Case study – DSG (Now Babcock International)

Client – DSG (now under the name of Babcock International)

Author – Joe Maleczek

About Babcock – 

Engineering is in our DNA. Babcock provides skilled, bespoke engineering services which allow our customers to improve their own performance whilst reducing costs. We work in highly regulated environments managing complex assets for both defence and civil customers.

We maintain, upgrade, operate and manage expensive infrastructure and essential equipment for a range of government bodies and private sector customers in the UK and internationally. We provide them with better capability, reliability and availability of their critical assets, and in doing so provide significant cost savings.

https://www.babcockinternational.com/

Achieving Facilities Excellence with ARCHIBUS and FM Works.

“Amidst the changes one thing remains constant – our ability to  offer the best possible service to DSG with the support of MASS” – Howard Dsvies, Carillion

Defence Support Group uses Mass’ expertise and Software Solutions to help manage change in its Facilities Management operations.

Responsible for the land system repair needs of the British Armed Forces, DSG, formerly ABRO, prides itself in providing an unparalleled level of service and expertise to its stakeholders. It was this same focus on excellence that led DSG’s Operations Director Peter Mathieson to implement MASS’ cutting edge technology to help manage the agency’s vast array of assets and a nation-wide property portfolio.

Initially comprising the Headquarters inAndoverwith seven additional sites, an estate in excess of 150,000 square metres of space and over 90,000 individual assets brings a series of particular challenges to an organisation such as DSG.

Having such a diverse estate, successful Facilities Management required a state of the art software solution to drive continuous improvement.

Asset control and coordination control of costs, estate condition, maintenance management, and space allocation and management are just some of the areas where DSG demanded these improvements.

These were key areas in major changes experienced by the organisation: the attaining of full Trading Status, and the subsequent outsourcing of all Facilities Management activities to Alfred McAlpine Business Services, recently acquired by Carillion

“It is proving to be an extremely valuable management tool” – Peter Mathieson, Operations Director, DSG

As DSG has changed, and the partnership between DSG and Carillion has grown, so the solution has developed. ARCHIBUS and FM Works are mobilised to manage Maintenance Activities, the use of Space, Asset Management, Building Condition and Portable Appliance Testing amongst a range of functions supported by the software. Specific benefits produced by the solution include:

• Significant financial savings resulting from the reliable and transparent tracking of all assets. There have been savings in manpower and quantity of assets held which reduces depreciation, capital, and capital charge costs
• Reduced downtime in the transferring of an asset between sites
• Enhanced Decision Making from enterprise access to Management Information and Reporting through online dashboards
• More efficient and effective Planned Maintenance and Condition activities allowing for prioritising of tasks to manage better the allocation of resources.
• A more efficient and effective Maintenance Programme resulting from enabling access to the system over the web
• Improved Customer Satisfaction; results are seen in satisfaction surveys run by Carillion, measuring their performance.

Background

DSG entered into a tendering process that led them to Mass, recognised leaders in the UK FM solutions environment. The relationship commenced in 1999, with the inception of the Asset Information Management System (AIMS) project. The initial process required identification, bar-coding and recording of over 90,000 individual assets, ranging from office equipment and furniture to the wide range of expensive tools and machinery used to repair and maintain the Armed Forces’ equipment.

The system soon extended beyond asset management to other functions supported within MASS’ integrated solution,  including portable appliance testing, cable management, space management, asset management, and building operations management with the recent introduction of FM Works; the web-based Computerised  Maintenance Management component of the system. By choosing the more comprehensive solution, with the ability to expand in the future, Peter Mathieson and his team positioned themselves to manage more effectively the demands placed upon them by changes in the organisation.

The Solution  – DSG and Carillion use ARCHIBUS and FM Works Software and Web-based modules to allow enterprise access and reporting.

MASS Services provides on-site surveying expertise across the whole estate for measured surveys, asset surveys and condition surveys as well as providing data management and implementation services.

MASS Support provides ongoing client support services, software support and on-site services to DSG and Carillion

Comment

“…the facilities staff enter the process and assign work requests, work orders, resources, and prioritise the jobs. The maintenance workers are able to log onto the system using their own ID and access, update and report on the work that has been assigned to them. This has increased productivity and reduced the amount of paperwork”. Peter Mathieson

“with the powerful but easy to use work view management, search and retrieval capabilities and web-based features in FM Works, the maintenance managers have easy access to the information they need to improve the management of their operations and respond to enquiries. The retrieval process of large amounts of data from the system in FM Works is quick and efficient. It takes less than 10 seconds to retrieve the details of nearly 3000 live reactive jobs.” Peter Mathieson.

“It means that we can carry out all our facilities tasks using one system driven by the same common database, so we achieve speed, accuracy and consistency in our FM operations”

“…by joining forces [with DSG], we are able to provide a flexible, responsive, operationally excellent organisation that delivers cost competitive in-house maintenance, repair, overhaul and upgrade capability to support the air and land systems of the UK Armed Forces. Amidst the changes one thing remains constant – our ability to offer the best possible service to DSG with the support of MASS.”  – Peter Mathieson

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