Do you face bottlenecks in providing an agile workplace?

Organizations are improving workplace agility in many ways, including using unassigned seats, activity-based workspaces, alternative workplace locations, and better lease options for expansion and contraction.  But when business group needs change, are there situations when this flexibility is not enough to accommodate the changes and it takes too long for planners to find the right location?

Consider the situation when many business groups face changing space requirements.  One group is outgrowing its current space.  Another group is launching a new project, leading to workers from other parts of the organization joining this group.  Another group has finished their part of a project, with some workers transitioning to other projects. 

How quickly can your planners identify new locations for these groups?  And how quickly can your workplace team relocate workers to provide these new consolidated locations?  Would your business groups be happier if their requests could be answered more quickly?  Even as many software providers provide visual drag-and-drop approaches, planners are still stuck in the world of time-consuming, trial-fit processes. 

Core Planning can address these questions and help your organization be more responsive by using technology that has led to faster, more efficient planning in logistics, supply-chain management and airline flight and staff scheduling.  In the past, we’ve used Core Planning on consulting projects to find occupancy and facility strategies for organizations facing major business changes, such as mergers and acquisitions, consolidations and realignments for campus and regional plans.  Now we are considering extending Core Planning so planners can use it on their own for more day-to-day activities. 

We’ve demonstrated Core Planning’s benefits on major projects for Google, Cisco, PacifiCare Health Systems (now part of United Health Group), SBC (now part of AT&T), and US Bank. With Core Planning, these planning projects were faster and easier, finding solutions in minutes rather than the hours and days needed for traditional manual trial-fit processes.  As well, these solutions improve space efficiency, and we often find solutions with millions of dollars in overlooked cost savings and productivity improvements. 

For day-to-day requests, Core Planning provides a way to find solutions in minutes, minimizing moves, maintaining important adjacencies, and optimizing space efficiency.  Enter new requirements in the model, including growth, adjacencies and specific space-types, and Core Planning’s search algorithms will sort through the possibilities in seconds to find the solutions that best meet business needs.

In addition, Core Planning can answer long-term strategic questions.  How much excess space should an organization have to facilitate these moves?  How does it differ for stable organizations versus rapidly changing organzations?  In your current plans, do too many extra workers have to move to make room for these changing groups?  Would it be worthwhile to have extra space so that fewer workers have to move to accommodate other business groups changing needs?  Would it be beneficial to be able to explain to corporate leaders why that extra space is needed? 

Technology is changing many aspects of corporate real estate management.  Core Planning provides solutions for challenges not addressed by other approaches.  If you are interested in learning more about Core Planning, please contact me, Dr. Jane Mather, at jmather@criticalcore.com or 720.201.4487.