Anoka County has adjusted its preventive maintenance schedule to prevent unplanned downtime.

     

    The Result

    By proving the savings gained with FAMIS, the facilities department was able to expand its services without increasing costs. Engineers from the department were able to move to different divisions across the county – adding value across the county through savings on labor costs, major projects and utilities, as well as through reduced equipment downtime. By optimizing processes within the facilities management department, it can do more work in more facets of the county with less time and money.

    “Now, other departments are coming to us for guidance and direction,” Dykstra said. “We’re back to being the consultant of choice at the county.”

    Solution Summary

    FAMIS Maintenance Management

    • Enabled Anoka County to complete up to 97% of work order requests
    • Gave visibility into the entire asset lifecycle and helped create a preventive maintenance program
    • Improved customer communication and satisfaction
    • Augmented facility condition assessments with accurate facilities data to create multi-year capital plans
    • Allowed facilities department to expand its services and do more with less
    • Gave access to reliable information to track work orders and expenses, charge back to departments and calculate return on assets
    • Positioned the facility department as the consultant of choice for the county