Case Studies

City of Cambridge – Building Condition Assessment, Organizational Review, Carbon Audits
Sustainability Plan
Organizational Review, Executive Hiring, Development of CMMS
Viability Study across Canada
Non Profit Housing Project – Viability Study
Building Condition Assessments

City of Cambridge – Building Condition Assessment, Organizational Review, Carbon Audits
AM FM Consulting Group Inc. was retained to develop an Asset Preservation Strategy and conduct an organizational review for the Facility Management Division (FMD) of The City of Cambridge. The City has grown substantially in the last 15 years, and with that growth, the staff of the FMD has experienced increased workloads and higher demands. AM FM conducted numerous job evaluation interviews to assess the gap between existing job descriptions and real expectations based on increases in service demands by the City. AM FM made several recommendations on creating a new management position and balancing out the distribution of labour across the lean department. There was also a need to evolve its facilities management to include substantial retrofits and re-capitalization of its portfolio. AM FM has been involved in several projects ranging from facility assessments to development of a strategy to move towards rational planning and budgeting practices in sustaining the integrity of the physical asset.

Sustainability Plan
AM FM Consulting Group Inc. carried out sustainability planning and training for a town in Ontario. This work began as a small staff training contract following the development (by others) of the Community Sustainability Plan. It was successively expanded to include preparation of a decision-making framework and process, briefing of Council and Sustainability Committee, and preparation of the terms of reference for the staff group implementing the sustainability decision making process resulting in recommendations to Council. A staff training manual and a sustainability reference guide were prepared and finally, a presentation on benchmarking was made, followed by the preparation of sustainability indicators to meet the town’s sustainability objectives.

Organizational Review, Executive Hiring, Development of CMMS
AM FM Consulting Group Inc. worked with a non-profit, charitable agency whose primary focus is improving the quality of life of psychiatric patients and people who are homeless or otherwise marginalized through the provision of permanent affordable supportive housing. The organization’s growth necessitated a review of management structure to ensure it was meeting customer demand and able to carry out future expansion. AM FM was retained to review the structure of the organization to develop a new operations and maintenance delivery model for the purpose of improving the quality of life of the tenant members and increasing the efficiency of maintenance operations.

Members of AM FM met with the management team, conducted interviews with maintenance staff and held a group meeting for tenant members to better the organization’s operations and maintenance delivery methods. Four service delivery models were developed and one recommended in a final report. The new service delivery model provided a broad framework with some new positions that allowed the Maintenance department to strategically plan for the future and address existing growth and demand, plan for succession, improve accountability to its tenant members, improve internal and external communications, and clarify roles and responsibilities.

Viability Study across Canada
The federal, provincial and territorial governments created a working group to share information on the existing social housing stock and to analyze the condition of the housing stock, social condition of the residents and the final status of the projects. AM FM Consulting Group Inc. designed an analytical model that assesses the financial viability of individual projects when long-term government subsidies expire. The model uses key indicators of social, physical and economic viability to identify projects that are not viable and address the issue of project obsolescence and the issue of special needs housing.

Non-Profit Housing Project– Viability Study
AM FM Consulting Group Inc. was retained to undertake a viability study that would analyze the current social, economic and physical issues affecting the social housing project and provide recommendations for dealing with them. AM FM’s mandate was to review key documents and meet with working representatives in order to understand the challenges facing the non-profit housing project, and to create and analyze various methods of improving the viability of the project. The recommendations presented by the consulting team were reviewed by the board of directors and eventually narrowed to one option, which involved a remodeling of the building in its entirety, and the enhancement of amenities and social programming. That option was further developed by AM FM to include analysis of financial implications, sketches of potential remodeling alternatives, and the creation of an implementation plan.

Building Condition Assessments
AM FM Consulting Group Inc. completed BCAs and reserve fund studies for a number of non-profit housing projects managed by a Social Services Administration Board. AM FM identified all physical, operating and functional requirements, and determined the life expectancy of each building/asset. The reserve fund study established an estimate of required capital funding over the next 20 years for major repairs, replacements and renovations in order to plan for and make available sufficient budgetary funds.