Operational Redesign at one of New York’s Largest Private Residential Complex
Large Urban Residential Complex
Our client, the owner and operator of one of New York’s largest private residential apartment complex was examining ways in which they could make the operational components of the community more efficient and, therefore, engaged Carpedia Hospitality to implement our industry-leading workforce management program.
THE CHALLENGES:
At the time, a new CEO had recently started and did not feel that there was enough visibility into the business and was unable to monitor operational performance at a granular level. He knew that the business was experiencing margin pressure and it was evident that there were inefficiencies in the systems, procedures and behaviors throughout the organization. Carpedia Hospitality conducted an analysis of the operations and identified a sizable opportunity in four key areas of the business: maintenance operations, public safety, environmental services and unit standardization.
The opportunity for improvement within maintenance operations was largely related to inefficiencies in the work order assignment system. It contained service request tracking data points but the information being extracted was not producing accurate reports and resulted in a long lag time between the request being reported and the work being assigned. In addition, the length of time that it took the engineers and tradespeople to complete work orders varied greatly. Within public safety, we observed challenges in scheduling the correct number of guards while keeping a balance with the police presence onsite. Also, many of the processes were laborious including a manual incident reporting system and a complicated process to manage keys for engineers, tradespeople and residents. We also identified opportunities within the environmental services department related to inefficiencies in the way the trash was collected given the complex was responsible for its own waste removal. Furthermore, within the unit standardization department, we discovered that the turn time had not been optimized and that there was an opportunity not only to drive further improvements but also generate revenue.
THE SOLUTIONS:
Our consultants implemented the program alongside the corporate and on-site management teams. We helped our client to:
- Recalibrate the work order management system to drive efficiencies
- Standardize planning guidelines for maintenance work orders and refine assignment procedures to resolve orders more quickly
- Identify and provide the correct equipment and supplies to reduce unnecessary travel time
- Install system tools that allowed management to accurately schedule labor and reduce overlap with police provided security
- Implement optimal frequency for public area cleaning
- Define the optimal route for trash collection resulting in collection being done quickly and efficiently
- Define the necessary actions and materials to achieve efficient transitions between tenancies
In addition, we developed a daily dashboard that enabled the CEO and management team to gain further visibility into the business.
THE RESULTS:
The results of the project were wide-ranging. Overall, the changes and tools that were developed drove efficiencies within the business and gave the management team the ability to make small changes that had a large cumulative financial impact. A year post-project completion, the organization achieved 123% of its productivity goals which were set at the beginning of Carpedia’s engagement.
A large proportion of this uplift was due to the changes implemented in maintenance operations and specifically, the reduction in the time it took to complete work orders. The systems that the complex used were optimized and produced meaningful data that facilitated decision making. Additionally, the revenue generation opportunities that were identified within the unit standardization department resulted in reduced turn time, higher occupancy and additional revenue.
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL:
The CEO found the results to be extremely positive. Commenting on the project, “The successes of our engagement with Carpedia Hospitality yielded significant improvements to our operation, financial performance, resident experience and team member satisfaction. In our case, Carpedia’s experience in working with unionized organizations still allowed for achieving the desired results despite the complexity of CBAs. The initiative has left us as a better organization with aligned objectives, more streamlined processes and the ability to timely monitor results”– CEO
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